Inside the Strategy Room 298. The CEO as a resilience leader
24 snips
Apr 10, 2026 
Linda Liu, partner in McKinsey’s Risk and Resilience Practice who leads crisis response, and Ida Kristensen, senior partner and global co-leader of Risk and Resilience, discuss CEO-led resilience. They cover why resilience must be a core capability, measuring resilience with KPIs and financial metrics, operational and organizational strategies, scenario planning and stress tests, and how CEOs should embed resilience across strategy, teams, and external relationships.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Group CEOs Add Cross Company Resilience Levers
- As a group CEO, hold business-unit leaders accountable and add conglomerate-level supports like shared external relationships or operational centers.
- Ida says avoid duplicating BU work; provide cross-company levers to boost resilience.
Embed Resilience In The CEO Vision
- CEOs must embed resilience in vision by defining dual horizons, naming resilience as an enabler, and role-modeling stress tests.
- Ida recommends explicit short-term vs long-term goals and publicly asking what-if questions.
Break Hero Cultures With Rotations And Investment
- Build full-body resilience to avoid 'hero cultures' that burn out fixers; rotate talent and invest across muscles.
- Linda warns repeated reliance on SWAT teams causes attrition and recommends rotational programs to spread experience.
