Below is a curated selection of recent appearances from McKinsey leaders in leading global media outlets, where they regularly offer perspectives on the issues defining leadership today.
Over the next decade, roughly six million small business owners in the United States will reach retirement. Of those, one million own businesses that are viable candidates for sale. But if current trends hold steady, as many as 92 percent of these small businesses will close rather than sell. McKinsey’s Shelley Stewart III says this signals a market infrastructure problem, not a viability problem. “Closing the gap will require building scalable bridges into ownership: pathways that broaden who can step into ownership, particularly among communities long underrepresented in the ranks of business owners.”
The small business conundrum: What happens when the owner retires? [Forbes, March 2]
Also read: The Great Ownership Transfer: A new era of business stewardship
“The AI moment is the reimagine moment.” That’s how McKinsey’s Eric Kutcher frames the opportunity facing today’s leaders, as frontier technologies are changing industries and organizations at an unprecedented pace. The CEOs pulling ahead aren’t just weathering geopolitical and economic volatility—but using technology to reinvent their companies, build long-term advantage, and ask: “How would I build an AI-first version of myself and really disrupt myself?”
CEOs are more resilient than ever, says McKinsey’s Eric Kutcher [CNBC, March 9]
Also read: What sets the world’s best leaders apart
Geopolitical uncertainty is also rewiring global trade. India may be in a strategic position to benefit from that shift, according to McKinsey’s Asia Chair Gautam Kumra. “$14 trillion of trade is up for grabs over the next ten years, which is about a third of global trade,” he says, as supply chains and global trade flows change. Kumra points to India’s strong growth and demographics as potential advantages in a future where technology is reshaping industry.
Geopolitical uncertainty is rewiring global trade, India well placed: McKinsey Asia Chair [Economic Times, January 24]
Also read: India’s future arenas: Engines of growth and dynamism
Hospital systems are emerging as a testbed for enterprise AI adoption. Twenty-seven percent of health systems are paying for commercial AI licenses—about three times the rate seen across the broader US economy. The biggest traction so far isn’t with flashy tech for tech’s sake—but work like processing patient call documents or insurance claims. These tasks are often “labor-dependent, with the same rote process done thousands of times,” while clinical decision-making remains with doctors and physicians, according to McKinsey’s Rupal Malani.
Hospitals are a proving ground for what AI can do, and what it can’t [The Wall Street Journal, January 5]
Also read: Promoting resilience, growth, and access in a mission-driven health system