Leaders worldwide are moving fast to deploy AI at scale. But scaling AI means more data centers—and data centers consume vast quantities of energy. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey’s Jesse Noffsinger and Pankaj Sachdeva speak with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about what needs to happen to build new, bigger data centers quickly, as well as to sate their growing hunger for power. Articles mentioned: A generational shift: The future of foreign aid Risk rebalancing: Five...
Jun 05, 2025•13 min
M&A activity is down, as is private equity investment, and companies are facing a range of new geopolitical tensions. Still, there is a path to growth through M&A for those companies that maintain an active acquisition strategy, understand their capabilities, and avoid certain assets, says McKinsey Senior Partner Jake Henry . On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , he and McKinsey Senior Partner Mieke Van Oostende join McKinsey Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro to discuss findings from...
May 22, 2025•21 min
People are asked to update the operating systems on their phones all the time. What if leaders applied that same kind of polishing and bug fixing to themselves? McKinsey research shows that executives who periodically review and revise their priorities, roles, time, and energy tend to be more productive, work more consciously, and drive change more effectively. In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , Senior Partner Arne Gast joins McKinsey Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro to discuss how leade...
May 08, 2025•19 min
Quantum computing has long been technology’s white whale. But in recent months, new developments suggest practical applications for this elusive technology could finally be within reach. “Quantum has been five to ten years away from fruition for many, many decades,” says McKinsey Partner Michael Bogobowicz. “Now it feels three to five years away .” In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , Bogobowicz joins McKinsey Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to discuss ...
Apr 24, 2025•24 min
One thing is clear for the fashion industry in 2025. Due to climate change, global trade uncertainties, and consumers focused on value, growth is expected to be slow. However, despite the negative environment, McKinsey Senior Partner, Gemma D’Auria says there are opportunities to mine. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , she speaks with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about our latest state of fashion research and how brands can navigate the challenges. Theme music is compose...
Apr 11, 2025•28 min
Career advancement is tough for everyone—but for women, it can feel particularly elusive. There’s a reason for that, according to the new book The Broken Run g : for every 100 men promoted early in their careers, only 81 women experience that same opportunity. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , the book’s authors, McKinsey Senior Partners Kweilin Ellingrud , Lareina Yee , and María del Mar Martínez , join McKinsey Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to ...
Mar 27, 2025•27 min
Gen AI is evolving fast —but employee adoption is slow for most companies. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , we feature an episode of our technology podcast, At the Edge . Tech visionaries Navin Chaddha, managing partner at Mayfield Fund; Kiran Prasad, McKinsey senior adviser and CEO and cofounder of Big Basin Labs; and Naba Banerjee, McKinsey senior adviser and former director of trust and operations at Airbnb, join guest host and McKinsey Senior Partner Brian Gr...
Mar 13, 2025•24 min
Companies are getting practical about how to create value from gen AI – while 5G, satellites, and innovations in phone design also take center stage. This is a special, bonus episode of The McKinsey Podcast . McKinsey Partner Ferry Grijpink joined McKinsey Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro to share some immediate takeaways from the annual Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinse...
Mar 05, 2025•8 min
Banking has had a couple of very good years—the best, in fact, since the global financial crisis of 2007–09. Yet to some, the industry’s outlook seems less buoyant than recent profitability might suggest. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey Senior Partners Klaus Dallerup and Pradip Patiath speak with McKinsey Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about McKinsey’s latest global banking annual review , breaking down the sources of skepticism, th...
Feb 28, 2025•26 min
CEOs are confronting double the number of critical issues today compared with ten years ago. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey Senior Partners Daniel Pacthod and Kurt Strovink , along with McKinsey Senior Advisor Wyman Howard, join McKinsey Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro to discuss the characteristics today’s business leaders need to handle greater and more frequent waves of disruption and how organizations can create the infrastructure and conditions to build team-orie...
Feb 14, 2025•26 min
The World Economic Forum was buzzing as leaders confront a world in flux. In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey senior partners Daniel Pacthod , Rodney Zemmel , and Tracy Francis talk with McKinsey global editorial director, Lucia Rahilly, about what happened in Davos last week (originally recorded for our webinar series, McKinsey Live). Key themes on the mountaintop were: AI transformation , resilience and geopolitics , EU competitiveness , the energy t...
