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McKinsey Talks Operations: Daily Summaries Delivered
by McKinsey & Company
The next normal demands resilience, flexibility, and agility. Join us where the world’s C-Suite leaders and McKinsey experts cut through the noise to uncover how to create a new operational reality. Each episode considers the challenges companies and economies are facing, and the opportunities leaders can seize for competitive advantage. We’ll look at how to connect boardroom strategy to the frontlines, ways to increase performance, where and when to infuse operations with technology, and why empowering the workforce with skills and capabilities is key to success. McKinsey Talks Operations has much more content to offer on the Operations topics that connect strategy with lasting success.
Latest Episodes
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- 3 weeks ago24 min
Agentic AI and the future of Global Business Services
Global Business Services (GBS) is being redefined in the age of AI. Agentic technology is enabling GBS to move beyond traditional automation and expand as it becomes the operational backbone of AI transformation in many organizations. So what should organizations think about the future of GBS to come out ahead? In this episode, Christian Johnson speaks with McKinsey partners Heiko Heimes and Josh Peters. They explain why GBS is strategically placed to own workflow orchestration and the talent implications of AI transformation. They also tackle one of the most pressing strategic questions facing operations leaders today: should you automate first or right-shore first, and how do you decide? McKinsey Talks Operations offers more insights at the intersection of strategy and execution. Visit www.McKinseyTalksOperations.com to explore upcoming events and thought leadership from McKinsey's Operations Practice and join the McKinsey Talks Operations community. You can also connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-operations. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information
- Jun 24, 202621 min
Powering supply chain with agentic AI
Supply chain leaders have invested heavily in technology over the last few decades and were among the earliest adopters of AI. Yet despite 90% of companies reporting AI use, only 7% have successfully scaled it. For many, supply chain execution remains manual, fragmented, and slow. What separates the companies that have scaled AI from the 90% still stuck in pilot purgatory? And why aren't more organizations seeing meaningful returns? In this episode, host Christian Johnson speaks with Rahul Shahani, a Partner in McKinsey's Operations Practice and AI and technology enablement leader for manufacturing and supply chain, and Kapil Dev Bansal, an Associate Partner and global leader for agentic AI in manufacturing and supply chain. Together, they explore why domain-level workflow orchestration outperforms traditional use-case thinking, and how companies can generate durable value instead of launching yet another stalled pilot. McKinsey Talks Operations offers more insights at the intersection of strategy and execution. Visit www.McKinseyTalksOperations.com to explore upcoming events and thought leadership from McKinsey's Operations Practice and join the McKinsey Talks Operations community. You can also connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-operations.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information
- Apr 9, 202623 min
Rewiring Europe: Turning pressure into performance
Europe’s productivity challenge is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Strained supply chains, rising costs, and intensifying global competition are putting mounting pressure on operations leaders to act decisively. Without bold action, Europe risks falling behind for decades to come. So what will it take for European leaders to reignite the continent’s productivity growth? In this episode, host Christian Johnson speaks with Dr. Ruth Heuss, senior partner and co-leader of McKinsey’s global operations practice and Dr. Jan Mischke, a partner at the McKinsey Global Institute. Together, they discuss the technologies reshaping operations today—and where Europe still has an opportunity to lead. McKinsey Talks Operations offers more insights at the intersection of strategy and execution. Visit www.McKinseyTalksOperations.com to explore upcoming events and thought leadership from McKinsey’s Operations Practice and join the McKinsey Talks Operations community. You can also connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-operations. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information
- Mar 5, 202621 min
Winning the Race to Rewire in 2026: Capturing operational advantage
The pace of innovation is reshaping industries at an unprecedented speed, but technology alone is not a source of advantage. To compete in a rapidly evolving global landscape, organizations must move beyond isolated tech deployments and embrace end-to-end process transformation. The real question for 2026 is: how can leaders rewire their operations to capture the full value of what’s possible? In this episode, host Daphne Luchtenberg speaks with McKinsey senior partners Dan Swan and Ruth Heuss, Global Co-Conveners of McKinsey’s Operations Practice, about what it takes to turn operational excellence into sustained competitive advantage, and the critical questions operations leaders should be asking now. McKinsey Talks Operations offers more insights at the intersection of strategy and execution. Visit www.McKinseyTalksOperations.com to explore upcoming events and thought leadership from McKinsey’s Operations Practice and join the McKinsey Talks Operations community. You can also connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-operations. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information
