195. Why strategists should embrace imperfection

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 2024Discover our latest insights and join more than 90,000 influential professionals who are part of our LinkedIn community.: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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.   Discover our latest insights and join more than 90,000 influential professionals who are part of our LinkedIn community.: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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.Discover our latest insights and join more than 90,000 influential professionals who are part of our LinkedIn community.: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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  Discover our latest insights and join more than 90,000 influential professionals who are part of our LinkedIn community.: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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 Join our Strategy and Corporate Finance  LinkedIn community   Discover our latest insights and join more than 90,000 influential professionals who are part of our LinkedIn community.: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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 Join our Strategy and Corporate Finance  LinkedIn community and follow us on X at @McKStrategy. Discover our latest insights and join more than 90,000 influential professionals who are part of our LinkedIn community.: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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 Join our Strategy and Corporate Finance  LinkedIn community and follow us on X at @McKStrategy. 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 Discover our latest insights and join more than 90,000 influential professionals who are part of our LinkedIn community.: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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 Join our Strategy and Corporate Finance  LinkedIn community of over 90,000 members and follow us on X at @McKStrategy.   Discover our latest insights and join more than 90,000 influential professionals who are part of our LinkedIn community.: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

We're joined by Charles Conn and Rob McLean, AM, the co-authors of The Imperfectionists: Strategic Mindsets for Uncertain Times. Charles is an investor, environmentalist, and entrepreneur. He co-founded Monograph, a venture firm, and was previously CEO of the Rhodes Trust in Oxford. He is the Board Chair of Patagonia and sits on The Nature Conservancy European Council. He was the founding CEO of Ticketmaster-Citysearch and a partner at McKinsey & Company. Rob is a Director Emeritus of McKinsey & Company, a Trustee of The Nature Conservancy in Australia and Asia, and a Director of the Paul Ramsay Foundation, Australia’s largest philanthropic foundation. He is the former Dean of the Australian Graduate School of Management. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Rob and Charles' books can be found here: https://bulletproofproblemsolving.com/ You can also listen to their previous interview on Inside the Strategy Room or read the edited transcript on McKinsey.com.  Join our Strategy and Corporate Finance  LinkedIn community of over 90,000 members and follow us on X at @McKStrategy. Discover our latest insights and join more than 90,000 influential professionals who are part of our LinkedIn community.: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Many companies turn to transformation because their leaders seek to capture untapped potential or realize growth or efficiency gains. Yet transformations take work to get right. Our research shows less than a third of transformations reach their goals to improve organizational performance and sustain these improvements over time. To discuss how to beat those odds and sustain a holistic business transformation over the long term, we are joined by Roman Regelman and Kevin Carmody.   Roman is Senior Executive Vice President and Global Head of Securities Services and Digital at US-based financial company BNY Mellon. Kevin is a senior partner in our Transformation Practice with over twenty years of experience serving clients across Europe and North and South America.   Follow our Transformation Practice on LinkedIn Visit our Transformation Practice on McKinsey.com  Join our Strategy and Corporate Finance  LinkedIn community of more than 90,000 members and follow us on X at @McKStrategy.   Discover our latest insights and join more than 90,000 influential professionals who are part of our LinkedIn community.: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information