Inside the Strategy Room

In the early days of the pandemic, preserving cash was a matter of survival for many companies. The sudden need for liquidity highlighted the critical importance of prudent cash management and inspired business leaders to raise the bar on their cash practices. Cash liquidity is now at the top of the vast majority of CFO and c-suite agendas.   Three finance experts joined us to discuss best pr...

Today we tackle the topic of decision making in the boardroom. What has the pandemic taught board directors about making high-consequence, low-probability decisions? You’ll hear Frithjof Lund, the leader of our board services work, leading a discussion with three experts. Aaron De Smet, who helps organizations improve their performance and agility, and senior expert Leigh Weiss are co-authors of a...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 30:49) >   This is the second part of Erik Roth’s interview with Ireena Vittal. In the first part of their conversation, they discussed the importance of taking a very granular approach to markets in developing countries, the constraints emerging economies place on business models, and the unique role ecosystems play. In this e...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 18:13) >   In today’s episode, Erik Roth, who leads our innovation work globally, discusses innovation in the context of developing markets with Ireena Vittal. Ireena has spent 30 years helping both multinationals and start-ups grow their businesses, especially in emerging economies. Today, she is one of India’s top advisers on...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 24:57) >   This episode examines how business leaders should plan the transition from managing operations through the crisis to establishing a foundation for growth in the post-COVID-19 era. It features two partners who are spearheading our research on these topics. Martin Hirt, the global co-leader of the Strategy and Corporat...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 34:42) >   This episode explores innovation in the agriculture sector. Erik Roth, leader of McKinsey’s innovation work globally, talks with Neal Gutterson, who recently retired as CTO of agricultural chemical and seed company Corteva. Gutterson explains the transformation he led following a spinoff from DowDuPont to bring toget...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 29:18) >   In this episode, co-authors of two recent articles—on growth strategies during downturns and the acceleration of trends since the pandemic’s start—help shed light on the reasons behind the widening gap in corporate performance and how companies can position themselves to be among those gaining ground. Rebecca Doherty...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 34:27) >   The board agenda has been crowded since the start of the pandemic, and many issues have acquired new urgency. This episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast focuses on board priorities in the new era. Frithjof Lund, a senior partner and the leader of our board services work, speaks with two cybersecurity expert...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 21:18) >   This is the first episode in a new series on board perspectives around high-priority corporate issues. In this session, Frithjof Lund, a senior partner in our Oslo office and leader of our board services work, speaks with Tomas Nauclér, a senior partner in our Stockholm office and leader of our Sustainability Practic...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 27:49) >   This year has been a challenging one for boards of directors. The pressure on boards has been increasing as they work to manage the continuing impact of the pandemic on the direction and strategies of the organizations they serve. At the same time, board members must simultaneously grapple with the implications of ra...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 33:48) >   In this episode, Erik Roth, who leads McKinsey’s innovation work globally, talks with Anjali Sud, CEO of Vimeo, about her experience reinventing the online video platform’s business model. It is the fifth episode in our ongoing series, which features interviews with leading innovators across a range of sectors. Suppo...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 42:15) >   In the past few months, alliances and joint ventures have been essential for many companies to meeting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. But during crises, strain can emerge even among allies, often revealing underlying problems. In this episode, Ankur Agrawal, a partner in our finance practice in the Americas...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 40:30) >   McKinsey senior partner Celia Huber, who leads our board services work in North America, talks with three seasoned board directors about the role boards are playing in guiding their companies toward recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. Nora Aufreiter sits on the board of Scotiabank, supermarket operator Kroger, and rea...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 37:50) >   Budgeting for the coming calendar year entails unique challenges, given the uncertainty about the pandemic’s continuing impact. In this episode, Ankur Agrawal, Christian Grube, Matthew Maloney, and Ishaan Seth, all co-authors of the McKinsey.com article, “Memo to the CFO: A new approach to 2021 budgeting starts now,”...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 32:43) >   In recent months, many companies have rushed to build digital businesses to overcome pandemic-induced disruptions and address shifts in customer behavior. In this episode, we explore how to develop a digital offering quickly and effectively despite ongoing economic uncertainty. Support the show: https://www.linkedin....

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 28:18) >   Senior partner Celia Huber speaks with Laxman Narasimhan, the CEO of Reckitt Benckiser. The UK-based global consumer-goods company focuses on products in health, hygiene, and nutrition categories, some of which saw massive demand spikes during the height of the pandemic. Before joining the company, Narasimhan held va...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 25:54) >   In this episode Simon Mulcahy, Salesforce’s executive vice president and chief innovation officer, discusses the ways the COVID-19 crisis has reshaped the sales function, and how Salesforce orchestrates innovation inside the company and with customers. Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-stra...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 30:24) >   We hear from two award-winning American economists about how capitalism and corporate purpose could evolve to more broadly benefit society, especially in this current time of crisis. Yuval Atsmon, a senior partner in our London office, spoke with professor Anne Case and Nobel prize winner, Angus Deaton, about their n...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 30:15) >   Nigel Hughes, head of R&D and Innovation at Kellogg Company, speaks with Stacey Haas, who heads up McKinsey’s Consumer Innovation practice, and Erik Roth, who leads McKinsey’s innovation work globally. Hear Nigel’s perspective on the evolution of the CPG industry’s approach to innovation and how Kellogg itself is bei...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 13:52) >   Today we'll cover the two remaining shifts CEOs are making in this moment; embracing stakeholder capitalism and leveraging peer networks. Sharing their insights on this topic with us today are Carolyn Dewar who co-leads our CEO Excellence work, and Monica Murarka who is a senior expert and leader also of the McKinsey...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 22:19) >   The COVID-19 crisis has put CEOs and the organizations they lead under great pressure. At the same time, it has provided a once-in-a-generation opportunity for chief executives to evolve the nature and impact of their role. The authors of a McKinsey Quarterly article, “The CEO moment: Leadership for a new era,” descr...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 24:15) >   One of the perennial questions corporate leaders ask is which businesses their company should be in. Our recent article, “Why you’ve got to put your portfolio on the move,” suggests that regularly changing the portfolio mix in response to market trends is the surest path to outperformance. During our European M&A con...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 27:59) >   In this episode we present a panel discussion on how companies are using corporate purpose to guide their response to the COVID-19 crisis and the nascent recovery. Bruce Simpson, a McKinsey senior partner and co-author of the recent article, “Demonstrating corporate purpose in the time of coronavirus,” talks with fou...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 25:34) >   For many business leaders wrestling with the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, growth may seem like a distant priority. However, once the health of employees is protected and the business is secured, many executives will quickly shift their focus to restarting the stalled growth engine. A recent McKinsey.com ar...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 32:03) >   As companies focus on navigating through the COVID-19 pandemic, many are putting innovation on the back burner. But as two of McKinsey’s top experts on innovation explain, these organizations may miss out on rare opportunities to reinvent their businesses for the post-crisis era.  We hear from Laura Furstenthal who l...