Avsnitt
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Buy-side carve-outs can create significant value for acquiring companies, but they can also present complex challenges. In this episode, we’re joined by Kameron Kordestani, Anna Mattson, and Rui Silva to discuss how leaders—particularly CFOs, integration managers, and CHROs—must balance financial structuring, operational planning, and people management to ensure a value-creating transition.
Related insights
How buyers can successfully navigate integrating a carve-out
The power of goodbye: How carve-outs can unleash value
Solving the carve-out conundrum
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Outperformance in private equity is no longer defined by leverage or multiple expansion; disciplined value creation will be the decisive factor in future investment success. In this episode, AD Bhatia, Robin Ligon, and Jason Phillips are joined by CVC’s John Kelleher to discuss the key shifts in today’s PE environment and share five moves firms are making in response. The path to transforming value creation requires a more disciplined playbook: structured re-diligence, holistic transformation under a dedicated transformation leadership, stronger operating-team talent, and the use of AI as a portfolio-wide accelerator.
Related Insights
2026 Global Private Markets Report
How private equity is using M&A integrations to overcome headwinds
Beating the odds: How private equity firms can improve exit prospects
McKinsey Strategy and Corporate Finance on LinkedIn
McKinsey Transformation on LinkedIn
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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For CEOs, the first 100 days often get the most attention. But the final chapter of a CEO’s tenure can be just as consequential. In this episode, senior partner Carolyn Dewar speaks with Charles Lowrey, former executive chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial, about what it takes to finish strong and manage a successful leadership transition.
Lowrey reflects on his unexpected path to the CEO role, the lessons he learned while leading through the pandemic, and why he began discussing succession with the board before officially taking the job. He explains how Prudential developed internal candidates, planned the handover in detail, and worked to make the market’s reaction to the transition “a huge yawn.”
The conversation also explores the personal side of stepping away: preparing for life after the CEO role, avoiding the temptation to remain too involved, and finding new ways to contribute. For current and aspiring CEOs, Lowrey offers practical guidance on legacy, succession, and the discipline required to lead until the very end.
Related insights
A CEO For All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership
CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest
The Strategic CEO LinkedIn newsletter
Sending it forward: Successfully transitioning out of the CEO role
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As millions of baby boomer business owners in the United States approach retirement, the country faces a major transition in business ownership. Over the next decade, millions of small and midsize businesses could be sold, transferred, or closed, with major implications for local economies, jobs, family wealth, and economic mobility.
In this episode, we hear from partner Ken Yearwood and associate partner Nick Noel about the wave of business transfers on the horizon, the scale of the opportunity, and the risks of avoidable closures. They discuss what this transition could mean for buyers, sellers, private capital, employees, and rural communities, and explore how a broader and more inclusive ownership ecosystem could unlock long-term value.
Related insights
The Great Ownership Transfer: A new era of business stewardship
McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility
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In this episode, we explore how finance leaders can harness AI to drive performance and create value for the organization. Our guests—Kevin Carmody, Davide Grande, and Andrea Tricoli—share insights from their research, highlighting how AI is reshaping finance functions across strategic planning, cost management, risk mitigation, and investor relations. Join us as we delve into real-world examples of AI in action and consider the evolving role of the CFO as a strategic partner in the C-Suite.
Related insights
How finance teams are putting AI to work today
Gen AI: A guide for CFOs
Gen AI in corporate functions: Looking beyond efficiency gains
Spendscape by McKinsey: Next-level spend analytics software powered by AI
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Private equity firms have long outperformed their peers—not just through financial engineering, but by building better businesses faster. In this episode, senior partner Sacha Ghai and partner Marla Capozzi discuss what leaders across sectors can learn from the highest-performing private equity CEOs. Drawing on their recent Harvard Business Review article, Sacha and Marla unpack the concept of CEO alpha: the value created when CEOs outperform as individual leaders, team builders, and operators. They explain why private equity’s edge has shifted from financial engineering to building stronger, more resilient businesses, and they share six practices that distinguish top-performing PE CEOs.
Related insights
What Every Company Can Learn from Private Equity
CEO alpha: A new approach to generating private equity outperformance
CEO Excellence: The six mindsets that distinguish the best leaders from the rest
A CEO for All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership
The Strategic CEO
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Generative AI is reshaping the way investors evaluate opportunities and replacing much of the manual work involved in completing an outside-in diligence. Firms that adapt the fastest during this transition have the most to gain. To discuss how the deployment of gen AI in diligence can give organizations an investment edge and explore the shift from traditional diligence to AI-enabled, outside-in analysis we’re joined by David Pralong, a senior partner and the global leader of our Transformation Practice, William Bundy, a partner in our Washington D.C office, Chase Covington, a partner based in our New York office, and Laura Borton, a consultant also based in our New York office.
