Inside the Strategy Room

The need for board-level strategic conversations on geopolitical risk is urgent. To discuss how boards can guide companies through an increasingly complex geopolitical environment, we’re joined by Jon Huntsman Jr. Jon is a former US governor and diplomat who has spent nearly two decades in US public service at the state, national, and international levels. He sits on the boards of Ford, Mobileye, and Chevron, and is also the Vice Chairman of MasterCard. We're also joined by Ziad Haider, a partner in our Singapore office who co-leads our Geopolitics Practice, and Celia Huber, a senior partner in our Bay Area location who leads our North American Board Services Practice.

Further reading:

Black swans, gray rhinos, and silver linings: Anticipating geopolitical risks (and openings) 

How global companies can manage geopolitical risk 

Boards can guide companies through geopolitical headwinds

Geopolitical resilience: The new board imperative

How three global companies navigate geopolitical risk to build resilience

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Midcap companies have vast opportunities to increase their performance and scale if they reinvent how they work. 

Midsize companies don’t dominate the headlines and investor attention the way large corporations do, but they represent more than 40 percent of the global workforce and account for approximately one-third of most economies’ GDP.

However, the productivity of small and midsize businesses is only half that of large companies, and lower in emerging economies. These businesses have vast opportunities to increase their performance and scale.

In this episode, we discuss how midcaps can seize the opportunity to transform themselves and reach a significantly higher level of performance.

Joining us are Zakir Gaibi, a senior partner in McKinsey’s Johannesburg office, Mauricio Janauskas a senior partner in the Santiago office, and Kedar Naik is a partner in the Brussels office. You can read their article Unleashing the power of midcap companies on McKinsey.com

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Generative AI poses both risks and opportunities. Ida Kristensen and Oliver Bevan join us to discuss how we can mitigate the former while moving to capture the latter from day one.

Ida Kristensen is a senior partner in our New York office. She coleads the Risk & Resilience Practice and advises leading financial institutions on cybersecurity, strategies for risk management, regulatory compliance, and operational improvement.

Oliver Bevan is a partner in our Chicago office and a leader in our Risk and Resilience and Technology Practices. He leads our client work at the intersection of technology and risk, focusing on generative AI, data privacy, third party management, and trust and safety.

Ida and Oliver’s article, Implementing generative AI with speed and safety is available on McKinsey.com

Related reading:

The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier

A generative AI reset: Rewiring to turn potential into value in 2024

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M&A dealmakers have been on a wild ride. From the pandemic-fueled rout in 2020 to 2021’s record-breaking recovery, followed by a steep decline in 2023, the global M&A market has offered something of a masterclass in volatility. In this episode, we are joined by senior partners Jake Henry, Mieke Van Oostende, and Andy West to discuss the trends in the global M&A environment in 2024 and what they mean for business leaders. Jake and Mieke recently published a report on McKinsey.com, Top M&A trends in 2024: Blueprint for success in the next wave of deals, which forms the basis for our discussion.

The report also includes a compendium of articles analyzing deal activity in the chemicals, tech media and telecom, life sciences, financial services, consumer goods, and transport and logistics industries in 2023. 

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Private equity firms have a well-earned reputation for elevating the performance of the companies they invest in. A cornerstone of their strategy is a relentless pursuit of operational excellence to drive efficiency and productivity. In this episode, we analyze what public company CEOs can glean from the private equity playbook to enhance their own company's performance. Our guests are John Kelleher and Radhika Ray.   

John is a senior partner in our Private Equity Special Operations group and serves as an interim in-house executive helping companies execute large PE-style transformations. John has served in multiple executive roles in the private equity industry—including as CEO—and is co-founder of the PE-CEO Alpha Institute, a partnership between McKinsey and Harvard Business School to train private equity portfolio company CEOs. 

Radhika is a partner in our Private Equity group and has over 15 years of experience in the private equity sector. She helps our clients with large-scale transformations and oversees the service line, implementing rapid labor productivity improvements.

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CEOs and CFOs are redefining their interactions with the board to ensure success in an era of rapid change. Joining us to delve into this growing trend of collaboration between CEOs, management teams, and boards are Celia Huber, leader of our North American board services practice, along with Michael Birshan and Andy West, the co-leaders of our Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice. 

Related reading: 

The board’s role in building resilience https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-boards-role-in-building-resilience

Five ways to increase your board’s long-term impact https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/five-ways-to-increase-your-boards-long-term-impact

The role of the board in preparing for extraordinary risk https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-role-of-the-board-in-preparing-for-extraordinary-risk

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Innovation in a not-for-profit context involves measuring success in terms of returns on mission rather than returns to shareholders. In this episode, McKinsey innovation expert Erik Roth talks with Sajit Joseph, the chief innovation officer of the American Red Cross, about how the 142-year-old institution began and continues to carry out its innovation journey.

Explore other episodes of The Committed Innovator: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/inside-the-strategy-room-podcast/innovation

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Fewer than one in four companies outpace their industry peers on revenue and profit growth. We discuss new research that reveals the six mindsets and strategies that set these growth outperformers apart.

We're joined by Rebecca Doherty, a partner in our Bay Area office and co-leader of our Strategic Growth and Innovation practice, Jill Zucker, a senior partner who co-leads our global growth transformation work, and Kate Seigel, a partner in our Detroit office who advises clients on growth strategy and execution using M&A and organic approaches.

Related reading: 

• Courageous growth: Six strategies for continuous growth outperformance

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Zane Rowe is the CFO of Workday, a California-based company that develops enterprise software for managing finance, HR, and planning. Workday has been growing rapidly, and its growth-oriented culture is a central theme of the discussion we recorded between Zane and McKinsey's CFO Eric Kutcher

Listen to Eric's conversation with Palo Alto Network's CFO, Dipak Golechha: https://link.chtbl.com/SgZPqa6t

Listen to Eric's conversation with Teradata CFO Claire Bramley: https://link.chtbl.com/w3ustEBP

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Related reading: 

• Data, analytics, and decisions: An interview with Teradata’s CFO
• Palo Alto Networks CFO on AI, cybersecurity, and the finance leader’s mandate
• Gen AI: A guide for CFOs

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Boards can play an essential role in engaging management teams to ensure they fully explore the potential of generative AI, even beyond their comfort zone. In this episode, we discuss the most important questions boards need to ask senior executives as their companies move to adopt this technology. Our guests are experienced in both technology and board practices. 

Frithjof Lund is our managing partner in Norway and leads our firm’s Board Services Practice globally. 

Douglas Merrill is a partner in our Southern California office and was the Chief Information Officer and VP of Engineering at Google before joining McKinsey. 

Alexander Sukharevsky is a senior partner in London and the global leader of QuantumBlack, McKinsey's AI arm.

Aaron Rosenberg is a partner at Radical Ventures where he leads the firm's European and London investment activities and operations. 

Related reading: 

Four essential questions for boards to ask about generative AI 

The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier

What every CEO should know about generative AI

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