Inside the Strategy Room

CEO
Inside the Strategy Room goes beyond surface-level discussions.

Basic Member

Latest Episodes

274. How Nestlé’s CFO sharpens focus across a global portfolio

274. How Nestlé’s CFO sharpens focus across a global portfolio

The CFO’s challenge has long been one of translating data into a story that the CEO and their management team can use to set strategy and make other decisions. As generative AI advances, the way that CFOs fulfil this role is changing, as guest and Nestlé CFO Anna Manz describes in this episode. Michael Birshan, a senior partner who leads our firm in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Israel, and host Sean Brown, speak with Manz about how she uses AI now and plans to in the future, the impact of geopolitics on Nestlé's operations, and the CFO’s role in integrating the executive team in strategic decision-making and resource allocation. 

Related insights

Toward the long term: CFO perspectives on the future of finance

Connecting strategy, finance, and personal development: A conversation with Marjorie Lao

What an AI-powered finance function of the future looks like

Generative AI in finance: Finding the way to faster, deeper insights

How finance skills are evolving in the era of artificial intelligence

McKinsey Insights on the CFO role

McKinsey Insights on Strategy & Corporate Finance

McKinsey Strategy & Corporate Finance on LinkedIn

Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/

See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

273. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian: Lessons from the captain’s seat

273. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian: Lessons from the captain’s seat

Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines since 2016, speaks with our North America Chair and senior partner Eric Kutcher. After 25 years at Delta, including nearly a decade as CEO, Ed reflects on his journey leading the world’s largest airline by revenue—and America’s most recognized carrier, with more than 100,000 employees. The industry was hit hard by the pandemic, and he shares insights on what it takes to get through turbulent times, and keeping his people happy and invested in the company’s success. Ed also talks about leading with the vulnerability to say, “I don’t know,” and the confidence to say, “We’re going to figure it out”.

We recorded their conversation before a live client audience at our Global Strategy Summit in September 2025


Related Insights 

A CEO For All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership

The Josh Harris playbook: building cultures of excellence in business and sports 

CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest
The Strategic CEO newsletter
Doug Parker, former chairman and CEO of American Airlines, shares leadership lessons
John Stankey talks about leaning into the long term at AT&T

Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/

See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

272. Clear signals in a world of noise: The strategic realities of a new era

272. Clear signals in a world of noise: The strategic realities of a new era

Uncertainty often dominates the headlines, but it is possible to cut through the static to find clear signals in the global trends and demographic shifts shaping the next era of global competition. In this episode, senior partners Chris Bradley and Andy West share their latest research into the strategic realities of a new era: the shift from a unipolar to a multipolar world, rapid technological advancements, demographic changes, the productivity imperative, and the role of energy in shaping the future. Together, these insights can guide business leaders as they design and mobilize today’s strategic moves to thrive in the future. 

Andy West is the global coleader of our Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice and a senior partner based in our Boston office. Chris Bradley serves as a director of the McKinsey Global Institute and is a senior partner based in our Sydney Office. 

Related insights

How Strategy Champions Win

The great trade rearrangement

The power of one: How standout firms grow national productivity

The next big arenas of competition

Dependency and depopulation? Confronting the consequences of a new demographic reality

McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2025


Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/

See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

271. Mastering the cycles of CEO leadership: Starting strong, and staying ahead

271. Mastering the cycles of CEO leadership: Starting strong, and staying ahead

In this second episode of our two-part series on navigating the four seasons of successful CEO leadership, Carolyn Dewar and Kurt Strovink, two of the authors of the upcoming book A CEO For All Seasons, share insights drawn from top-performing CEOs on how to navigate the middle two stages of CEO leadership—starting strong as a new CEO and staying ahead—to maintain long-term effectiveness while at the top.

Carolyn Dewar, a coauthor of the New York Times bestselling CEO Excellence, is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company and founded and co-leads the firm’s global CEO excellence client service line. She is a frequent keynote speaker on leadership and transformation.

Kurt Strovink, a coauthor of the national bestseller The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Lead from the Inside Out, is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company. Kurt leads the firm’s global CEO services practice and is also a member of McKinsey’s Board of Directors.