Related Insights
From potential to performance: Using gen AI to conduct outside-in diligence
Creating Value in Portfolio Company Operations: A Practical Guide to Growing Cash Flow in Business
Wave: Your path to unprecedented performance
McKinsey insights on transformation
McKinsey insights on Strategy and Corporate Finance
McKinsey Transformation on LinkedIn
McKinsey Strategy and Corporate Finance on LinkedIn
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Generative and agentic AI are moving rapidly from experimentation to enterprise-wide transformation—but many CEOs are still grappling with what this really means for their business.
In this episode, McKinsey experts Tanguy Catlin, Sandra Durth, Lari Hämäläinen, and Antoine Montard examine why AI is being viewed as a true general-purpose technology, on par with past breakthroughs like electricity and the internet, and what that implies for competition, investment, and long-term value creation.
We discuss the importance of thinking across strategy, technology, and organization to maximize the value from AI—and why focusing on productivity alone may not be enough to win.We also unpack the practical challenges leaders face and how to address them including redesigning workflows and operating models, managing large-scale workforce transitions, and building the skills and organizational capabilities needed to capture AI’s full potential.
Related insights
The agentic AI opportunity
Building the foundations for agentic AI at scale
Seizing the agentic AI advantage
A Century of Plenty
New MIT Sloan research suggests that AI is more likely to complement, not replace, human workers
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For new CEOs, engaging stakeholders is one of the most important—and most challenging—parts of the job. In this episode, Carolyn Dewar, Blair Epstein, and Eric Sherman discuss how CEOs can build a strong stakeholder strategy from day one.
Drawing on research and their work with leaders across industries, they explore why stakeholder engagement matters so much, the unique challenges new CEOs face, and how leaders can best balance competing priorities across investors, employees, customers, regulators, and communities. They also discuss practical ways to create a clear narrative, strengthen communication, and build leverage through the top team.
Related insights
Nail your firsts: A new CEO’s guide to stakeholder impact
How the best CEOs build lasting stakeholder relationships
Your best day won’t define you as CEO—your worst one will
A CEO For All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership
CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets That Distinguish the Best Leaders From the Rest
The Strategic CEO newsletter on LinkedIn
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Building resilience is a critical skill for organizations today, yet our research shows that many leaders and organizations don’t spend enough time building their resilience to navigate current and emerging risks. In this episode, two authors of a recent article on the topic discuss how organizations can better prepare for what they face today and in the future.
Ida Kristensen is a senior partner in our New York office and the global co-leader of our Risk and Resilience Practice. She advises clients across sectors on risk, strategy, and operational topics spanning enterprise risk management, resilience, organization and talent, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, and operational improvement. And Linda Liu is a partner in our New York office and a leader in our Risk and Resilience Practice and our crisis response initiative. She works with global organizations on strategy, risk, operations, and organizational transformation.
Related insights
The CEO as chief resilience officer
Resilience pulse check: Harnessing collaboration to navigate a volatile world
High-performing teams: A timeless leadership topic
What resilience means to Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar
McKinsey Risk & Resilience insights
McKinsey Risk and Resilience on LinkedIn
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As artificial intelligence transforms how companies compete, many boards are grappling with how to provide effective oversight in this new era. Senior partners Aamer Baig, Celia Huber, and senior advisor Rebecca Schechter join host Sean Brown Inside the Strategy Room to discuss their recent article on how directors can rethink their guidance on AI adoption and readiness, while navigating risks that cut across strategy, talent, and governance.
The AI reckoning: How boards can evolve
Rewired: How leading companies win with technology and AI
McKinsey Insights on Strategy & Corporate Finance
McKinsey Strategy & Corporate Finance on LinkedIn
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Companies that execute transformations with rigor are much more likely to achieve their goals, generate higher total shareholder returns, and enjoy better organizational health. In this episode, Preeya Mody and Dominic Skerritt join host Sean Brown to share insights from their latest research on the role of rigor in driving and sustaining successful transformations. They discuss what defines rigor in a transformation, explore the three elements that rigorous transformations consistently demonstrate, and share practical advice for sustaining momentum without burning out teams.
Related insights
Going all in: Why employee ‘will’ can make or break transformations
The McKinsey Organizational Health Index
Wave by McKinsey
Seven principles for achieving transformational growth
Beyond transformation: What we now know about driving bottom-line performance
The powerful role financial incentives can play in a transformation
McKinsey Insights on Transformation
McKinsey Transformation on LinkedIn
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While artificial intelligence is moving rapidly from experimentation to execution, many companies still struggle to capture real value from the technology. In this episode, we’re joined by Professor Jean-Paul Carvalho and Robin Nuttall to explore how CEOs can more effectively scale AI and to discuss the technology's implications for the future of work and organizations.
Jean-Paul is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Oxford’s Department of Economics and Director of Oxford Elevate. Robin Nuttall is an expert partner in our London office and a leader of our regulatory strategy and environmental, social, and governance work. Robin is also a Business Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Economics Department.
Related insights
How AI is transforming strategy development
The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation
Building next-horizon AI experiences
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What does today’s wave of AI and economic change really mean for markets, jobs, and leadership?
