The McKinsey Podcast, our new flagship podcast series, takes you inside our global firm, and features conversations with experts on issues that matter most in business and management. McKinsey & Company is a management-consulting firm that helps businesses, governments, and not-for-profit organizations realize their most important goals. Topics covered in this series include strategy, technology, leadership, marketing, operations, organization, and the role of business in society.
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Tariff tumult. Shifting geopolitical alliances. AI acceleration. Structural shifts are reshaping global trade. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey Senior Partner Shubham Singhal and McKinsey Partner Jeongmin Seong speak with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about how to adapt to the current phase of global trade reconfiguration—from where to manufacture to supply chain decisions—and how best to invest. In the second half of this episode, McKinsey Senior Partner Kate Smaje j...
McKinsey’s latest research on global banking demonstrates that artificial intelligence isn’t just another efficiency play for financial institutions; it represents a fundamental shift in how these companies manage costs, attract and retain customers, and stay ahead of the competition. In this episode, Ido Segev , McKinsey senior partner and Roberta Fusaro, editorial director talk about the speed with which AI is advancing, what’s holding banks back from scaling it, and the potential advantages f...
For more than a century, medicine has largely followed a one-size-fits-all model—but that paradigm is beginning to break. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, joins Eric Kutcher, McKinsey’s North America chair, to explore how mRNA technology is transforming healthcare. From the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines to new approaches to rare genetic diseases and individualized cancer treatments, Bancel explains how treating biology as information could resha...
A historic wave of ownership transitions is set to reshape the backbone of the US economy. The fate of jobs, local spending, and wealth creation all hinge on whether enough qualified—and diverse—buyers can step in to continue to pave the way for small business ownership. In this episode, Shelley Stewart III, McKinsey senior partner and Roberta Fusaro, editorial director, talk about the scale and stakes of the "Great Ownership transfer". After, Ken Yearwood, McKinsey partner, joins to talk about ...
As generative and agentic AI reshape how work gets done, the real divide isn’t who has the best ideas—it’s who can turn them into real results at speed and scale. In this webinar, McKinsey Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly speaks with Senior Partners Kate Smaje and Robert Levin about the updated Rewired playbook—and why winning with AI now depends less on ambition and more on building the organizational capabilities to deliver. The McKinsey Podcast is cohosted by Lucia Rahilly and Roberta ...
Most leaders herald the promise of AI, but many employees see it as a looming threat—a modern echo of Annie Oakley’s classic lines: “Anything you can do, I can do better. I can do anything better than you.” What does it take, then, to lead constructive partnerships between humans and AI agents at work? In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey Senior Partner Alexis Krivkovich and McKinsey Global Institute Partner Anu Madgavkar speak with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about new...
People often expect their leaders to have all the answers; David Novak built his career by challenging that assumption. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , the former CEO and cofounder of Yum! Brands and current chair of Versant speaks with Eric Kutcher , McKinsey’s chair of North America, about the experiences that shaped his leadership—from engaging with front-line franchisees to managing a very public product flop—and how other leaders can learn from them. Theme music composed, performe...
Foreign direct investment (FDI) used to sit in the background—important, but distant from day-to-day strategy. That’s no longer true. Today, massive capital commitments into areas like AI, semiconductors, and clean energy are signaling which industries will scale, where supply chains will land, and which regions will dominate. In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey Senior Partners Nick Leung and Olivia White explain to Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro why FDI has become a critical e...
The US has had a phenomenal run of success: at 250 years old, it’s home to the world’s most competitive economy, accounting for more than a quarter of global GDP and more than half of the world’s top 100 companies. But America also confronts a raft of new challenges—mounting national debt, eroding infrastructure, slipping test scores, persistent income disparity, and more—that could threaten its historical momentum. “I don’t bet against the US,” says McKinsey’s North America Chair Eric Kutcher ....
This episode discusses the current paradox of significant AI investment without corresponding bottom-line returns, emphasizing the need for organizations to become "agentic." It delves into how agentic AI will transform business models, reshape job descriptions, and require new leadership skills and organizational structures. The conversation also highlights the shift to "humans above the loop" and the importance of fostering a culture of continuous learning and reimagining end-to-end workflows to unlock scalable value.
Companies backed by private equity (PE) tend to transform faster and more often than public or family-owned firms do, leading to consistently outperforming their peers. Marla Capozzi and Sacha Ghai , McKinsey leaders, researched nearly 300 CEOs across PE and private-capital companies to define their tactics and share their best practices with others. They and their coauthors published the findings in a recent Harvard Business Review article , and in this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , they sp...
