If the arrival of a more robust global economic recovery and a return to familiar growth patterns is not in our medium term future, what can Western enterprises do now to enhance their competitiveness and find growth opportunities in a low growth environment? Monitor’s Eamonn Kelly and UC Berkeley’s Steven Weber argue that the process of ‘recovery’ from the Great Recession, still in the early stages of what will be a drawn-out low growth period, will serve to reinforce and accelerate major shifts in patterns of consumption, and foundational elements of the global business environment. Western firms sitting on record reserves of cash appear to be waiting for uncertainty to ‘resolve’—but what may seem like a prudent risk management strategy is actually itself risky. Kelly and Weber analyze the new dynamics of consumption, the new role of governments, and other major features of the emerging global economy, and point to opportunities to secure a disproportionate share of growth in the near term and competitive advantage for the long term.

From climate change to spiraling healthcare costs, from global poverty to food and water shortages, wicked problems and their ramifications also impact organizations and their employees. The key to solving these complex problems – as well as narrower, more industry-specific challenges – lies in figuring out when – and whom – to ask for help. In this article for Rotman Magazine, Bansi Nagji and Helen Walters outline various approaches to think both systematically and strategically about open innovation and new ways to get others to help solve complex problems.

In this Harvard Business Review lead feature article, Bansi Nagji and Geoff Tuff of Monitor make the compelling argument that organizations should manage for "Total Innovation." A carefully balanced innovation portfolio is important for long-term, sustained growth; it helps companies outperform their competitors and potentially achieve a premium recognized by the capital markets.

There is growing interest in the role of market-based solutions in addressing the problems of poverty, through inclusive businesses that tap into the potential of the global poor as customers and suppliers—the so-called ‘fortune at the Base of the Pyramid (BoP).’ Encouraged by the growth of microfinance, many promising new models are emerging. This has elicited a rush to the new field of ‘impact investing’—producing social or environmental good as well as financial return—with hundreds of funds set up in just a few years and billions of dollars waiting to be invested.

In this recording of Monitor’s recent webcast, "Embracing Complexity: Building Innovation Capabilities for Your Organization" Monitor thought leaders discuss how to frame growth challenges holistically. They detail practical methods to develop more systematic and structured approaches to innovation. Watch this webcast to glean new insights on how to build both the robust structures and the internal systems to provide reliable, repeatable growth and innovation.

Most strategies fail in the implementation phase, and the problem can be traced to three factors: a failure of translation, a failure of adaptation, and a failure to sustain change over the long term. Amelia Dunlop, Vincent Firth, and Robert Lurie discuss key elements of a dynamic approach to strategy implementation—one that overcomes the limitations of traditional approaches—and how it has helped leading enterprises deliver more effectively on their strategic ambition in this paper from the Monitor Perspectives series.

Mining companies looking to do business in Africa should take an inclusive approach to development that addresses the needs of the relevant governments, communities in which they operate, and the companies own needs, write Andrew Lane and Riccardo Reggio in this article from the Monitor Perspectives series.

Larry Keeley, an innovation expert and partner at Monitor, explains how Kodak’s famous failure to enter digital photography quickly can be a useful lesson for executives looking to innovate now. He writes that a new form of strategic thinking, convergences, “gives leaders a deeper sense of the interdependencies that connect firms, products, systems and services in new ecosystems” and reveals emerging opportunities, typically at the junction of new technologies and customer behaviors.

With sizable government support, China’s life sciences industry “is quietly gathering a critical mass of skilled talent, and savvy and focused venture investors,” writes Monitor’s George Baeder in the December 2011 issue of Pharmaceutical Executive magazine.

This report, "Private Equity In the Shadow of Giants: Innovative Approaches Along the Investment Value Chain in Sub-Saharan Africa," surveys a wide range of stakeholders in the African private equity ecosystem to help new-to-Africa actors interested in understanding in more detail the investment opportunities and nuances in the operating models on the Sub-continent. It was compiled in the second half of 2011, triggered by the recent increase in positive hype that Africa received as the last frontier market. The report covers trends and innovative approaches from fund strategies and fundraising, to deal-flow generation and post-deal value-add activities, and ultimately exits. Overall, it uncovered an attractive industry in flux, with increased competitiveness, but sufficient uncharted territory to grow from its still relatively small base.