In this episode, David Solomon, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, joins our North America Chair and senior partner, Eric Kutcher, to explain why he sees the current moment as more evolutionary than unprecedented. Solomon discusses what’s driving market resilience in 2026, including fiscal policy, AI infrastructure investment, and shifting trade dynamics. He also shares how Goldman is using AI to boost productivity, reengineer core processes, and invest for long-term growth—as well as candid lessons on leadership, resilience, and decision-making at the top. This episode was recorded in December 2025.
Related insights
The strategic realities of a new era
‘Saying “I don’t know” is one of the hardest things a leader can do’: A conversation with Delta CEO Ed Bastian
Retired US Navy Admiral Eric Olson: Leading effectively in uncertain times
Building geopolitical resilience: A conversation with Michèle Flournoy
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After a long period of uncertainty, the fog has lifted, and while private equity rebounded in 2025, the clearer visibility has also revealed a more complex and demanding landscape.
In this episode, the authors of our 2026 Global Private Markets Report unpack the structural shifts reshaping the industry—from elevated multiples and longer hold periods to the growing importance of scale, specialization, and alternative capital. They also explore how artificial intelligence is emerging as a core driver of competitive advantage, with early adopters embedding AI into pricing, productivity, and portfolio strategy to create structural alpha.
As private equity continues to mature, dispersion between leaders and laggards is set to widen. The question for dealmakers, operators, fundraisers, and LPs alike: who is equipped to best navigate this new terrain?
Related insightsGlobal Private Markets Report 2026 Private equity: Clearer view, tougher terrain
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Top dealmakers entered 2025 expecting to overcome continued challenges, but few anticipated how sharply trade and geopolitical pressures would intensify. In this episode, Jake Henry and Mieke Van Oostende, the global co-leaders of our M&A Practice, share key themes from our annual M&A report. They reflect on how dealmakers maintained focus, adjusted portfolios, and capitalized on shifting sector dynamics to drive substantial growth in 2025. They also share their perspectives on the five trends driving M&A in 2026.
Related Insights
Read the full report on McKinsey.com: 2026 M&A trends: Navigating a rapidly rebounding market
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Jane Fraser, Chair and CEO of Citi, talks with McKinsey Senior Partner and North America Managing Partner Eric Kutcher. After becoming CEO in March 2021, Jane launched a multi-year strategy to transform, simplify, and modernize the bank for the digital age – leveraging Citi’s unique global context to reset where and how it competes. Jane speaks about what the last five years have looked like for Citi and the role AI and blockchain technologies are playing, as well as what she’s learned along the way about talent, intent, and resilience. She also shares the global trends she is seeing as one of the world’s most well-travelled CEOs.
Related Insights
‘You’ve got to be willing to “do,” as opposed to getting disrupted by somebody else’: A conversation with IBM CEO Arvind Krishna
‘Saying “I don’t know” is one of the hardest things a leader can do’: A conversation with Delta CEO Ed Bastian
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From its origins as an internal three-ring binder to its status as a global reference text, Valuation has shaped how business leaders think about value creation for more than 30 years.
In this episode, co-author Tim Koller joins the co-leaders of our Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice, Andy West and Dago Diedrich, to reflect on the evolution of Valuation, the principles that have remained timeless, and the lessons learned across market cycles, bubbles, and changing executive expectations. Tim also shares his perspective on long-term orientation, disciplined leadership, and the legacy he hopes the book leaves with the business community.
Related Insights
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies
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Levi Strauss & Co. Chief Finance and Growth Officer, Harmit Singh, joins us to share lessons from his 13-year journey transforming the iconic clothing company. Singh explains how Levi’s returned to growth, strengthened profitability, and shifted toward a direct-to-consumer model, while staying true to its purpose-driven heritage. He introduces the “Magic of the And”–his approach to driving both top- and bottom-line performance– and discusses building a performance culture, navigating volatility and tariffs with cross-functional teams, developing finance talent, and approaching AI in finance with practical use cases and discipline. Joining Harmit for this discussion is Steve Begley, a senior partner based in our New York office.
Related Insights
The State of Fashion 2026: When the rules change
How finance teams are putting AI to work today
How Nestlé’s CFO sharpens focus across a global portfolio
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As organizations increasingly employ agentic AI, they face new risks that could disrupt operations, compromise sensitive data, or erode customer trust. Rich Isenberg and Charlie Lewis join us to discuss these emerging risks and how leaders can proactively ensure secure and compliant adoption.
Rich Isenberg is a partner in our Atlanta office and a leader within our Risk and Resilience and Cybersecurity Practices. Charlie Lewis is a partner in our Connecticut office and leads our cybersecurity and tech resilience work across North America and Europe. Together, they offer a frontline perspective on how organizations are implementing agentic AI, the emerging forms of cyber and operational risk, and the critical steps leaders must take to build robust governance and resilience.
Related Insights
Deploying agentic AI with safety and security: A playbook for technology leaders
The change agent: Goals, decisions, and implications for CEOs in the agentic age
Seizing the agentic AI advantage
McKinsey Risk & Resilience on LinkedIn
McKinsey Risk & Resilience: Our latest insightsSupport the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/
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- Visa fler