Many leaders can get agentic pilots rolling—but realizing ROI can mean activating thousands of AI agents enterprise-wide. Is your organization ready? “Agency isn’t a feature—it’s a transfer of decision rights,” says McKinsey Partner Rich Isenberg . “The question shifts from ‘Is the model accurate?’ to ‘Who’s accountable when the system acts?’” On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , Isenberg joins Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to explore how leaders can scale AI safely, mitigate risk...
McKinsey research has found that while many leaders believe they’ve adopted and implemented productive mindsets for growth, those attitudes and ambitions don’t always translate into the behaviors and actions necessary to achieve their growth objectives. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro speaks with McKinsey Senior Partners Greg Kelly and Jill Zucker about how leading organizations translate growth intent into sustained performance . In part, it involves ...
On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , Lars Hartenstein , senior fellow at the McKinsey Health Institute, and Roberta Fusaro, an editorial director at McKinsey, discuss the findings from McKinsey’s recent research on obesity and metabolic health —specifically, the potential interventions for sparking a metabolic health revolution, the economic impact of improving outcomes, and the technologies that are emerging as the connective tissue between prevention and treatment. Theme music composed, p...
This is a special episode of The McKinsey Podcast covering last week’s meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. McKinsey Senior Partners Becca Coggins and Shelley Stewart III speak with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about what was top of mind for CEOs—from geopolitics to leading through the AI moment to the faster-than-expected arrival of humanoid robots at scale. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy informatio...
This episode explores how CEOs can leverage AI's potential, highlighting that the challenge is 80% business transformation and 20% technology. Eric Kutcher advises leaders to establish a clear vision, cultivate AI fluency across their organizations, and embrace flatter, human-agent hybrid structures. He also delves into responsible AI governance, geopolitical tech dynamics, and the critical leadership mindsets needed for this rapidly evolving, optimistic decade.
McKinsey’s Bill Wiseman , Bob Sternfels , Martin Kellner , and Steffen Fuchs were on the ground at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. In this special episode of The McKinsey Podcast , they tell us about the tools and themes that most resonated with them—breakthrough AI applications, advances in mobility, and more. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information...
Think about your org chart. Now imagine it features both your current colleagues—humans, if you’re like most of us—and AI agents. That’s not science fiction; it’s happening. And it’s happening relatively quickly, according to McKinsey Senior Partner Jorge Amar . In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , originally broadcast on McKinsey Talks Talent , Jorge joins McKinsey talent leaders Brooke Weddle and Bryan Hancock and Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to talk about what these AI agents ...
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...
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, the risks and opportunities of a chang...
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 how quantum differs from conve...
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 composed, per...
“ 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 global economy and changing th...
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...
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 Gregg . They unpack the te...
Global competition has intensified, and the demand for energy and computing power is growing exponentially as companies embed AI, robotics, and other technologies into their everyday business processes. McKinsey’s annual outlook on technology trends points to 13 “frontier” trends that can help companies get a handle on these and other challenges. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast McKinsey Senior Partners Lareina Yee , Roger Roberts , and Sven Smit share the latest data and their insights o...
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-oriented l...
This year on The McKinsey Podcast , we’ve dived into an array of topics on leadership, organizational change, and technological innovation, talking to McKinsey’s most seasoned experts about how to lead during times of geopolitical upheaval and economic uncertainty, as well as how to harness and then radiate the advances made possible by AI. We didn’t just go for the broad strokes. We heard from McKinsey partners about the questions they’re getting every day from their clients across industries. ...
Yes, dreaming up your next getaway can be exhilarating. But booking it? Often less so. For many customers, the thrill of travel risks getting lost in logistics, says McKinsey Senior Partner Jules Seeley . On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , he joins Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to discuss new research on the rise of AI in the travel industry, including the advent of AI agents that could design end-to-end itineraries, rebook disrupted flights, and tailor recommendations to each t...
From gen AI pilots to automated supply chains, technology is reshaping how operations leaders create efficiencies, build resilience, and encourage teamwork. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey Senior Partner Daniel Swan speaks with Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro about how COOs can embed technology , particularly AI, into their company’s culture. It requires balancing the urgency of today with the transformation of tomorrow. Articles/pieces mentioned: The hard stuff 2025: Taking...
