The Strategy Skills Podcast: Strategy | Leadership | Critical Thinking | Problem-Solving
FirmsConsulting.com & StrategyTraining.com
CEOs and business leaders, management consulting senior partners, ground-breaking professors, thought-provoking writers and journalists, record-setting athletes and coaches, and award-winning actors and celebrities discuss the key issues facing the business world and broader society.
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Get free access to our newsletter, Monday Morning at 8 am, along with sample episodes from our training programs on www.strategytraining.com. Go to https://www.firmsconsulting.com/promo.
Episodes
Mentioned books
13 snips
Apr 8, 2026 • 53min
643: Leading with Intent in an AI-Driven World with Louisa Loran, Google's Transformation Growth Lead
Louisa Loran, a transformation and growth leader with two decades across Diageo, Maersk and Google, discusses leadership in change and technology. She talks about moving from reactive work to distinct strategic contribution. She explores how to lead people through disruption, how to use AI as a partner without losing judgment, and why organizations must own industry-specific AI while cultivating judgment and presence.
11 snips
Apr 6, 2026 • 56min
642: Leading for Innovation in Complex Organizations (with Harvard's Linda Hill)
Linda Hill, Harvard Business School professor and author of Genius at Scale, studies how leaders enable innovation in large, complex organizations. She discusses purpose-driven leadership, creating environments for co-creation, harnessing debate and difference, the need to kill failing projects, and building bridges across ecosystems to scale new ideas.
Apr 2, 2026 • 1h 3min
641: Former Bain & Company Director Michael Farmer — Differences Between McKinsey, Bain and BCG, Strategy Consulting, Helping Ad Agencies and Their Clients Navigate Change (Strategy Skills classics)
Michael Farmer, former Bain director and author who advises ad agencies, shares stories from his time at BCG, Bain and McKinsey and why their cultures differ. He recounts leaving to start Farmer & Company, helping transform Huge with productized services, and the method that got him to finish a book. Short, candid takes on consulting, agency change, and leadership trade-offs.
9 snips
Mar 30, 2026 • 1h 2min
640: Jim Hemerling, BCG. Co-author of "Beyond Great" (Strategy Skills classics)
Jim Hemerling, a BCG senior partner and co-author of Beyond Great, focuses on human-centered organizational transformation. He discusses always-on transformation, Microsoft’s head/heart/hands approach, liquefying organizations into fast, flat, focused teams, and balancing alignment with autonomy amid rising global disruption.
13 snips
Mar 25, 2026 • 54min
639: Growth at Scale in the Age of AI (with McKinsey's Marc Canal)
Marc Canal, a McKinsey Global Institute partner and author of A Century of Plenty, explores how AI, demographics, and productivity shape long-term growth. He talks about consulting as a trust-driven practice, why deep relationships beat broad exposure, and how organizations are messier than they seem. He highlights AI reshaping skills and the rising value of judgment, leadership, and practical AI literacy.
17 snips
Mar 23, 2026 • 49min
638: How to Lead and Live with Less Stress and More Joy (with Former C-Suite Executive and Advisor to Fortune 100 Leaders, Amy Leneker)
Amy Lenneke, former C-suite executive and advisor to Fortune 100 leaders, and author focused on reducing stress and boosting joy. She challenges the idea that stress is the cost of success. She breaks stress into individual, relational, and systemic levels. Practical topics include five types of work stress, simple tactics to reduce schedule and sudden stress, prioritization, boundaries, and when organizations need system-level fixes.
10 snips
Mar 18, 2026 • 54min
637: Growth and Innovation at Scale, with Former IBM, Microsoft, and Salesforce Executive Jason Wild
Jason Wild, former executive at IBM, Microsoft, and Salesforce and co-author of Genius at Scale, shares lessons from scaling growth, capital discipline, and building repeatable innovation. He discusses treating capital as scarce, aligning incentives with long-term value, simplifying operations to reveal true performance, and decision-making with incomplete information. Practical leadership tactics and storytelling sharpen the conversation.
13 snips
Mar 16, 2026 • 46min
636: Dr. John La Puma on the Hidden Health Costs of Indoor Living
Dr. John La Puma, physician and NYT bestselling author on nutrition and lifestyle medicine, explains how indoor living, light exposure, and screens create ‘cognitive drag.’ He highlights simple morning and midday sunlight habits, contrasts calming blue spaces with immune-boosting green spaces, and offers practical tips to reduce indoor light, screen time, and digital overload to protect sleep and cognition.
Mar 11, 2026 • 54min
635: McKinsey Senior Partner Chris Bradley on The Real Drivers of Long-Term Economic Growth
Chris Bradley, Senior Partner at McKinsey and director at the McKinsey Global Institute, explores themes from his book A Century of Plenty. He argues long-term prosperity comes from sustained investment, strong institutions, and technological progress. He also discusses resource abundance, demographic challenges, and how AI could reshape productivity and work.
10 snips
Mar 9, 2026 • 52min
634: BCG's Julia Dhar on Why 70% of Major Change Efforts Fail
Julia Dhar, Harvard-trained behavioral scientist and BCG managing director who founded BCG’s Behavioral Science Lab. She discusses why about 70% of major change efforts fail. Short, practical ideas include separating facts from assumptions, focusing on the how not just the what, addressing emotions and incentives, designing precise behaviors and routines, and creating optimism, agency and clear expectations.
