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FOUR OF OUR BEST NEW IDEAS FOR THE C-SUITE

Curated by Liz Hilton Segel, chief client officer and managing partner, global industry practices, & Homayoun Hatami, managing partner, global client capabilities

Happy New Year! Even as we sweep up the glitter, we’re already looking ahead to Davos, the World Economic Forum’s annual summit that’s kicking off on Monday in Switzerland. To help executives prepare for the meeting (and, yes, the schmoozing), we’ve interviewed hundreds of CEOs about their plans and priorities, successes and struggles as they look ahead. We collected the wisdom of that illustrious crowd in our new article “What matters most? Eight CEO priorities for 2024.” In this edition of the CEO Shortlist, we look closely at four of the priorities that CEOs say are guiding their plans for the coming year. (For a closer look at the other four, check out our previous edition.) We hope you enjoy the read and have an energetic start to 2024.

—Liz and Homayoun

An image linking to the web page “New geopolitical risks: Black swans & gray rhinos” on McKinsey.com.

What’s new

Niels Bohr said it best: it’s very hard to make predictions, especially about the future. CEOs can empathize, particularly when it comes to geopolitics. One thing is for sure: events have an uncanny way of defying expectations. In the face of that, management teams and boards can develop playbooks that will work no matter which side of the coin comes up.

What color is your geopolitical parachute? Read “Black swans, gray rhinos, and silver linings: Anticipating geopolitical risks (and openings),” by Andrew Grant , Ziad Haider , and Anke Raufuss .

An image linking to the web page “Middle level managers are the heart of your company” on McKinsey.com.

What’s now

The Waffle House way? Yes, it’s hash browns “scattered, smothered, and covered.” But it’s also about how the casual restaurant chain identifies star performers operating at the middle of the management hierarchy—and rewards them handsomely while keeping them in their jobs. This philosophy represents a modern, destigmatized view of middle management, one that recognizes that promoting people is good, but always moving them “up” can be bad for them and for business.

Pass the syrup, please. Read “Middle managers are the heart of your company,” one of our most thought-provoking articles from 2023, by Emily Field , Bryan Hancock , and Bill Schaninger.

An image linking to the web page “Institutional capability: Your new superpower” on McKinsey.com.

What’s next

Toyota. Disney. LVMH. What do these companies have in common, aside from their market dominance? Each has honed, over decades of superior leadership, a unique superpower—a custom fuel that has propelled them out of clogged markets and into the rarefied air of superior performance.

Fill your company’s tank with “What’s your superpower? How companies can build an institutional capability to achieve competitive advantage,” a standout 2023 article by Homayoun Hatami , Brad Mendelson , Michael Park , Liz Hilton Segel , and Rodney Zemmel .

An image linking to the web page “What's next for the global economy” on McKinsey.com.

What’s needed

Soft landing, hard landing, or a go-around? It’s still anybody’s guess. As CEOs model macroeconomic scenarios, they might want to keep an eye on the longer term. Over the past two decades, assets on the global balance sheet grew much faster than GDP—the real economy. Will this growth continue? There’s a broad range of economic scenarios that could play out between now and 2030. So it makes sense for leaders in any kind of business to lay the groundwork for a potentially different future and to craft a strategy for operating under uncertainty.

Get the deets on “Why the path of global wealth and growth matters for strategy,” by Michael Birshan , Jan Mischke , and Olivia White .

We hope you find these ideas inspiring and helpful. See you after Davos with four more McKinsey ideas for the CEO and others in the C-suite.

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by "McKinsey CEO Shortlist" <publishing@email.mckinsey.com> - 04:24 - 12 Jan 2024

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