Inside the Strategy Room

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 16:01) >   Successful mergers and acquisitions require more than just a strong M&A strategy and target list. They also demand well-planned execution, communication, and integration. We talk with two of our leading experts on transactions. Kenneth Bonheure, a senior partner based in Antwerp, leads our merger management work in A...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 30:41) >   Beth Comstock, former vice chair of GE, and McKinsey senior partner Erik Roth discuss how a tolerance for risk, patience, and thinking small (where funding is concerned) can lead to innovation breakthroughs. Beth is an innovation leader who spent almost three decades at General Electric, where for a time she headed G...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 35:07) >   Senior partner Andy West and partner Jeff Rudnicki, two of McKinsey’s most seasoned M&A experts, discuss what they have learned from their recent work with clients of the Synergy Lab, a new initiative aimed at understanding how to most effectively capture synergies in M&A deals. In their conversation with communicati...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 41:41) >   Today we’re talking with two McKinsey senior partners about a dilemma that many new CEOs face: should they focus on showing quick results or invest in the company’s long-term future, even at the expense of short-term returns? Carolyn Dewar and Michael Birshan help new leaders grapple with the dual imperatives of prod...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 16:46) >   With digital technologies unleashing ever more change in industry structures and company business models, mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures are an important way for companies to reposition their organizations to compete in the digital age. In today’s podcast, Cam MacKellar, a McKinsey contributor, talks with Si...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 24:13) >   At our CFO Forum in London, senior partners Celia Huber and Vivian Hunt led a discussion on corporate diversity, sharing insights from McKinsey’s ongoing research and answering questions from attendees. This episode is an edited recording of the session. Celia begins with an introduction of McKinsey’s work with LeanI...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 39:45) >   In this episode you’ll hear from the co-authors of a recent McKinsey Quarterly article, “The drumbeat of digital: How winning teams play.” Tanguy Catlin, a senior partner in our Boston office, and Laura LaBerge, a member of our digital strategy team, will share their research on how fast and boldly companies need to...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 44:03) >   In this episode Ruth De Backer and Eileen Kelly Rinaudo take us through a detailed masterclass on ways to manage business partnerships successfully. In their conversation with Strategy & Corporate Finance communications director Sean Brown, they discuss the four key principles that help partners in joint ventures and...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 31:33) >   We talk with two of our experts about their new research on corporate resilience and what differentiates companies that emerge from economic downturns stronger than they were going in. We'll share insights on preparing your organization for macroeconomic crises and why the next downturn may be very different from ear...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 25:27) >   We continue our discussion on the factors that most affect a strategy’s odds of success. In our two previous podcasts we discussed how social dynamics and biases can undermine strategy development and explained the Power Curve of economic profit, which shows how well—or how poorly—the strategies of the world’s larges...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 22:39) >   We continue our discussion with three senior partners about their research on the factors that most affect a strategy’s odds of success and the moves companies need to make to boost corporate performance. In our last podcast, we discussed the authors’ Power Curve model, which graphs the world’s largest companies’ per...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 19:31) >   In this episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast, McKinsey senior partners Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, and Sven Smit speak with communications director Sean Brown about their book, Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick. In this first of three podcasts, the co-authors discuss the Power Curve of economic profit and h...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 16:41) >   The demands on CFOs are rising, along with the scale and influence of the role. Today’s podcast was recorded at our 2019 CFO Forum, where thetheme was “Reinventing the CFO.” The Forum was hosted by Kapil Chandra, a senior partner in our London office, and Matt Stone, an associate partner also based in London. Jonatha...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 36:00) >   In this episodewe share McKinsey global managing partner Kevin Sneader’s recent address to a gathering of CFOs in London. The conference’s theme was around reinventing the role of the CFO and how digital and analytics are helping drive this reinvention. Kevin’s remarks focused on macro disruptions and the implication...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 25:20) >   Senior partners Tanguy Catlin and Kate Smaje discuss their recent work on digital reinventions at established companies and the role CFOs should play to help them succeed. In their conversation with communications director Sean Brown, they share their insights from recent research on the factors that separate digital...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 22:30) >   While economic downturns are impossible to predict, it is never too early to start thinking about how to weather the next downturn—whenever it comes. Two of our senior partners, Cindy Levy and Martin Hirt, recently talked about how executives can think about this challenge and how this applies not only when there is...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 13:46) >   When we talk about organizations we often think in terms of their performance and their overall health. Gender diversity tends to be a subject that many relate to the health part of that equation. But new research has uncovered a fascinating correlation between gender diversity and corporate performance. Joining us t...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 32:07) >   As the pace of social, economic, and technological change accelerates, organizations everywhere must make increasingly complex decisions in the face of an uncertain future. This is why the value of creative and strategic thinkers capable of solving complex problems has never been higher.   Today’s episode features a...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 31:13) >   Most CEOs understand that innovation is a team sport. The challenge leaders face is identifying and nurturing the right combination of people within an organization who are capable of developing winning products and taking them to market. Erik Roth and Matt Banholzer join us to share their perspectives on what it tak...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 24:03) >   Andy West on recent trends in mergers and acquisitions and the importance of aligning your transaction strategy with your overall strategy. How do you know when it's the right time to divest? What strategies do top M & A performers employ to gain a competitive advantage? How do you align the board and management team...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 21:17) >   CFOs are playing an increasingly pivotal role driving change in their companies. How should they balance their traditional responsibilities with the new CFO mandate? Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/ See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 9:34) >   Management teams who engage positively with attackers may find activist campaigns bring ideas that create value and improve shareholder performance. We investigate the levers activists pull to improve the performance of target companies, activist investor trends globally, and how companies can respond positively when...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 34:39) >   Innovation is critical to driving growth. Today we are talking about how large companies can take innovation plays from startups' play books to make them more competitive. We will hear from entrepreneurs and McKinsey experts about the techniques they use to go to market and scale quickly with limited resources. We'll...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 14:03) >   Shiny new initiatives can distract you from paying attention to other good but mundane projects and investments. In this episode McKinsey partner Tim Koller, professor of business strategy at the University of Sydney Dan Lovallo, and Sean Brown, discuss why people underinvest in so-called unremarkable projects and ho...

Read more >    Listen to the podcast (duration: 15:13) >   It’s common for companies to hang on too long to a number of projects or parts of the business that are underperforming but just won’t die. These projects and business units linger because of emotional or legacy attachments that executives have toward them. In this episode McKinsey partner Tim Koller, professor of bu...