The Titanium Economy How Industrial Technology Can Create a Better, Faster, Stronger America

A Wall Street Journal bestseller

The future of the American economy is hiding in an unlikely place: the manufacturing sector

While Silicon Valley titans dominate headlines, many of the fastest-growing, most profitable companies in the United States are firms you’ve likely never heard of, such as HEICO, Trex, and Casella. These booming companies belong to a burgeoning sector—industrial tech—that offers surprising hope to workers, consumers, and investors alike. 

Their role: to make a range of products—aerospace parts, for example, or recycled plastic lumber—that quietly form the backbone of America’s biggest industries.

In an age of instability, industrial tech is a cornerstone of our economic future. In this book, McKinsey veterans Asutosh Padhi, Gaurav Batra, and Nick Santhanam reveal the “titanium economy,” a modern, reinvented industrial sector complete with high-paying, domestic jobs;, soaring stock prices;, and critical infrastructure. They dispel the myth that the best of American manufacturing is behind us and illuminate an opportunity for a brighter future—if we can seize it.

Nick Santhanam is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Silicon Valley office, leading the company’s global activities in industrials. He leads the firm’s global industrials practice and as the global conveyer of McKinsey’s S5C (sub-$5 billion companies) and Private and Family-Owned Companies line, has seen first-hand those making the American Dream a reality.

Asutosh Padhi is the managing partner for McKinsey in North America, leading the firm across the United States, Canada, and Mexico and serving as part of McKinsey’s 15-person global leadership team. He is also a member of McKinsey’s Shareholders Council, the firm’s equivalent to the board of directors. Working with iconic industrial companies, Asutosh has overseen performance transformations in technology and innovation. He has helped global multinationals bolster their supply chains, reorient strategies, and improve organizational and operational performance. Asutosh is a McKinsey Board member and serves as an Advisory Board Member at Northwestern’s Kellogg Business School for the Master’s in Management and Manufacturing program.

Guarav Batra is a partner based in Washington DC and co-leads McKinsey's Industrials Practice in the Americas, advising clients on strategy and margin improvement issues—with particular focus on commercial excellence, pricing, and distributor/channel management. Batra also leads McKinsey’s Advanced Data Analytics (ADA) initiative in the Advanced Electronics Practice to help drive sustainable performance improvement. Batra joined McKinsey from Capital One. He holds a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard University and Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology.