Inside the Strategy Room

Competitive advantage is becoming much more fluid as market positions shift faster across industries, with advantages eroding and differentiation narrowing. Despite this increased volatility, companies often fail to actively monitor shifts in their competitive edge. Join Matt Banholzer and Laura LaBerge as they discuss their latest research on the erosion of competitive advantage and share what companies can do to maximize their edge over peers.

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Strategy’s biggest blind spot: Erosion of competitive advantage

How top economic performers lean into their competitive advantage to guide their strategy

Why accelerated resour...

Long-term value creation is foundational to building strong companies and economies, yet many leaders struggle to ensure that well-conceived, well-executed strategies receive full recognition from investors. Senior Partner Ryan Davies and Associate Partner Jacob Marcus join us to discuss how to anticipate investor reactions, assess opportunities to outperform expectations, and embed an investor mindset into decision-making to build greater resilience.

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Global Private Markets Report 2026

Private equity 2026 outlook: Clearer view, tougher terrain

Unlocking full potential: Five practices reshaping PE value creation

Transforming value creation in private equity portfolio co...

In today’s tougher exit environment, private equity firms are facing longer holding periods, valuation gaps, and increased pressure to return capital. Kai Vollhardt and Jelena Bauer are joined by Christian Habrich and Frederyk Schroeder as they unpack their latest article on how to drive successful exits. They share strategies that top-performing firms use to improve exit outcomes and turn preparation into premium valuations, including how to translate AI potential into a credible value story.

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Beating the odds: How private equity firms can improve exit prospects

Global Private Markets Report 2026

Pri...

Discover how market leaders—Walmart, Builders FirstSource, Progressive, and JPMorgan Chase—achieved exceptional growth from 2019 to 2024, outperforming peers by an average of five percentage points in revenue and seven points in profitability. In this episode, Simon Jones, David Schiff , and Kate Siegel discuss their new article on the three critical characteristics that drive sustained profitable business growth: committed investment strategies, diversified growth engines, and systematic technology integration.

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Inspired for business growth: How five companies beat the market

The race takes off in the next big arenas of competition

The granul...

Transformations often falter due to internal dynamics that divide organizations, such as misaligned incentives, siloed efforts, and risk aversion. CEOs are uniquely positioned to address these challenges by tackling the root causes of collective-action problems and uniting their organizations around bold aspirations. Join Meagan Hill, Mathew Lee, and Kurt Strovink as they explore the role of the CEO in driving enterprise-wide transformation and embedding lasting change into the fabric of their organizations.

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Collective action, collective success: A CEO’s role in transformations

Courageous conversations: How to lead with heart

A CE...

More than 55 percent of large spin-offs fail to deliver the expected value three years post-spin; this is true for both the parent and the new company. However, even in today’s complex macro environment, there is plenty of spin activity as companies look outside the portfolio in pursuit of more focused strategies, fit-for-purpose operating models, and optimized capital management.

Join us as Jamie Koenig and Anna Mattson, co-leaders of our Global Separations Practice, discuss their recent article on the topic and step through five critical moves that help increase the odds of spin-off success. They also share a w...

Today’s board members face growing demands on their time. A challenging macro environment and ever-evolving business risks are increasing meeting frequency and requiring faster decision-making. For executives considering a board role, the developmental opportunity may be clear — but what does the role really involve?

In this episode, McKinsey senior partner emeritus and board director, Celia Huber speaks with Christiana Smith Shi. Christiana is the former President of Nike’s direct-to-consumer division and a seasoned board member with over 14 years of service, including on the boards of Williams Sonoma and Mondelēz International. She currently serves on the boa...

Buy-side carve-outs can create significant value for acquiring companies, but they can also present complex challenges. In this episode, we’re joined by Kameron Kordestani, Anna Mattson, and Rui Silva to discuss how leaders—particularly CFOs, integration managers, and CHROs—must balance financial structuring, operational planning, and people management to ensure a value-creating transition.

