Inside the Strategy Room McKinsey Strategy & Corporate Finance

Two experts discuss programmatic M&A, an approach to mergers and acquisitions that over many years has proven to be the most successful at delivering results—provided you execute it right. Robert Uhlaner, who co-led McKinsey’s Strategy and Corporate Finance practice until his retirement this summer, and Liz Wol, the global leader of McKinsey’s work on M&A capability building and programmatic M&A strategy, explain what programmatic M&A is, why it works, and how to do it.

While environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues increasingly dominate the executive agenda, not all three elements get equal attention. This episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast—one of three exploring the various challenges around ESG—delves into the element that is most often overlooked, but has been put into a sharp focus by the pandemic: the “S.” Senior partner Dame Vivian Hunt and Bruce Simpson, CEO of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation and senior advisor to McKinsey on E.S.G and purpose, discuss engagement on social issues with Franz Paasche, who heads up corporate affairs globally for PayPal, a role that includes stakeholder management.

“Stakeholder capitalism” is the buzzword du jour for business practices that strive to achieve more than profits and a high stock price. But what does benefitting all stakeholders really entail? What trade-offs do companies have to make? And how do business leaders put the aspiration into practice? In this episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast—the second in a series on meeting the challenges of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) demands—two experts lay out the case for stakeholder capitalism. Dame Vivian Hunt is a senior partner who serves clients on a broad range of strategy topics. Bruce Simpson is CEO of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Foundation, and senior advisor to McKinsey on E.S.G and Purpose.

Purpose and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues represent critical challenges for both boards and executive teams. They have become particularly salient since the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced corporations to scrutinize their responsibilities and role in society. In this episode—one of three exploring the various challenges around ESG—two experts who have long studied the connection between purpose and ESG explain how to align these commitments and embed them in organizations’ lived experience. Rupert Younger is the founder of the Centre for Corporate Reputation at Oxford University and chairs the Enacting Purpose Initiative, a multi-institution partnership that works to establish best practices around purpose governance. Robin Nuttall is a leader in McKinsey’s ESG and regulatory strategy practice.

Frank D’Amelio has been the CFO of Pfizer for 14 years, but the past 18 months have been like unlike any other. In this episode, he relates how the company addressed the most urgent and massive challenge in its history: developing a vaccine for COVID-19. Working in partnership with BioNTech, Pfizer accomplished that feat in record-breaking time, helping to alleviate the biggest global health crisis in living memory. D’Amelio spoke with Rodney Zemmel, global co leader of McKinsey Digital, during a virtual event we recently hosted for finance executives.

When Kevin Hostetler took the reins of Rotork, a UK-based company that makes industrial flow-control equipment, he immediately launched a multi-year transformation to help the company benefit from trends transforming the industries it serves. In this episode he talks with Anna Koivuniemi, co-leader of McKinsey’s work on growth strategy, about the progress Rotork has made and the challenges of changing the culture. This is an edited transcript of the discussion.