Inside the Strategy Room

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163. The strategy leader's evolving mandate Jun 23, 2023

Show notes

The chief strategy officer’s role has expanded significantly over the past decade. We look at what it takes to be a successful strategist today.

In this episode we discuss the ways in which strategy leaders’ responsibilities have expanded significantly over the past decade, with many adding other functions to their roles. Sean is joined by Emma Gibbs, a partner in our London office who leads our Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice in the U.K., Ireland, and Israel. Emma serves institutions in highly regulated industries, helping develop strategies at the interface of the public and private sectors. Na'ama Alpert, a consultant in our Southern California office whose client experience spans private equity, technology, and electric vehicles. And Whitney Zimmerman, an associate partner in our London office. Whitney leads our research on the role of the chief strategy officer and strategy organizations. He helps client CSOs define their role and mandate.

Related insights:

Creating more value with corporate strategy

Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick
What Makes a Great Chief Strategy Officer

Rethinking the role of the strategist

Have you tested your strategy lately?

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162. Why today’s CFOs require ambidexterity Jun 16, 2023

Show notes

In today's episode, Teradata’s chief financial officer, Claire Bramley,
discusses the evolving role of finance leaders with McKinsey CFO, Eric Kutcher.

Today, being a CFO requires harnessing the power of the “and” across many mandates: Playing offense and defense, leading the finance function, partnering with the broader C-suite, navigating short-term budget reallocation, and investing in strategic bets for the future, like investments in sustainability.
Claire Bramley, CFO of Teradata, discusses what it takes to navigate the macro and micro forces driving today’s unpredictable environment with McKinsey’s CFO Eric Kutcher.

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161. How programmatic M&A leads to long-term resilience Jun 09, 2023

Show notes

New research shows that programmatic M&A helps companies outperform peers more than ever, creating value and resilience, even during a pandemic.

In this episode the authors of our recent research on M&A discuss their latest findings that programmatic M&A—doing many small and midsize deals—helps build resilience in addition to outperformance over peers. Jeff Rudnicki and Tobias Lundberg lead our M&A strategy work globally, and Patrick McCurdy is global co-lead of our M&A capability building work. They were joined by Joanna Stone Herman, a partner at the M&A advisory firm Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips.

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160. Voices of CEO Excellence: Merck's Ken Frazier. Episode 2. Jun 02, 2023

Show notes

In this second episode of our Voices of CEO Excellence interview with Ken Frazier, the former executive chairman and CEO of Merck candidly reflects on how he managed past crises.

Frazier discusses his decision-making process around the litigation trial concerning Merck’s pain-relief drug Vioxx, and how his employees ensured that a potentially crippling cyber attack did not stop production of critical medicines. He also speaks about how his most important advisor, his wife Andrea, has kept him grounded.

Frazier spoke with Vik Malhotra, former chairman of McKinsey’s Americas region and co-author of last year’s New York Times bestseller, CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest and Steve Van Kuiken, a former leader in our Life Sciences Practice and global leader of McKinsey Technology.

Listen to other episodes in our Voices of CEO Excellence series:

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159. Voices of CEO Excellence: Merck’s Ken Frazier. Episode 1 May 23, 2023

Show notes

As CEO of Merck, Ken Frazier gained the respect of his employees, shareholders, and the broader community - both through the company’s performance during his 11-year tenure and also through his handling of several tests of his leadership.
Now Merck’s former executive chairman, he recently shared how his experience growing up during the Civil Rights Movement shaped his career, how he ensured that science stayed at the core of Merck’s mission, and how he sees business’s role in society.

In this, the first of two new episodes Frazier recorded for our Voices of CEO Excellence series, he spoke with Vik Malhotra, former chairman of our Americas region and co-author of last year’s New York Times bestseller, CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest and Steve Van Kuiken, a former leader in our Life Sciences Practice and global leader of McKinsey Technology.

Listen to other episodes in our Voices of CEO Excellence series:

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Take a masterclass with 67 of the world’s highest-performing CEOs and order your copy of the New York Times bestseller, CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest.

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158. Seven mindsets and practices for new CFOs May 12, 2023

Show notes

Congratulations, you’re a new CFO—now hit the ground running with these seven key mindsets and practices that effective CFOs adopt from day one.
Joining Sean for this episode is Andy West, the global co-leader of McKinsey's Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice, Ankur Agrawal, a partner based in our New York office who leads our CFO and Capital Markets Practice in the Americas, Christian Grube, a partner in our Munich office, and he leads our CFO and Capital Markets practice across Europe, and Lauren Cooks Levitan, the CFO of Faire, a global wholesale e-commerce marketplace.

Articles mentioned in this episode:

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157. Two former Nike senior executives discuss retail growth strategies May 05, 2023

Show notes

What does purposeful growth look like in the retail sector? In this episode, McKinsey’s Brian Gregg speaks with two former senior executives at Nike, Christiana Shi and Stuart Hogue, about the strategies that enabled them to lead productive teams in the retail sector. The conversation touches on the importance of nurturing talent, building diverse teams, and identifying opportunities for individual and organizational growth.

We are sharing today’s episode as part of an ongoing collaboration with our Growth, Marketing, and Sales Practice on the topic of growth strategy. It is also the second episode of the Practice's new podcast called C-Suite Growth Talks, which will feature conversations with leading executives about how they are successfully choosing growth, by aligning around a shared mindset, strategy, and capabilities.

Links:

Episode transcript
C-Suite Growth Talks podcast
Mckinsey.com article: 'Choosing to grow: The leader’s blueprint'
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156. M&A insights and outlook for 2023 Apr 23, 2023

Show notes

Today's episode comes directly from our recent European M&A Conference in London, which we co-hosted with Goldman Sachs. Sean spoke with the global leaders of our M&A practice after the conference to get their read on the climate for mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures. Mieke Van Oostende is a senior partner based in Brussels whose client work is focused on financial institutions, and Jake Henry is a senior partner in Chicago who previously co-led our work in life sciences.

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155. Deciphering the economy’s mixed signals Apr 18, 2023

Show notes

As volatility persists, companies need to be ready for a range of macroeconomic scenarios.
Three authors of a recent article on the economic outlook for 2023 and beyond discuss how businesses can prepare for what may be a challenging couple of years. Michael Birshan is the global co-leader of McKinsey’s Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice and serves on the McKinsey Global Institute Council. Ezra Greenberg leads our work on macroeconomic scenarios and trends globally and is co-leader of strategic transformation services in North America. Ida Kristensen is global co-leader of the Risk and Resilience Practice.

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154. The Committed Innovator: Working with start-ups Apr 06, 2023

Show notes

Corporate innovators often turn to Israel and its vibrant start-up ecosystem to meet their goals. In this episode, we continue our Committed Innovator series on Israel, talking with innovators from three large organizations about how they approach their relations with start-ups. Roi Bar-Kat is head of Intel Capital in Israel, Neta-Li Meiri is chief of global tech innovation for the Israeli food company Strauss Group, and David Schwartz is vice president of tech innovation for PepsiCo Labs. They spoke with innovation leader and McKinsey senior partner Erik Roth about the intersection of corporate innovation and start-up lead innovation, and how the two functions can support each other.

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