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How buyers can successfully navigate integrating a carve-out

The power of goodbye: How carve-outs can unleash value

Solving the carve-out conundrum

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Outperformance in private equity is no longer defined by leverage or multiple expansion; disciplined value creation will be the decisive factor in future investment success. In this episode, AD Bhatia, Robin Ligon, and Jason Phillips are joined by CVC’s John Kelleher to discuss the key shifts in today’s PE environment and share five moves firms are making in response. The path to transforming value creation requires a more disciplined playbook: structured re-diligence, holistic transformation under a dedicated transformation leadership, stronger operating-team talent, and the use of AI as a portfolio-wide accelerator.

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2026 Globa...

For CEOs, the first 100 days often get the most attention. But the final chapter of a CEO’s tenure can be just as consequential. In this episode, senior partner Carolyn Dewar speaks with Charles Lowrey, former executive chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial, about what it takes to finish strong and manage a successful leadership transition.

Lowrey reflects on his unexpected path to the CEO role, the lessons he learned while leading through the pandemic, and why he began discussing succession with the board before officially taking the job. He explains how Prudential developed internal candidates, planned th...

As millions of baby boomer business owners in the United States approach retirement, the country faces a major transition in business ownership. Over the next decade, millions of small and midsize businesses could be sold, transferred, or closed, with major implications for local economies, jobs, family wealth, and economic mobility.

In this episode, we hear from partner Ken Yearwood and associate partner Nick Noel about the wave of business transfers on the horizon, the scale of the opportunity, and the risks of avoidable closures. They discuss what this transition could mean for buyers, sellers, private capital, employees...

In this episode, we explore how finance leaders can harness AI to drive performance and create value for the organization. Our guests—Kevin Carmody, Davide Grande, and Andrea Tricoli—share insights from their research, highlighting how AI is reshaping finance functions across strategic planning, cost management, risk mitigation, and investor relations. Join us as we delve into real-world examples of AI in action and consider the evolving role of the CFO as a strategic partner in the C-Suite.   

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How finance teams are putting AI to work today

Gen AI: A guide for CF...

Private equity firms have long outperformed their peers—not just through financial engineering, but by building better businesses faster. In this episode, senior partner Sacha Ghai and partner Marla Capozzi discuss what leaders across sectors can learn from the highest-performing private equity CEOs. Drawing on their recent Harvard Business Review article, Sacha and Marla unpack the concept of CEO alpha: the value created when CEOs outperform as individual leaders, team builders, and operators. They explain why private equity’s edge has shifted from financial engineering to building stronger, more resilient businesses, and they share six practices that distinguish top-performing PE C...

Generative AI is reshaping the way investors evaluate opportunities and replacing much of the manual work involved in completing an outside-in diligence. Firms that adapt the fastest during this transition have the most to gain. To discuss how the deployment of gen AI in diligence can give organizations an investment edge and explore the shift from traditional diligence to AI-enabled, outside-in analysis we’re joined by David Pralong, a senior partner and the global leader of our Transformation Practice,  William Bundy, a partner in our Washington D.C office, Chase Covington, a partner based in our New York office, and...

Generative and agentic AI are moving rapidly from experimentation to enterprise-wide transformation—but many CEOs are still grappling with what this really means for their business.

In this episode, McKinsey experts Tanguy Catlin, Sandra Durth, Lari Hämäläinen, and Antoine Montard examine why AI is being viewed as a true general-purpose technology, on par with past breakthroughs like electricity and the internet, and what that implies for competition, investment, and long-term value creation. 

We discuss the importance of thinking across strategy, technology, and organization to maximize the value from AI—and why focusing on produ...

For new CEOs, engaging stakeholders is one of the most important—and most challenging—parts of the job. In this episode, Carolyn Dewar, Blair Epstein, and Eric Sherman discuss how CEOs can build a strong stakeholder strategy from day one.

Drawing on research and their work with leaders across industries, they explore why stakeholder engagement matters so much, the unique challenges new CEOs face, and how leaders can best balance competing priorities across investors, employees, customers, regulators, and communities. They also discuss practical ways to create a clear narrative, strengthen communication, and build leverage through the top team...

