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.

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 fifteen-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 a trustee of the Field Museum in Chicago, one of the top natural history and science museums in the world.

Gaurav Batra previously co-led McKinsey & Company’s Advanced Electronics Practice in the Americas. He advised clients on strategy and margin improvement issues, with a particular focus on commercial excellence, pricing, and distributor and channel management. Gaurav also previously led McKinsey’s Advanced Data Analytics (ADA) initiative in the Advanced Electronics Practice to help drive sustainable performance improvement for the firm’s clients. Prior to joining McKinsey, Gaurav worked as a senior business manager of corporate development with Capital One, a leading diversified financial services company in the United States.

Nick Santhanam is the CEO & President of Fernweh Group. He was formerly a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company’s Palo Alto Office, where he led North America’s industrial practice. He has co-authored several pieces of McKinsey’s leading industrials research: McKinsey on Industrials, McKinsey on Food Processing and Handling, and McKinsey on Packaging. He is also on the Advisory Board of Smithsonian Libraries.