OUR BEST NEW IDEAS FOR THE C-SUITE

Welcome to the latest edition of the CEO Shortlist, a biweekly newsletter of our best ideas for the C-suite. This week, we feature our latest thinking on how to successfully navigate geopolitical instability. We appreciate the opportunity to connect and hope you find our perspectives novel and insightful. Please let us know what you think! You can reach us at Alex_Panas@mckinsey.com and Axel_Karlsson@mckinsey.com. Thank you.

—Alex and Axel

You may not care about geopolitics—but geopolitics cares about you. So said Western intelligence agencies in a recent briefing to CEOs. Generational shifts in the global order are well under way. And, according to the latest McKinsey Global Survey on economic conditions, business leaders today view geopolitical tensions as the biggest risk to growth. Political differences have already complicated economic relationships: trade interventions worldwide have surged 12-fold since 2010. 

The savviest business leaders approach uncertainty with caution—and a healthy dash of curiosity. Today’s geopolitical shifts present not only risks to mitigate but opportunities to seize, argue Cindy Levy, Shubham Singhal, and Matt Watters in a new article. They highlight ten value drivers leaders can explore amid geopolitical shifts and explain how a proactive approach to geopolitics can help organizations safeguard operations and capture emerging opportunities. 

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

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