Inside the Strategy Room
232 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 months ago - ★★★★ - 135 ratingsWe talk with McKinsey partners and corporate executives on the challenges they face creating lasting strategies in a fast-changing world. We also examine the different ways these executives approach these challenges and the new and innovative ways they think of creating a vision for their enterprises.
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Episodes
Digital disruption and the role of M&A
December 30, 2019 14:00 - 16 minutes - 30.8 MBWith 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 Simon Blackburn, a senior partner in our Sydney office, about the role of M&A in adapting to digital disruption. Read more > Listen to the podca...
Corporate diversity: if you don’t measure it, it won’t get done
December 20, 2019 13:00 - 24 minutes - 55.6 MBAt 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 LeanIn.org and theWall Street Journal surveying the state of diversity in the corporate world. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 24:13) ...
Strategy at the speed of digital
December 02, 2019 18:00 - 39 minutes - 72.9 MBIn 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 move to win in the digital era. They will also describe some common pitfalls in digital strategy, ways to avoid them, and how digital leaders execute strategic moves w...
Partners in profit: Creating successful business alliances
November 19, 2019 17:00 - 44 minutes - 80.8 MBIn 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 alliances thrive, which they wrote about in a recent article. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 44:03) >
Stronger for longer: How top performers thrive through downturns
November 04, 2019 15:00 - 31 minutes - 72.4 MBWe 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 earlier ones. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 31:33) >
Jumpstart a better way to do strategy
October 28, 2019 14:00 - 25 minutes - 45.3 MBWe 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 largest companies are performing. We also heard about the most important strategic moves companies can make to rise up that Power Curve. Today we will share excerpts from a p...
How to make the bold moves that matter
October 21, 2019 14:00 - 22 minutes - 52.3 MBWe 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’ performance and shows that the middle 60 percent of them make little, if any, economic profit. Today we’ll try to answer the question: how can these companies rise to the ...
Measuring your strategy’s odds of success
October 14, 2019 14:00 - 19 minutes - 26.9 MBIn 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 how this empirical analysis can help companies calibrate their performance aspirations and cut through the social dynamics that produce inertia. Read more > ...
Reinventing the CFO for the digital age
October 02, 2019 14:00 - 16 minutes - 23.1 MBThe 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. Jonathan Turton, a McKinsey contributor, sat down with Kapil and Matt after the forum to gather their reflections on the event and how the role ofthe CFO is evolving. ...
Framing reinvention: What disruptive change means for business, society, and you
September 30, 2019 14:00 - 36 minutes - 82.7 MBIn 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 implications for business and society. He sets the stage with a historical perspective on the pace of disruptive technological change using the SS Savannah,one of the first hybrid...
How CFOs should drive digital transformations
September 20, 2019 14:00 - 25 minutes - 46.7 MBSenior 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 winners from the also-rans. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 25:20) >
Resilience and value: A CFO toolkit for withstanding shocks
August 13, 2019 15:00 - 22 minutes - 31.8 MBWhile 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 concern about a downturn but also in the normal course of business. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 22:30) >
The diversity opportunity for new CEOs
July 15, 2019 17:00 - 13 minutes - 12.7 MBWhen 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 today to discuss this research are Paula Ramos, a partner with our New Jersey office and Tom Meakin, a partner based in our London office. Read more > ...
Want better strategies? Become a bulletproof problem solver
July 10, 2019 17:00 - 32 minutes - 29.6 MBAs 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 conversation between Chris Bradley, a senior partner in our Sydney office, and Rob McLean, a Director Emeritus of the firm, a trustee of The Nature Conservancy in Austr...
Creating high-performance innovation teams at scale
June 25, 2019 17:00 - 31 minutes - 28.7 MBMost 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 takes to field high-performing innovation teams. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 31:13) >
Active portfolio management: An interview with Andy West
June 04, 2019 17:00 - 24 minutes - 22.2 MBAndy 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 around what businesses you want to be in and why? Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 24:03) >
The evolution of the CFO
May 29, 2019 17:00 - 21 minutes - 19.6 MBCFOs are playing an increasingly pivotal role driving change in their companies. How should they balance their traditional responsibilities with the new CFO mandate? Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 21:17) >
The pros and cons of activist investors
April 30, 2019 14:00 - 9 minutes - 8.9 MBManagement 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 they are approached by activists. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 9:34) >
How to move fast: Innovation at speed and scale
March 07, 2019 18:00 - 34 minutes - 47.7 MBInnovation 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 see how larger companies can emulate some of that behaviour. And we will discuss how large companies can leverage what they already do very well and apply it to new gr...
Bias busters: How to resist the allure of ‘glamour’ projects
February 27, 2019 18:00 - 14 minutes - 21.9 MBShiny 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 how to remedy this bias to ensure all projects receive the resources and attention they deserve. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 14...