Related insights

A CEO for All Season: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership

Sending it forward: Successfully transitioning out of the CEO role

Staying ahead: How the best CEOs continually improve performance

Stepping up: Becoming a high-potential CEO candidate

Starting strong: Making your CEO transition a catalyst for renewal

The inner game of women CEOs

The CEO’s essential checklist: Questions every chief executive should be able to answer

Leadership lessons from the world’s best CEOs

Serving a greater purpose: CEO Excellence revisited

Building leaders from the ground up

The art of 21st-century leadership: From succession planning to building a leadership factory

CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets that Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest

McKinsey Insights on Strategy & Corporate Finance

McKinsey Strategy & Corporate Finance on LinkedIn

 

Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/

See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

270. Mastering the cycles of CEO leadership: Stepping up and sending it forward

270. Mastering the cycles of CEO leadership: Stepping up and sending it forward

In the high-stakes world of corporate leadership, becoming a Fortune 500 CEO is an Everest-like ascent, with only the savviest succeeding across every stage of the journey. Carolyn Dewar, Vik Malhotra, and Kurt Strovink, authors of the upcoming book A CEO For All Seasons, join Sean to share insights from top-performing CEOs on navigating the first and fourth stages of CEO leadership – preparing for the role and fortifying a legacy, in the first of two episodes based on the new book.

Carolyn Dewar, a coauthor of the New York Times bestselling CEO Excellence, is a senior partner at McKinsey and founded and co-leads the firm’s global CEO excellence client service line. She is a frequent keynote speaker on leadership and transformation.

Vikram (Vik) Malhotra, a coauthor of CEO Excellence, is a senior partner at McKinsey where he has worked since 1986. He has served on McKinsey’s Board of Directors and as McKinsey’s Managing Partner of the Americas.

Kurt Strovink is a senior partner at McKinsey and a member of the firm’s Board of Directors. He also leads McKinsey’s global CEO services practice and coauthored the national bestseller The Journey of Leadership: How CEOs Lead from the Inside Out.

Related insights

A CEO for All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership

Sending it forward: Successfully transitioning out of the CEO role

Staying ahead: How the best CEOs continually improve performance

Stepping up: Becoming a high-potential CEO candidate

Starting strong: Making your CEO transition a catalyst for renewal

The inner game of women CEOs

The CEO’s essential checklist: Questions every chief executive should be able to answer

Leadership lessons from the world’s best CEOs

Serving a greater purpose: CEO Excellence revisited

Building leaders from the ground up

The art of 21st-century leadership: From succession planning to building a leadership factory

CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets that Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest

McKinsey Insights on Strategy & Corporate Finance

McKinsey Strategy & Corporate Finance on LinkedIn

 

Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/

See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

269. Strategy under geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty

269. Strategy under geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty

The current climate of geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty can complicate the strategy process and can make the idea of waiting for calmer times look attractive. But as our guests today point out, waiting out the storm is not an option. Instead, organizations need to make bold strategic moves rooted in a thorough understanding of how they create value and the market conditions they face.

In this episode, Sean is joined by Matt Watters, who is a leader in our Geopolitics, Government, and Strategy and Corporate Finance Practices and a partner in our New Jersey office. Matt’s work focuses on growth and innovation in industries with evolving global dynamics, including defense, space, semiconductors, high tech, and cybersecurity. Ezra Greenberg also joins the podcast and is a partner in our Connecticut office, where he advises executives and investors across multiple sectors on how macro forces and global trends impact critical strategy and investment decisions under uncertainty.

Related insights 

In a moment of tariffs, can the world find balance and trust to thrive?

How American business can prosper in the new geopolitical era

Restricted: How export controls are reshaping markets

Tariffs on the move? A guide for CEOs for 2025 and beyond

A proactive approach to navigating geopolitics is essential to thrive

Strategy beyond the hockey stick: People, probabilities, and big moves beat the odds

Building geopolitical resilience: A conversation with Michèle Flournoy

Taking a proactive approach to geopolitics

 

McKinsey Insights on Strategy & Corporate Finance

McKinsey Strategy & Corporate Finance on LinkedIn

Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/

See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

268. Accounting for carbon: SAP’s Dominik Asam on the CFO’s role

268. Accounting for carbon: SAP’s Dominik Asam on the CFO’s role

Beyond reporting requirements and transparency imperatives, there’s a huge financial incentive to manage your company’s sustainability activities with data-driven business decision-making. To do so, efforts must be anchored in a data strategy that merges the financial and the ESG analysis. In this episode, Peter Spiller, a partner based in our Frankfurt office who co-leads our efforts in environmentally sustainable operations, speaks with Dominik Asam, Member of the Executive Board and CFO at enterprise planning software giant SAP. Dominik talks about his role in helping steer the company and their customers towards decarbonization, and how to balance the financial ledger with the sustainability ‘Green Ledger’ in a future-ready way that centers on driving real progress while protecting the bottom line.