Building resilience is a critical skill for organizations today, yet our research shows that many leaders and organizations don’t spend enough time building their resilience to navigate current and emerging risks. In this episode, two authors of a recent article on the topic discuss how organizations can better prepare for what they face today and in the future.

Ida Kristensen is a senior partner in our New York office and the global co-leader of our Risk and Resilience Practice. She advises clients across sectors on risk, strategy, and operational topics spanning enterprise risk management, resilience, organization an...

As artificial intelligence transforms how companies compete, many boards are grappling with how to provide effective oversight in this new era. Senior partners Aamer Baig, Celia Huber, and senior advisor Rebecca Schechter join host Sean Brown Inside the Strategy Room to discuss their recent article on how directors can rethink their guidance on AI adoption and readiness, while navigating risks that cut across strategy, talent, and governance.

The AI reckoning: How boards can evolve

Rewired: How leading companies win with technology and AI

McKinsey Insights on Strategy & Corporate Finance

McKinsey Strategy...

Companies that execute transformations with rigor are much more likely to achieve their goals, generate higher total shareholder returns, and enjoy better organizational health. In this episode, Preeya Mody and Dominic Skerritt join host Sean Brown to share insights from their latest research on the role of rigor in driving and sustaining successful transformations. They discuss what defines rigor in a transformation, explore the three elements that rigorous transformations consistently demonstrate, and share practical advice for sustaining momentum without burning out teams.

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Going all in: Why employee ‘will’ can make or break transformations

While artificial intelligence is moving rapidly from experimentation to execution, many companies still struggle to capture real value from the technology. In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Jean-Paul Carvalho and Robin Nuttall to explore how CEOs can more effectively scale AI and to discuss the technology's implications for the future of work and organizations.

Jean-Paul is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Oxford’s Department of Economics and Director of Oxford Elevate. Robin Nuttall is an expert partner in our London office and a leader of our regulatory strategy and environmental, social, and gove...

What does today’s wave of AI and economic change really mean for markets, jobs, and leadership?

In this episode, David Solomon, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, joins our North America Chair and senior partner, Eric Kutcher, to explain why he sees the current moment as more evolutionary than unprecedented. Solomon discusses what’s driving market resilience in 2026, including fiscal policy, AI infrastructure investment, and shifting trade dynamics. He also shares how Goldman is using AI to boost productivity, reengineer core processes, and invest for long-term growth—as well as candid lessons on leadership, resilience, and decisi...

After a long period of uncertainty, the fog has lifted, and while private equity rebounded in 2025, the clearer visibility has also revealed a more complex and demanding landscape.

In this episode, the authors of our 2026 Global Private Markets Report unpack the structural shifts reshaping the industry—from elevated multiples and longer hold periods to the growing importance of scale, specialization, and alternative capital. They also explore how artificial intelligence is emerging as a core driver of competitive advantage, with early adopters embedding AI into pricing, productivity, and portfolio strategy to create structural alpha.

As private eq...

Top dealmakers entered 2025 expecting to overcome continued challenges, but few anticipated how sharply trade and geopolitical pressures would intensify. In this episode, Jake Henry and Mieke Van Oostende, the global co-leaders of our M&A Practice, share key themes from our annual M&A report. They reflect on how dealmakers maintained focus, adjusted portfolios, and capitalized on shifting sector dynamics to drive substantial growth in 2025. They also share their perspectives on the five trends driving M&A in 2026.

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Read the full report on McKinsey.com: 2026 M&A trends: Navigating a rapidly rebounding market<...

Jane Fraser, Chair and CEO of Citi, talks with McKinsey Senior Partner and North America Managing Partner Eric Kutcher. After becoming CEO in March 2021, Jane launched a multi-year strategy to transform, simplify, and modernize the bank for the digital age – leveraging Citi’s unique global context to reset where and how it competes. Jane speaks about what the last five years have looked like for Citi and the role AI and blockchain technologies are playing, as well as what she’s learned along the way about talent, intent, and resilience. She also shares the global trends she is seeing as one...

