The McKinsey Podcast

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, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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 early indicator of competitive advantage—and what leaders should be watching now. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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. “If you believe in entrepreneurial spirit as core to who we are, then you have to believe this success will continue. But it’s not a foregone conclusion. There’s a lot that must happen to enable it.” In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Kutcher and Senior Partner Olivia White speak with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about new McKinsey Global Institute research on what drives the US’s competitive edge—and what leaders need to do to maintain that edge in the AI era. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Yes, AI is astonishing: fast, powerful, and learning every day. But even as leaders strike up new pilots across their organizations, most still struggle to translate experimentation into enterprise value—and now, agentic AI is raising the stakes. In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey Senior Partner Alexis Krivkovich speaks with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about what it will take to build an “agentic organization”—from reimagining workflows to reshaping leadership roles, skills, and culture for a future where humans increasingly operate above the loop. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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 speak with Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro about lessons from PE that any company can implement. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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 for autonomous systems, and build the trust required to make innovation stick. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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 making clear bets, allocating resources deliberately, and staying committed through uncertainty. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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 information

AI has yet to deliver the ROI many leaders expected. What are they getting wrong? “This is probably the biggest, most complex transformation we’ve seen—but it’s 80 percent business transformation and 20 percent tech,” according to McKinsey’s North America Chair Eric Kutcher. “That’s different from how most people have thought about it.” On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Eric speaks with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly about how CEOs can deliver on AI’s revolutionary potential—and meet this “legacy moment” successfully. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas offers a showcase for breakthrough AI applications, humanoid robots, advances in mobility, and more. In this special episode of The McKinsey Podcast, we hear from McKinsey leaders on the ground at CES about what they saw and the tools and themes that most resonated with them. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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. How can leaders move forward competitively in a business climate so full of flux and opportunity? Our guests this year had plenty of ideas. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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 traveler’s tastes—changing the calculus for customers and travel employees alike. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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 stock of progress on the physical challenges of the energy transition The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Not all consumer attention is created equal—that’s a critical lesson from McKinsey’s recent report on content creation and monetization. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, McKinsey Senior Partner Kabir Ahuja speaks with Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro about something called the “attention equation” and how media players can use it to get a better return on their investments. It’s about quality of focus, Ahuja reminds us, not just quantity of eyeballs. Articles Mentioned: The FDI shake-up: How foreign direct investment today may shape industry and trade tomorrow How Strategy Champions win Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

What if a product’s journey didn’t end after its first use? Remanufacturing—restoring preowned parts to perform like new—is transforming automotives, electronics, and other industries. In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Senior Partner Inga Maurer and Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro explore how this practice reduces waste while creating more value for companies. Articles Mentioned: One year of agentic AI: Six lessons from the people doing the work The infrastructure moment Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Most leaders set out to be the best—but few make that Mount Everest–like ascent successfully. What do the world’s most iconic CEOs do differently? McKinsey Senior Partners Carolyn Dewar, Kurt Strovink, Scott Keller, and Vik Malhotra break it down in their new book A CEO for All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership (Scribner/Simon & Schuster, October 2025), based on research and interviews with executives ranking among the top 200 CEOs across the globe. On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, the four coauthors join Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to discuss some of the more surprising lessons they learned—and what they’ve changed about their own leadership as a result. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

There is no single definition of “rural America.” It comprises agricultural hubs, manufacturing centers, and fast-growing regions—each a regional archetypes with its own distinct challenges and opportunities. In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Senior Partner Nora Gardner joins Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to discuss these archetypes and new research that can help leaders better understand rural communities. In our second segment, McKinsey Partner Sarah Tucker-Ray speaks with Editorial Director Roberta Fusaro about how rural K–12 education can equip students with the skills needed for advanced manufacturing—and why partnerships with industry matter for the future of rural America. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

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 on digital innovation, implementation, infrastructure, and trust with Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly. Articles Mentioned: How CEOs are responding to geopolitical uncertainty A CEO for All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Chief marketing officers are vital to strategic decision-making, but increasingly, they’re being left out of the discussions that matter most—to the detriment of both customers and growth. “Kelsey and I are on a singular mission to bring CMOs back,” McKinsey Senior Partner Shelley Stewart III said recently, referring to Senior Partner Kelsey Robinson. In this episode of The McKinsey Podcast, Shelley and Kelsey join Global Editorial Director Lucia Rahilly to discuss new research on worsening disconnects in the C-suite, as well as how strengthening alignment between CMOs, CEOs, and CFOs can make a meaningful and sustainable difference in organizational performance. This conversation originally aired as a McKinsey Live webinar following the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Theme music composed, performed, and produced by Joy Ngiaw See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information