THIS QUARTER’S PAGE-TURNERS ON BUSINESS AND BEYOND

Author Talks turns five! To celebrate five years of conversations with leading authors and thinkers—including McKinsey experts—we’ve collected some of the series’ most popular interviews that urge leaders to challenge the status quo.

Also, in this edition of Readers & Leaders, explore how today’s leaders are rethinking how their organizations perform and evolve. Discover how one CEO redefined a culture of excellence, how another channeled his fear of failure to navigate change, and how disruption, playfulness, and trust can unlock innovation, creativity, and stronger collaboration at work.

Finally, learn how to strengthen teams by improving group dynamics and using AI to redefine team structure.

IT BEARS REPEATING

“You can’t rely entirely on logic when you’re building something that has emotional attributes to it. You need to get into the hearts and minds of the consumers you’re targeting.”

— Lew Frankfort, former CEO of Coach and author of Bag Man: The Story Behind the Improbable Rise of Coach, in a fall 2025 edition of Author Talks

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Check out our most recent interviews for inspiration on working better and smarter in the new year.

TURN BACK THE PAGE: AUTHOR TALKS AT FIVE YEARS

Since launching in 2020, Author Talks has become a flagship platform for conversations with McKinsey authors and leading thinkers on business—and beyond. Check out popular interviews from each year of the series.

1. Indra Nooyi on leadership, life, and crafting a better future (2021)
2. Make anxiety your ally (2022)
3. The world’s longest study of adult development finds the key to happy living (2023)
4. Charles Duhigg on how the best communicators ‘click’ (2024)
5. How to sharpen your mind at any age (2025)

BOOKMARK THIS

BUSINESS BESTSELLERS TOP

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Catch up on the latest and greatest reads for the month. Explore business bestsellers, prepared exclusively for McKinsey by Circana; the full selection is available on McKinsey on Books.

business overall

1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorkin (Penguin Group USA)

BUSINESS hardcover

1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation by Andrew Ross Sorkin (Penguin Group USA)

economics

Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell (Hachette Book Group)

decision-making

The Art of Spending Money: Simple Choices for a Richer Life by Morgan Housel (Penguin Group USA)

organizational behavior

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Penguin Group USA)

workplace culture

Delivering the Wow: Culture as Catalyst for Lasting Success by Richard Fain (Fast Company Press)

COMPUTERS AND AI

If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares (Hachette Book Group)

sustainability

Encounters with the Archdruid: Narratives About a Conservationist and Three of His Natural Enemies by John McPhee (Macmillan Publishers)

If you’d like to propose a book or author for #McKAuthorTalks, please email us at Author_Talks@Mckinsey.com. Due to the high volume of requests, we will respond only to those being considered.

—Edited by Emily Adeyanju, editor, Carolinas

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