From its origins as an internal three-ring binder to its status as a global reference text, Valuation has shaped how business leaders think about value creation for more than 30 years.

In this episode, co-author Tim Koller joins the co-leaders of our Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice, Andy West and Dago Diedrich, to reflect on the evolution of Valuation, the principles that have remained timeless, and the lessons learned across market cycles, bubbles, and changing executive expectations. Tim also shares his perspective on long-term orientation, disciplined leadership, and the legacy he hopes the book leaves with the business...

Levi Strauss & Co. Chief Finance and Growth Officer, Harmit Singh, joins us to share lessons from his 13-year journey transforming the iconic clothing company. Singh explains how Levi’s returned to growth, strengthened profitability, and shifted toward a direct-to-consumer model, while staying true to its purpose-driven heritage. He introduces the “Magic of the And”–his approach to driving both top- and bottom-line performance– and discusses building a performance culture, navigating volatility and tariffs with cross-functional teams, developing finance talent, and approaching AI in finance with practical use cases and discipline. Joining Harmit for this discussion is Steve Begley, a senior part...

As organizations increasingly employ agentic AI, they face new risks that could disrupt operations, compromise sensitive data, or erode customer trust. Rich Isenberg and Charlie Lewis join us to discuss these emerging risks and how leaders can proactively ensure secure and compliant adoption.

Rich Isenberg is a partner in our Atlanta office and a leader within our Risk and Resilience and Cybersecurity Practices. Charlie Lewis is a partner in our Connecticut office and leads our cybersecurity and tech resilience work across North America and Europe. Together, they offer a frontline perspective on how organizations are implementing agentic...

Arvind Krishna, the Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of IBM, stepped into the CEO role at IBM in 2020, following 30 years at the company. Prior to that, he held various senior positions, spanning VP of Cloud and Cognitive Software to Head of Research, where he drove innovation in core technologies – including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and cloud platform services. In today’s episode, Arvind joins our North America Chair and senior partner Eric Kutcher to discuss how he led IBM to triple its share price in just five years, the current AI landscape, how to pursue opportunities from volatility, the...

Health insurers are facing urgent challenges related to affordability, access, and how to safely and effectively leverage AI and emerging technologies. In this episode, McKinsey senior partner Celia Huber is joined by Brian Evanko, president and chief operating officer of The Cigna Group. In this role, Brian oversees all of the company's business units, including its two growth platforms: Cigna Healthcare, a health benefits business, and Evernorth, a health services business. Together, these business units serve customers in more than 30 countries.

From here, Brian has a unique view of the challenges facing the industry and the people...

CFOs are increasingly helping lead transformations of their companies, which has a range of implications for how they manage their time and stay up to date with technology. Leading transformation has often been viewed as more focused on other members of the C-suite. McKinsey’s research shows the critical role that CFOs have in the success of a transformation. In this episode, we speak with three McKinsey experts on the subject.

Kevin Carmody is a senior partner and the global co-leader of our CFO and Finance Excellence Practice based in Chicago. Previously, Kevin was a founding member of...

Leaders across both the public and private sectors are navigating an era of constant disruption. They're expected to deliver major transformations, manage complexity, and balance competing priorities, all while ensuring their own teams are running smoothly. This is why the role of chief of staff has never been more critical. In this episode, three McKinsey experts–all former chiefs of staff–share insights on when a chief of staff is needed and what qualities distinguish those who excel in the role.

Michelle Forrest is the global client capabilities leader in our Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice, and prev...

To ensure that their companies engage effectively with stakeholders, CEOs need to set communication standards, embody the organization’s culture and purpose, and speak up in moments that matter most.  In today’s episode, we discuss what it takes for a CEO to shape and own their organization’s narrative. Joining us is Blair Epstein,  a partner in our Bay Area office and a leader in our CEO Excellence Practice, Max Gleischman, a partner in our New York office who leads our strategic communications team, managing issues and policy communications for the firm, and Ramiro Prudencio, a partner in our Lond...

