Inside the Strategy Room McKinsey Strategy & Corporate Finance

The gaps in performance between different sectors, and the companies within those sectors, increased last year. A major reason is a small group of outperformers that already had massive stock valuations before the COVID-19 crisis and have pulled further ahead since. In this episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast, co-authors of a recent article discuss what the performance of capital markets during the pandemic indicates about future economic and investment trends. Tim Koller is a leader in McKinsey & Company’s corporate finance practice and the author of the best-selling book, Valuation. Peter Stumpner leads the corporate performance analytics group within the Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice. He is the co-author of another article on which this podcast is based, “The impact of COVID-19 on capital markets, one year in.”

An innovation strategy has to be backed with resources and patient follow-through, says Peter Kjellberg, the guest on this episode of the Committed Innovator series, part of our Inside the Strategy Room podcast. In a conversation with Erik Roth, who leads McKinsey & Company’s innovation work globally, the chief marketing officer for the Swedish maker of products for mobile and outdoor living and the home, describes how Dometic Group seized the recent rapid growth in food and beverage delivery to create new products for the industry and consumers.

In a time of crisis, especially one as deep and unique as the COVID-19 pandemic, uncertainty is extreme and information changes daily. Most organizations realized that they lack the tools to manage effectively in such conditions. In this episode, three McKinsey experts who are helping guide clients through the current crisis share the insights from their recent article, When nothing is normal: Managing in extreme uncertainty. Patrick Finn is a leader in McKinsey & Company’s Healthcare Systems and Services practice, serving management teams on topics ranging from corporate and business unit strategy to risk management and operations. Mihir Mysore is one of McKinsey & Company’s most experienced leaders on crisis response, helping large organizations manage operational risk, stabilize crisis situations, and build resilience. They are joined by Ophelia Usher, an expert on resilience, crisis preparedness, and crisis response and recovery.

Boards of directors play a critical role in ensuring that management is well prepared for a wide range of potential shocks. In the fourth episode of our series on board perspectives around the most important issues facing organizations, this podcast looks at the role that boards play in building resilient companies. Frithjof Lund, who heads our board services work, leads a discussion with Gordon Orr, a non executive member of several companies’ boards and a McKinsey senior partner emeritus, and Martin Hirt, the global co-leader of McKinsey’s Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice. member of several companies’ boards and a McKinsey senior partner emeritus, and Martin Hirt, the global co-leader of McKinsey’s Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice.