CEO Excellence
Transitioning into the CEO role
Insights on the factors underpinning successful CEO transitions, from setting bold aspirations to building an effective senior team and developing stakeholder relationships.
Article
Starting strong: Making your CEO transition a catalyst for renewal
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The best CEOs use the first six to 12 months of their tenure as a moment of great personal transition and institutional renewal. There are four keys to success.
Interview
Author Talks: What separates the best CEOs from the rest?
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Three McKinsey senior partners looked across more than 20 years’ worth of data on 7,800 CEOs from 3,500 public companies across 70 countries and 24 industries to identify the mindsets that helped top chief executives deliver extraordinary impact.
Article
A playbook for newly minted private equity portfolio-company CEOs
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Unprecedented private equity deal flow means more leaders than ever are stepping into the portfolio-company CEO role. Here’s guidance from the experts on the role’s unique challenges and demands.
Podcast
In conversation: The CEO moment
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Corporate leaders are changing how they do their jobs in ways that may permanently transform the CEO role.
Video
Could the CEO moment become a CEO movement?
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The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the way that many CEOs lead. In this series of videos, McKinsey’s global managing partner Kevin Sneader shares his thoughts on the future of the CEO role.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
The CEO moment: Leadership for a new era
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Challenged by the global pandemic, CEOs have made four shifts in the way they lead that hold great promise for both companies and society. Will they build on this unique moment, or return to the ways of the past?
Podcast
How new CEOs can manage for the future
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The subtle art of delivering short-term wins while setting the stage for long-term success
Article
The mindsets and practices of excellent CEOs
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The CEO’s job is as difficult as it is important. Here is a guide to how the best CEOs think and act.
Podcast
The diversity opportunity for new CEOs
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New McKinsey research has uncovered a fascinating correlation between gender diversity and corporate performance.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Short-term pain for long-term gain: The new CEO’s dilemma
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CEOs who pivot to a longer view of health and performance make the right moves for their companies, though it’s sometimes their successors who reap the rewards.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Closing the gender gap: A missed opportunity for new CEOs
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Many new CEOs reshuffle their top teams, but surprisingly few make them more diverse. Can we do better?
Podcast - McKinsey Quarterly
Putting talent at the top of the CEO agenda
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McKinsey global managing partner Dominic Barton discusses how executives serious about delivering value need to spend more time identifying their organizations’ top performers and most critical roles.
Article
Advice for transitioning into the chief-executive role
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While every transition is unique, here are some pointers for executives moving into the top job.
Article
Making a successful transition to CEO
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This booklet assembles a collection of McKinsey’s best thinking and advice for the ultimate new role—becoming CEO—to help leaders take the reins in a way that maximizes sustainable impact.
Interactive - McKinsey Quarterly
Five Fifty: Becoming CEO
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You’ve just become the chief executive officer of a big company. Now what do you do?
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
How technology is changing the job of the CEO
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More than 75 chief executives and board chairs recently gathered to share concerns and offer one another advice.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
A CEO action plan for workplace automation
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Senior executives need to understand the tactical as well as strategic opportunities, redesign their organizations, and commit to helping shape the debate about the future of work.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
What makes a CEO ‘exceptional’?
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We assessed the early moves of CEOs with outstanding track records; some valuable lessons for leadership transitions emerged.
Executive Briefing - McKinsey Quarterly
The CEO guide to boards
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Greater responsibilities require increased commitments of time and energy.
Podcast - McKinsey Quarterly
CEO transitions: The science of success
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New CEOs are faced with a bewildering array of choices, so it’s crucial for them to take a data-driven look at potentially major moves—and to know when to make them.
Interview - McKinsey Quarterly
Voices of experience on the CEO transition
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The former CEOs of Aetna and Covidien reflect on their early days in the role.
Blog Post
Lessons for new CEOs: Go big, go fast, or go home
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My colleagues Kurt Strovink, Thomas Meakin, and I analyzed the major moves over 600 CEOs took during their first two years in the role. We then assessed how those moves influenced the company’s returns and the CEOs’ tenure. Here are some of the lessons we drew from the data.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
How new CEOs can boost their odds of success
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A data-driven look at the link between the strategic moves of new CEOs and the performance of their companies highlights the importance of quick action and of adopting an outsider’s perspective.
Executive Briefing - McKinsey Quarterly
A CEO's guide to gender equality
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The case for gender equality is strong. Why is progress so slow?
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
How quickly should a new CEO shift corporate resources?
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Moving early to reconfigure the business portfolio and top-management team improves corporate performance and the odds for a lengthy tenure.
Article - McKinsey Quarterly
Letter to a newly appointed CEO
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McKinsey’s former managing director Ian Davis offers to new CEOs advice distilled from his experience supporting executives during their transitions into the role.
Commentary - McKinsey Quarterly
A CEO’s guide to reenergizing the senior team
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In today’s tough and fast-changing environment, CEOs must help their top leaders to work through fear and denial and to learn new rules.
Article
The CEO’s role in leading transformation
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The CEO helps a transformation succeed by communicating its significance, modeling the desired changes, building a strong top team, and getting personally involved.
Article
Managing CEO transitions
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McKinsey’s research shows that a leaders' best chance to lock in new organizational norms is usually during the first few months on the job.