In times of economic volatility, the temptation to focus on short-term profitability can become a trap that stalls longer-term projects designed to spur growth. Yet as our long-standing research shows, companies that take a through-cycle approach to investing in growth and innovation consistently outperform their peers. In this episode, three innovation strategy and value creation experts share their latest research and tips for achieving resilient growth.

Matt Banholzer is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Chicago office and co-leader of our Global Strategic Growth and Innovation Practice. Tim Koller is a partner in our Denver office and co...

A small improvement in pricing can often drive greater value creation than larger cost or volume improvements. However, private equity (PE) funds face unique challenges in identifying and addressing pricing opportunities across diverse portfolio companies, often lacking the dedicated tools and expertise to do so effectively. In this episode, Brian Elliott, Jordan Jakubovitz, and Michelle Nguyen discuss how PE funds can address these challenges and achieve efficient growth.

Brian Elliott is a senior partner in our New Jersey office and co-leads our pricing practice across all sectors. Brandon Heriford is a partner in our Atlanta office, and...

Chris Nassetta has served as President and CEO of Hilton since 2007, leading the organization through some extraordinary challenges. Chris’s focus on a sustainable growth model and a brand-led, network-driven strategy has enabled Hilton to cultivate 25 brands and serve more than 250 million travelers annually. In today’s episode, Chris discusses this journey with Eric Kutcher, our North America Chair and Senior Partner, and shares what he’s learned about leadership along the way. Looking ahead, he explains why AI is the greatest gift for Hilton to deliver what customers want, whenever and wherever they want it.

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What do winning teams in elite sports teach us about driving transformation in business? This week, Kevin Carmody, a senior partner and global coleader of our CFO and finance excellence practice, speaks with former McKinsey partner Jason Wright, who helped lead a transformation as-president of the Washington Commanders (and is also a former NFL running back), and is now Managing Partner & Head of Investments at Ariel Project Level, a private equity fund focused on investing in women's sports.

Jason shares how clear, measurable goals and micro-markers can accelerate culture change; why some symbolic moves matter as much...

Nick Jeffery, President and CEO of Frontier Communications since 2021, has over three decades of strategic and operational leadership in the U.S. and global telecommunications industry. As a seasoned transformation leader, he has guided Frontier from bankruptcy to a successful turnaround in under five years and is now steering the company toward a multi-billion-dollar deal with Verizon. In this episode, Nick joins our North America Chair and senior partner Eric Kutcher to discuss the opportunity he saw in the struggling company, and the bold culture change - grounded in simplicity and a clarity of purpose - that has rallied...

In this episode of Inside the Strategy Room, we discuss how the board’s relationship with management is evolving in an era of heightened uncertainty and rapid change. We are joined by board directors Susan Chapman-Hughes and Lan Kang, as well as McKinsey’s Board Services leader Frithjof Lund, and explore how boards are shifting from episodic oversight to continuous engagement, leveraging more frequent dialogue with management teams, investing in trust and culture, and rethinking structure and composition to add strategic value.

Susan Chapman‑Hughes is a seasoned board director and former C-Suite executive with deep experience in dig...

To successfully execute a strategy, organizations must make deliberate choices about their operating model. In this episode, Julie Goran and Dickie Steele, both partners based in New York, discuss the key elements that comprise an operating model and how leaders can design and implement one that drives performance. They explore the significance of moving beyond traditional structures to more emergent models, and share insights from their research on the trends that are shaping the future of organizational design. Drawing on their experience working with clients, they also provide practical guidance on how to navigate the challenges of redesigning an...

After several years of slowed activity, mergers and acquisitions picked up in the first half of 2025, as disciplined dealmakers reentered the market despite continued uncertainty. In this episode, three McKinsey M&A experts share their recent analysis of global dealmaking, explore the continued outperformance of programmatic acquirers, and weigh in on what the rest of the year’s transactions might look like once the data are finalized.

Jake Henry is a senior partner in our Chicago office and the global co-leader of our M&A Practice. He serves clients on M&A strategy, integration, separations, due diligence, an...