THIS MONTH'S PAGE-TURNERS ON BUSINESS AND BEYOND

What does it really take to make a digital transformation work? In this edition of Readers & Leaders, McKinsey senior partners Eric Lamarre, Kate Smaje, and Rodney Zemmel—authors of the forthcoming book Rewired: The McKinsey Guide to Outcompeting in the Age of Digital and AI—discuss how companies can build and flex their rewiring muscle by leveraging the power of AI, enhancing customer experience, and driving profitability through an ever-evolving process of transformation. In our other featured interviews, retired United Airlines chairman and CEO Oscar Munoz tells his story of personal survival and corporate revival, Duke professor Nita Farahany examines the promise and perils of neurotechnology developments, and University of Oxford professor Paulo Savaget shares why unconventional approaches to problem-solving may bring the most positive results. Itching for more great reads? Check out McKinsey on Books for the latest, and don’t miss this month’s top bestselling business books, prepared exclusively for McKinsey by Circana. 

What are you reading this summer? If you can’t get away from it all in a literal sense, you can always escape in a good book—and we want to know which one. Let us know what’s on your bookshelf, and we’ll let you know what’s on ours. Stay tuned for our annual reading list, coming this summer.

IT BEARS REPEATING

“One of the things that annoys me about the term digital transformation is it has this connotation that at some point, I am done. I tick the box. We all pat each other on the back. And off we go to whatever is next. I don’t think you’re ever done with digital transformation. For me, it’s to try and get across this notion that this is a journey; it’s a muscle that you’re constantly building, you’re constantly honing, to get better. … I think when you look at some of the best transformers out there, they are transforming. They’re never done.”

— Senior partner Kate Smaje in a recent edition of Author Talks.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Retired United Airlines chairman and CEO Oscar Munoz discusses the human aspect of leadership: “The concept of me going out and listening to everybody was how we developed our strategy. It was important to appeal to their sense of strong professional pride, and then match that pride with the resources, procedures, and alignment that they needed to actually do their job.” Watch the full interview.

Duke professor Nita Farahany offers insight into the burgeoning discipline of neurotechnology: “Technology can be used for revolutions, can be used to unite people, but can also be used to monitor and surveil people, can be used to disenfranchise people.” Watch the full interview.

University of Oxford professor Paulo Savaget advocates for work-arounds. “All the change-making efforts involve deviance. What I tried to show in my book is that deviance, first, is different from disobedience. You can be disobedient and still conform to the rules.” Watch the full interview.

LOOKING AHEAD

BUSINESS BESTSELLERS TOP

May your to-read list be longer than your to-do list. Check out this month’s list of business bestsellers in eight categories, prepared exclusively for McKinsey by Circana. Explore the full selection on McKinsey on Books.

BUSINESS OVERALL

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Penguin Group USA)

BUSINESS HARDCOVER

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Penguin Group USA)

DECISION MAKING

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (Hachette Book Group)

ECONOMICS

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (HarperCollins Publishers)

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Penguin Group USA)

WORKPLACE CULTURE

Culture Rules: The Leader’s Guide to Creating the Ultimate Competitive Advantage by Mark Miller (Random House)

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond (Random House)

SUSTAINABILITY

Recreating Earth: Metatron’s Blueprint for a Whole New World by Victoria Reynolds (Lightning Source Inc./LSI)

If you’d like to propose a book or author for #McKAuthorTalks, please email us at Author_Talks@McKinsey.com. Due to the high volume of requests, we will respond only to those being considered.

— Edited by Eleni Kostopoulos, a managing editor in McKinsey’s New York office

Share these insights

Did you enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to colleagues and friends so they can subscribe too.

Was this issue forwarded to you? Sign up for it and sample our 40+ other free email subscriptions here.