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The McKinsey Podcast · 2026-03-19 · 20 min · 3,212 words

Leadership lessons from private equity CEOs

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world leading CEOs of private companies are not satisfied just to kind of grow top line revenue. They are instead very focused on growing the bottom line, growing the fundamental profitability of the enterprise. And their resolute focus on that is distinctive. That's McKinsey senior partner, Sasha Guy. Private equity-backed companies consistently deliver faster, bigger gains than public or family-owned companies, often transforming their performance within just a few years.

And a relentless focus on real profitability is one of the ways they do it. Sasha and fellow partner Marla Kaposi did some research involving 300 CEOs across private equity and private capital. By the way, they published their findings in the Harvard Business Review. They wanted to understand exactly what PE backed companies are doing to create outsized performance. What they found boils down to six best practices that leaders in any sector can use.

Let's dive in. This is the McKinsey Podcast, where we help you make sense out of the world's toughest business challenges. I'm Roberta Fissaro, your host for today. Marla, Sasha, thanks so much for joining the podcast today. Thank you.

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