Related insights
Managing carbon: A new role for the CFO

Toward the long term: CFO perspectives on the future of finance

Reaching net zero–what will it take?  

McKinsey Insights on Strategy & Corporate Finance

McKinsey Strategy & Corporate Finance on LinkedIn

Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/

See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

267. Cybersecurity for CFOs: Defending against an accelerating threat

267. Cybersecurity for CFOs: Defending against an accelerating threat

In today’s fast-evolving cybersecurity landscape, organizations face bigger and bolder threats that have wide-reaching implications − from financial and customer data breaches, to third-party infiltration and disruption far down the supply chain. Hacking has become an organized business, and AI and quantum technologies are as much a part of the threat as they are the solution.

Charlie Lewis leads our North American and European cyber practices and is a partner in our Connecticut office. He supports clients on strategic cyber transformations. In this episode, Charlie speaks with Sean Brown about the critical role of CFOs in their organization’s cyber operations, the core foundations of cybersecurity, and the importance of organizations collaborating on improving security in a world of crime that has no borders.

Related insights
Resilience Pulse Check: Harnessing Collaboration to Navigate a Volatile World
Repelling the cyberattackers (book excerpt)

McKinsey Insights on Strategy & Corporate Finance

McKinsey Strategy & Corporate Finance on LinkedIn

Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/

See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

266. Transforming procurement to transform your business

266. Transforming procurement to transform your business

Procurement can play a crucial role in driving a company's transformation, and leaders are now recognizing its potential to be a strategic enabler of change. In this episode of Inside the Strategy Room, we explore the key findings from our recent McKinsey.com article titled “Aim higher and move faster for successful procurement-led transformation”. Teresa George, a partner in our Chicago office, Raul Santos, a partner in our Madrid office, and Cole Wirpel, an associate partner in our Atlanta office, join Sean to share insights on how procurement can be a catalyst for company-wide transformation and the essential capabilities required to achieve this goal.

Related insights

Aim higher and move faster for successful procurement-led transformation

How procurement leaders can bring metals and mining up to speed

The digital spend control tower: Shift spending mindsets at scale

Defining your ‘true north’: A road map to successful transformation

McKinsey Insights on Transformation

McKinsey Transformation on LinkedIn

McKinsey Insights on Strategy & Corporate Finance

McKinsey Strategy & Corporate Finance on LinkedIn

Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/

See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Bio of Inside the Strategy Room

Inside the Strategy Room, is a captivating podcast presented by McKinsey Strategy & Corporate Finance. 
This thought-provoking series invites listeners to explore the challenges faced by corporate executives and McKinsey partners as they navigate the dynamic landscape of strategy creation in an ever-changing world.

Inside the Strategy Room goes beyond surface-level discussions, delving deep into the minds of these executives to uncover the innovative approaches they employ. Through insightful conversations, this podcast reveals the diverse strategies and visionary thinking that shape the future of organizations.

By examining real-world scenarios and engaging with top-level decision-makers, Inside the Strategy Room provides invaluable perspectives on how organizations adapt to change, seize opportunities, and develop long-lasting strategies for success.

Similar Podcasts

Deep into Sleep, hosted by Dr. Yishan Xu.

Financial Management (FM) magazine podcast, hosted by AICPA & CIMA.

Ventures podcast, hosted by Will Little.

Podcasts

United States

Breakthrough Success, hosted by business freelance writer Marc Guberti.

Podcasts

United States

The Misfit Entrepreneur_Breakthrough Entrepreneurship, hosted by Dave M. Lukas.

"The Copyblogger Podcast" is a weekly show hosted by Tim Stoddart and Ethan Brooks.

Podcasts

United States

"WorkLife with Adam Grant," a part of the TED Audio Collective podcast.

Podcasts

United Kingdom

Leadership 2050 podcast presented by Saïd Business School.

Podcasts

United States

Framework Leadership, hosted by Kent Ingle.

back-to-top