- Jan 23, 202622 min
The paradigm shift: how agentic AI is redefining banking operations
Agentic AI is reshaping banking operations, enabling systems to act, decide, and learn at scale. Leading banks are redesigning their operating models to unlock new sources of value, improve resilience, and accelerate performance. As the gap between leaders and laggards widens, those who hesitate risk falling behind. In this episode of McKinsey Talks Operations, Daphne Luchtenberg is joined by Senior Partner David Deninzon and Partner Abhilash Sridharan to explore how agentic AI is transforming banking operations today. Together, they discuss where banks are seeing the greatest impact, what it takes to rewire core processes and decision-making, and how leaders can position their organizations to capture the full potential of this rapidly advancing technology. McKinsey Talks Operations has much more content to offer on the Operations topics that connect strategy with lasting success. Visit www.McKinseyTalksOperations.com to explore events and insights from McKinsey’s Operations Practice, and join the McKinsey Talks Operations community. You can also connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-operations See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information
- Jan 16, 202617 min
COO Excellence: the next generation of leadership
Across industries, organizations are asking more of their COOs: to drive efficiency, unlock growth, build resilience, lead cross-functional change, and help shape the business agenda. But what does it really take to excel as a modern operations leader today? In this episode of McKinsey Talks Operations, host Daphne Luchtenberg speaks with McKinsey partners Darryl Piasecki and Tony Gambell, who lead the firm’s global COO Excellence initiative. Together, they break down the essential components of a high-impact COO, from a clear vision grounded in business strategy to an executable plan, strong stakeholder relationships, the right talent, and a personal operating model that enables sustained performance. McKinsey Talks Operations has much more content to offer on the Operations topics that connect strategy with lasting success. Visit www.McKinseyTalksOperations.com. to explore events and insights from McKinsey’s Operations Practice, and join the McKinsey Talks Operations community. You can also connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-operations See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information
- Dec 19, 202522 min
The race to rewire operations: How the story unfolded in 2025
2025 marked a pivotal moment for operations. Generative AI, automation, and advanced analytics moved from experimentation to real impact—and reshaped how organizations run. In this special year-end episode of McKinsey Talks Operations, hosts Daphne Luchtenberg and Christian Johnson reflect on the defining shifts of the year, from deploying agentic AI and redesigning end-to-end processes to scaling digital twins, robotics, and data-driven sustainability. Against a backdrop of geopolitical volatility and supply chain disruption, leaders redefined what operational excellence really means. Join us to revisit standout conversations from across operations to explore how organizations unlocked productivity, accelerated innovation, and built more resilient, intelligence-enabled operations. McKinsey Talks Operations offers much more on the forces shaping the future of the function. Visit McKinsey Talks Operations to explore events and insights from McKinsey’s Operations Practice and join our community. Connect with us on LinkedIn.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information
- Dec 17, 202524 min
Beyond the bot: building empathetic customer experiences with agentic AI
Improving operations, generating revenue and implementing the right technology have all become key priorities for customer care professionals over the last decade. Organizations must find customer service operating models that scale, whilst maintaining customer satisfaction. In an evolving landscape where the leaders are those making significant strides in agentic AI adoption, one question remains: can an agentic AI voice agent truly be empathetic? In this episode, host Daphne Luchtenberg is joined by Eric Buesing, Partner at McKinsey & Company and Gadi Shamia, CEO and Co-founder of Replicant. Together, they discuss the evolving landscape of customer care and explore how agentic AI is transforming contact centres. McKinsey Talks Operations has much more content to offer on the Operations topics that connect strategy with lasting success. Visit www.McKinseyTalksOperations.com to explore events and insights from McKinsey’s Operations Practice, and join the McKinsey Talks Operations community. You can also connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-operations. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information
About McKinsey Talks Operations
The next normal demands resilience, flexibility, and agility. Join us where the world’s C-Suite leaders and McKinsey experts cut through the noise to uncover how to create a new operational reality. Each episode considers the challenges companies and economies are facing, and the opportunities leaders can seize for competitive advantage. We’ll look at how to connect boardroom strategy to the frontlines, ways to increase performance, where and when to infuse operations with technology, and why empowering the workforce with skills and capabilities is key to success. McKinsey Talks Operations has much more content to offer on the Operations topics that connect strategy with lasting success.
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