Bias busters: How to avoid losses and prune projects proactively
February 20, 2019 18:00 - 15 minutes - 23.5 MBIt’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 business strategy at the University of Sydney Dan Lovallo, and Sean Brown, discuss two effective techniques for understanding when to hold on to an asset and when to let ...
Bias busters: How to be objective about budgets
February 13, 2019 18:00 - 18 minutes - 28.2 MBAnchoring bias can hold back the budgeting process and influence your targets despite your best efforts. Address it and refocus difficult conversations. In this episode McKinsey partner Tim Koller, professor of business strategy at the University of Sydney Dan Lovallo, and Sean Brown, discuss how to tackle anchoring bias and refocus difficult budget conversations. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 18:38) >
Bias busters: How to make better decisions with the ‘outside view’
February 05, 2019 18:00 - 22 minutes - 32.9 MBDespite their best intentions, executives fall prey to cognitive and organizational biases that get in the way of good decision making. In our new Bias Busters series, McKinsey partner Tim Koller and Dan Lovallo, an alumnus of McKinsey’s San Francisco office and professor of business strategy at the University of Sydney, will highlight some of the biases that hold sway in the strategy room. They will also offer effective ways to respond. Our topic for this episode? Taking the “outs...
Why long-term value is a winning bet
December 19, 2018 18:00 - 11 minutes - 19 MBCompanies that focus on the long-term outperform their shorter-term peers on a range of economic and financial metrics including revenue and earnings, market capitalization, and job creation. In this episode, Sean Brown is joined by Bruce Simpson, a senior partner in our Toronto office who recently co-authored a chapter in the book, Reimagining Capitalism. Also joining the conversation are Jonathan Godsall and Jack McGinn from our the New York office. We discuss how an important ...
Digital transformation: The CFO's role
December 12, 2018 18:00 - 25 minutes - 37.7 MBMichael Bender is the global co-leader of McKinsey Digital and Analytics. He spoke with Sean Brown in London about the role CFOs can play in driving digital transformations, the nature of digital transformations more generally, how digital and analytics go hand in hand, and the challenges companies can face when working to adopt both. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 25:35) >
Make working capital work harder for you
November 28, 2018 22:00 - 10 minutes - 17.3 MBWorking capital is often an under-appreciated source of cash and value creation. Associate partner Matt Stone speaks with Sean Brown in London about how leading companies are unlocking value by implementing effective working capital strategies and world-class advanced analytics and machine learning solutions. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 10:41) >
How leading CEOs manage their middle tenure
October 11, 2018 14:15 - 28 minutes - 48.2 MBThere is a wealth of research into how new CEOs should successfully transition into the leading role. Less frequently studied is how top CEOs outperform competitors during the second act of their tenures. Sean Brown talks with senior partner Rodney Zemmel and associate partner Matt Cuddihy about the five themes that emerged from their research into how leading CEOs managed the middle part of their tenures through years three, four, five and beyond. Read more > ...
How to take the measure of innovation
September 24, 2018 17:00 - 24 minutes - 36.1 MBTwo simple R & D conversion metrics can help executives measure the value of innovation efforts. Senior partner Erik Roth, and associate partners Guttorm Aase and Sri Swaminathan speak with Sean Brown about how companies can gain valuable insights into innovation performance from a pair of metrics that have been hiding seemingly in plain sight. Their core components — gross margin, R&D, and sales from new products — are not new, but combining them can shed new light on the relative...
Demystifying AI and machine learning for executives
September 04, 2018 14:00 - 31 minutes - 46.3 MBSenior partner Tamim Saleh cuts through the hype around AI in this interview and offers clear guidance for executives looking to make precise strategic decisions about where and how to employ AI in their business. Tamim shares insights on the impact of machine vision on AI, the future of voice recognition, and the latest developments in advanced analytics, virtual assistants, and robotics. He outlines the challenges companies face when adopting AI and the steps CEOs can take to ove...
Building gender diversity on boards
August 27, 2018 14:00 - 13 minutes - 21.7 MBCelia Huber, Senior Partner in our Silicon Valley office, on how companies can build and benefit from gender diversity on boards. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 13:54) >
How to avoid digital strategy pitfalls
August 20, 2018 19:00 - 23 minutes - 34.5 MBMost digital strategies don’t reflect how digital is changing economic fundamentals, industry dynamics, or what it means to compete. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 23:14) >
Inside the strategy room: One CEO’s approach
August 03, 2018 00:00 - 14 minutes - 21.8 MBDeanna Mulligan, president and CEO of Guardian Life Insurance, reflects on how she approaches strategy planning in an industry with strong headwinds. Read more > Listen to the podcast (duration: 14:00) >