Inside the Strategy Room

In this episode, we speak with Eric Olson, a retired US Navy Admiral with a distinguished career in special operations, about the key principles of effective leadership, particularly in times of uncertainty. Eric shares insights from his experiences leading high-performing teams and organizations through complex challenges, offering valuable leadership lessons for executives in today's rapidly cha...

Even in a highly uncertain business environment, companies that build new businesses and develop new offerings, processes, and business models are better able to capture growth opportunities and hedge against disruption. Our recent survey of more than 1,000 companies around the world reflected this, with the largest share of respondents identifying the ability to innovate as their most important s...

Vince Tizzio is President and CEO of AXIS, a specialty insurance and reinsurance company that delivers customized solutions to organizations worldwide. Since taking on the role in May 2023, Vince has led AXIS on an ambitious transformation journey. In this episode, he speaks with McKinsey senior partner and North America Chair Eric Kutcher about what it means to take on the CEO role, how to lead t...

Mergers and acquisitions are among the more complex processes new CEOs have to learn, whether they’re in the role for the first time or taking over at a new company. Andreas “Andy” W. Mattes has navigated this multiple times in his roles as CEO of Siemens Communications, Diebold, and later of Diebold Nixdorf, and now of the laser technology company Coherent. In this discussion wi...

Measuring value creation is critical, as company leaders grapple with geopolitical shifts, digital disruption, and other trends affecting their businesses. Two co-authors of the new edition of Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies join Sean today to discuss what they’ve learned over the course of writing and updating their book, which is now in its eighth edition, with mor...

As CEO challenges go, facing a global threat that is existential not just for your company but for your industry is among the worst possible. American Airlines’ former Chairman and CEO, Doug Parker, has been through this twice while leading an airline, following the 9/11 attacks in New York and the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, he speaks with McKinsey Senior Partner Celia Huber about h...

Holistic transformations are complex and can take a long time to show full results. By optimizing working capital early on, companies can help score early wins to create momentum and excite stakeholders across the organization. In this episode, Sean talks with two McKinsey transformation experts about how to identify and achieve these working capital improvements to maximize the impact of a transf...

John Stankey has led AT&T as CEO since July 2020, and was elected Chairman of the Board in February this year. Over his 40-year tenure, John has held multiple senior leadership roles across the breadth of AT&T’s businesses, including turns as Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Technology Officer.  In this episode, John speaks with McKinsey senior partner and North America Chair Er...

For many years, the continued rise of private markets has been defined by assets under management (AUM), while the composition of the industry evolved significantly. This week, two of McKinsey’s Private Capital Practice experts are joined by Neil Mehta from Apollo Global Management to discuss the diverse types of non-traditional private capital increasingly being raised by general partners (...

Although every company wants to grow, only one in four is able to do so profitably and maintain that growth over time. This week, Sean speaks with three of our growth experts about the mindsets and behaviors of successful growth outperformers. Jill Zucker is a senior partner and former managing partner of our New York office. She co-leads our global growth transformation work and serves financial...

Transformation is a complex undertaking that relies heavily on achieving behavioral change within an organization. Three McKinsey transformation and organizational health experts talk this week about the common pitfalls companies face when attempting to transform, and share tips for avoiding them. Rajesh Krishnan is a senior partner in our New York office and a leader in our Transformation Practic...

In this episode, Michèle Flournoy joins Andy West to share her perspectives on how companies can build their geopolitical resilience. Michèle is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of WestExec Advisors , a strategic advisory firm that helps CEOs and investors navigate geopolitical risks and opportunities. She served the US government as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from Febr...

David Gitlin is Chairman and CEO of Carrier Global Corporation , a global leader in intelligent climate and energy solutions. With prior senior leadership roles in aerospace and manufacturing and extensive expertise across safety and operational excellence, David led the much-lauded 2020 Carrier spin-off from United Technologies—as the world grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episo...

As geopolitical trends bring increased uncertainty and risk, CEOs and other business leaders can take action to get and stay ahead of it all. This week Sean speaks with three McKinsey experts on geopolitical risk about how organizations can build resilience to address continued global uncertainty. Cindy Levy is a senior partner in our London office and the global co-leader of our Geopolitics Pract...

Companies often aim for growth or transformation, but it's less common for them to pursue transformation as a means of achieving growth. This week, three McKinsey experts share their research into how the one in four companies that outperform use transformation to achieve growth beyond that of their peers. Sandra Sancier-Sultan is a senior partner based in Paris and a leader in McKinsey&rsquo...

Alok Sama  spent years in corporate finance and as a managing director at Morgan Stanley before joining Softbank as CFO and plunging into founder-CEO Masayoshi Son’s world of high-speed, high-risk decision making. For Sama, the shift involved many eye-opening experiences, which he later shared in a memoir, titled The Money Trap: Lost Illusions Inside the Tech Bubble (St. Martin’s...

To succeed today, chief risk officers (CRO) and other risk leaders must exert more influence and build organizational resilience in an increasingly complex risk environment. Today’s guests share the key practices that set top risk leaders apart, as CROs shift from traditional risk managers to influential figures driving resilience and organizational success. Ida Kristensen is the global co-l...

McKinsey innovation leader Erik Roth speaks with Jelena Joffe Weil , the founder and worldwide leader of the Venture Innovation program at Amazon Web Services , Amazon’s cloud computing arm, about how AWS works to close the gap between innovation and go-to-market for start-ups and large enterprises. The global hyperscaler is known for helping businesses grow and scale rapidly, but it also he...

Business transformation has evolved markedly in recent years as technology and the pace of change reshape the landscape organizations face. Once a byword for cost-cutting, transformation now more readily incorporates bold, strategic goals. Today, we discuss the core elements of a successful transformation and how to confront some of the common challenges. We are joined by three deeply experienced...

This week we speak with the authors of our latest Annual M&A Report about trends in the deal landscape and what we might expect from 2025. Will the much-anticipated increase in transactions finally materialize? Or will players continue to hold onto their dry powder, waiting for the ongoing uncertainty that we’ve seen since the pandemic to settle down? McKinsey senior partners Mieke Van O...

Despite persistent uncertainty in global markets, 2024 was the year that private equity began to emerge from a multi-year fog, with a rebound in dealmaking and distributions. Our Global Private Markets Report for 2025 revealed an industry that is more resilient, more innovative, and perhaps stronger than before. To discuss the nuances of that report we are joined by two of the report’s autho...

A key challenge to developing corporate strategy is moving quickly enough with the right insights to gain and maintain a competitive edge. Generative AI can help with this, as our guests this week describe. In this episode, we talk with three strategy experts about their research into using gen AI to help develop corporate strategy and the successes and challenges they encountered. Bruce Delteil i...

Innovation and transformation become critical imperatives for many organizations, especially as they grow larger and mature. The complex merger and series of spin-offs that Dow Inc. underwent with E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company between 2017 and 2018 is among the more dramatic of such reinventions. The move to create a materials science company (Dow), an agricultural business (Corteva), and a...

The best leaders are masterful communicators. They advance the aspirations of their companies with compelling, singular narratives that inspire a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. In this episode, we’re joined by three CEO and stakeholder relations experts who share their research into how CEOs can foster deeper dialogues and more meaningful connections with their wide range...

Judy Marks is one of the few dozen women who lead Fortune 500 companies. She joined Connecticut-based Otis Elevator in 2017 as President, and was appointed CEO in 2019. After leading the company’s 2020 spinoff to become an independent publicly traded company, she was appointed Chair as well. Additionally, Judy serves on the board of Caterpillar. In this episode McKinsey Senior Partner and No...