FOUR OF OUR BEST NEW IDEAS FOR THE C-SUITE

How to climb Mount Everest? Two essentials seem to matter most: an experienced guide and a willingness to do the hard work. No one goes from base camp to the summit unassisted. And no one gets there without plans, preparation, and grit. This summer, McKinsey is exploring what it takes for companies to summit their industries. We hope you enjoy the read.

—Liz and Homayoun

What’s new

Everybody has dreams. Successful companies do something about it. The biggest gap in business is between companies that embrace the challenges of transformation and those that hope “business as usual” will succeed forever.

Get started with What it takes to create a winning transformation, a Five Fifty briefing from McKinsey Quarterly.

What’s now

What do they have that we don’t? Answer: a superpower. Competitive dynamics are complicated, but they often boil down to a simple fact: one company has invested in an institutional capability that helps it do a mission-critical activity superlatively well, and the others have not. 

Get your cape on with Building a superpower: What can we learn from the Magnificent Seven?, by Brad Mendelson, Harald Fanderl, and coauthors.

What’s next

People persons. Some CEOs seem to have it all figured out. They have financial acumen and strong management skills. They’re systems thinkers. But their results lag behind their aspirations. What gives? Our new book on leadership suggests an answer: they need to connect authentically with their teams—and themselves.   

For a sneak peek, check out this excerpt: The ‘inside out’ leadership journey: How personal growth creates the path to success, by Dana Maor, Hans-Werner Kaas, Kurt Strovink, and Ramesh Srinivasan.

What’s needed

Anybody out there? Many big consumer companies have hit a rough patch in the 2020s. Consumers are often hard to pin down, macro trends are slowing growth, and costs are rising. To salvage the next five years, companies will need to both reshape their portfolios and build best-in-class operational capabilities (superpower, anyone?).

Make 2030 a year to remember with Rescuing the decade: A dual agenda for the consumer goods industry, by Jessica Moulton, Pavlos Exarchos, and Warren Teichner.

We hope you find these ideas inspiring and helpful. See you next time with four more McKinsey ideas for the CEO and others in the C-suite. 

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