OUR BEST IDEAS FOR THE C-SUITE

Welcome to the latest edition of The CEO Shortlist, a biweekly newsletter of our best ideas for the C-suite. This week’s issue offers our latest thinking on two perennial CEO topics: organization and growth. We appreciate the opportunity to connect and hope you find our perspectives useful and thought provoking. You can reach us at Alex_Panas@McKinsey.com and Becca_Coggins@McKinsey.com. Thank you, as ever.

—Alex and Becca

Structure as strategy. Many companies have ambitious AI agendas. The harder work—far less visible and far less common—is redesigning the organization to deliver on them. Our 2026 State of Organizations report, based on a survey of more than 10,000 leaders, finds that performance increasingly reflects structure: how quickly decisions get made and by whom, how work flows across functions, and where accountability sits. The companies pulling ahead are simplifying layers and rebuilding workflows so people and intelligent tools operate together at scale. Organization design is becoming a decisive source of competitive advantage.

Engineering growth. Everyone knows about a certain group of seven tech companies and their “magnificent” recent run. But nontech companies are also finding ways to grow in the AI era. Our new research, the latest in our series on CEO excellence, finds that these companies don’t have better foresight than others; they have greater conviction. They invest when uncertainty is highest, build capabilities rather than chase headlines, and treat growth as something to be engineered rather than hoped for. Read on for insights into how Walmart, Progressive, JPMorgan Chase, and others are outperforming their peers.

We hope you find these ideas helpful. See you in a couple of weeks with more McKinsey ideas for the CEO and others in the C-suite.

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