The McKinsey Podcast

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