Technology, talent, decarbonization—we explored these and many other topics this year on The McKinsey Podcast. A range of McKinsey partners joined us on the mic and offered their perspectives on the pivots that global business leaders have made to compete more effectively. On this episode, we revisit a few those discussions and offer quick takes from McKinsey partners on what has mattered most to CEOs and other C-suite leaders over the past 12 months.

Also, McKinsey senior partners Kweilin Ellingrud, Sven Smit, and Yuval Atsmon talk about their choices for McKinsey’s 2024 book recommendations.

Articles mentioned:

AI for IT modernization: faster, cheaper, better

A proactive approach to navigating geopolitics is essential to thrive

Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw.

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“A bank and a steel company can walk into a bar and not have much to do with each other. But once one of the arena companies walks in, we’re all involved.” That’s McKinsey Global Institute director Chris Bradley. On the latest episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Chris spoke with global editorial director Lucia Rahilly about a new report delving into the next arenas of competition—namely, a set of dynamic, high-growth industries that are fundamentally redefining the global economy and changing the game for businesses across the board.

Article mentioned:
The McKinsey Quarterly

Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw.

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Ten years of research on women in the workplace, conducted by McKinsey in partnership with LeanIn.Org, reveals what’s better, what’s worse, and what all of us can do now to help more women advance—more quickly—at work.  On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey senior partners Alexis Krivkovich and Lareina Yee speak with global editorial director Lucia Rahilly about where women’s experiences have improved, stalled, and even worsened over the past ten years, as well as about how to finally hasten the pace of change.

Articles mentioned:

The McKinsey Quarterly

Global Banking Annual Review

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This is a special, bonus episode of The McKinsey Podcast. McKinsey partner Alexis Trittipo joins us from the UN climate change conference (aka COP 29) in Baku to share what she’s hearing about climate adaptation.

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Since Tufan Erginbilgiç took the helm of the iconic brand, its share price has surged. Profits have more than doubled. How he did it is a case study in the art of corporate transformation. In conversation with McKinsey senior partner Michael Birshan.

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If you have an ambition but no plan behind it, you’re probably not going to get the results you’re looking for. According to recent McKinsey research on the UK economy, the highest-performing UK companies have grounded their ambitions in a set of five conditions—looking at investors, incentives, sources of growth, partnerships, and people. And the results speak for themselves. On today’s episode of The McKinsey Podcast, senior partners Andrew Goodman and Tunde Olanrewaju speak with editorial director Roberta Fusaro about this research.

In our second segment, we look at the role of the CEO during an M&A transition with senior partner Mieke Van Oostende, from our CEO Insights series.

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It’s easy to fall in love with gen AI—but recent research suggests that realizing its value is harder than the hype. Rewired offers a playbook that can help.

In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Rodney and fellow senior partners and co-authors Eric Lamarre and Kate Smaje join global editorial director Lucia Rahilly to talk about their book Rewired: The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI (Wiley, 2023)—which, a year and a gen AI disruption post publication, continues to offer leaders a play-by-play guide for outcompeting in a fast-changing era.

In the second segment, senior partner Wesley Walden talks about the time he went to a client meeting instead of his son’s first concert. The client’s reaction taught him an important lesson about open communication.

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Optimists, pessimists—who’s right? On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey senior partner Humayun Tai, partner Mekala Krishnan and global editorial director Lucia Rahilly discuss new research that takes stock of the physical realities shaping our trajectory toward net zero, as well as what needs to happen to address these challenges—and hasten progress—successfully.

In our second segment, we hear about how to improve the CEO–board relationship with senior partner Celia Huber, from our CEO Insights series.

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The greatest CEOs are necessarily driven, decisive, and confident. But McKinsey senior partner Ramesh Srinivasan, senior partner emeritus Hans-Werner Kaas, and coauthors of their new book, The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Can Learn to Lead from the Inside Out, say CEOs must weave in a layer of soft skills like self-awareness, humility, and compassion to inspire their workforce. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Srinivasan and Kaas speak with editorial director Roberta Fusaro about taking on the challenge of reinvention for the greater good of the company.

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Innovation and interest in the tech sector remain strong, despite market challenges and dips in investment. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey technology experts Lareina Yee and Roger Roberts share findings from the McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2024 report. They talk with editorial director Roberta Fusaro about where innovation is exploding, interest is deepening, and investment is flowing.

In our second segment, from our CEO Insights series, McKinsey partner Blair Epstein explores how successful CEOs organize their yearly communication plans, including how to manage comms through crisis.

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