Jan 29, 2025•21 min
Yes, the changing geopolitical reality presents new risks—but like all disruptions, it may also create new opportunities. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , Cindy Levy and Shubham Singhal , global coleaders of McKinsey’s geopolitics work , speak with global editorial director Lucia Rahilly about how leaders can orient themselves within this evolving geopolitical landscape and, in particular, begin to move beyond mitigating risk to finding and mobilizing on new opportuniti...
Jan 16, 2025•19 min
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 s...
Dec 19, 2024•15 min
“ 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 ...
Dec 12, 2024•19 min
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 ...
Nov 21, 2024•27 min
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. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information
Nov 14, 2024•3 min
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. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information...
Nov 08, 2024•26 min
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 di...
Oct 24, 2024•22 min
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 ...
Oct 10, 2024•24 min
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...
Sep 26, 2024•34 min
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 t...
Sep 12, 2024•18 min
I nnovation 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 Epstei...
Sep 05, 2024•24 min
Bogged down, bothered, beleaguered: Many middle managers have it bad—and they can also have a bad rap. In Power to the Middle: Why Managers Hold the Keys to the Future of Work (Harvard Business Review Press, July 2023), McKinsey talent experts Bryan Hancock and Emily Field sought to correct that misperception, clarifying the vital role the best middle managers play in competitive outperformance. In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , originally aired on McKinsey Talks Talent , the authors rev...
Aug 22, 2024•25 min
While AI continues to influence the way we work in exciting new ways, it is crucial for organizations to apply guardrails to keep it safe. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey senior partners Alexander Sukharevsky and Lareina Yee dig into McKinsey’s latest report , with editorial director Roberta Fusaro. In our second segment, how do you muster the courage to speak up at work? Senior partner Sherina Ebrahim has two tips. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information...
Aug 08, 2024•26 min
Consumers say they want experiences over goods. As always, they are looking to get the most value for their dollar. Even when it comes to sustainably produced products and services, the price must be right. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey senior partner Sajal Kohli speaks with editorial director Roberta Fusaro and outlines recent research on today’s consumer : who they are, what they’re buying, and where they purchase - plus the influence of the East. In our second segment, fr...
Jul 25, 2024•34 min
Gen AI has rightly seized leaders’ attention. But is it also eclipsing lower-profile digital imperatives? On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey senior partners Rodney Zemmel and Kate Smaje, with global editorial director Lucia Rahilly, talk about ideas leaders risk overlooking with gen AI in the spotlight , and how to ensure your digital initiatives—including gen AI—work in tandem to drive meaningful value. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information...
Jul 12, 2024•28 min
Labor productivity over the past 25 years has been a success story for some, a tale of stagnation for others. Investments and digital transformation can boost productivity for all economies. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey senior partners Chris Bradley and Olivia White join editorial director Roberta Fusaro to discuss how best to measure productivity, what’s behind curbed productivity numbers, and what can be done to ramp up productivity rates again. In our second segment, McK...
Jun 27, 2024•28 min
McKinsey spoke with more than 5,000 travelers across geographies and generations as part of a recently published survey t hat reveals clear differences in behaviors, motivations, and expectations among a diverse set of tourists. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey’s Margaux Constantin and Jasperina de Vries speak with editorial director Roberta Fusaro about data that can help travel and tourism companies tailor their offerings and realize more bookings, higher satisfaction, and, ul...
Jun 13, 2024•31 min
The universe isn’t the only thing expanding. Governments have invested in space technology for decades, and now business is accelerating its growth. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey senior partner Ryan Brukardt speaks with global editorial director Lucia Rahilly about the global space economy, where innovation in space-based technology is generating a range of public- and private-sector opportunities that could reach $1.8 trillion by 2035 [1] —as well as the imperative to shape...
May 30, 2024•28 min
Pass the probiotics and the clinically effective products over the “clean and natural” ones: McKinsey’s latest research on the future of wellness provides a snapshot of how consumers worldwide, across all geographies and generations, are approaching their health and wellness and the types of interventions they are prioritizing. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey partner Anna Pione joins editorial director Roberta Fusaro, to discuss what’s trending, why, and where innovation is ne...
May 16, 2024•26 min
