302. What every CEO can learn from private equity
From Inside the Strategy Room by McKinsey & Company
May 8, 2026 · 53 min
About this episode
The episode discusses lessons CEOs can learn from private equity firms, focusing on leadership and business building practices.
Private equity firms have long outperformed their peers—not just through financial engineering, but by building better businesses faster. In this episode, senior partner Sacha Ghai and partner Marla Capozzi discuss what leaders across sectors can learn from the highest-performing private equity CEOs. Drawing on their recent Harvard Business Review article , Sacha and Marla unpack the concept of CEO alpha: the value created when CEOs outperform as individual leaders, team builders, and operators. They explain why private equity’s edge has shifted from financial engineering to building stronger, more resilient businesses, and they share six practices that distinguish top-performing PE CEOs. Related insights What Every Company Can Learn from Private Equity CEO alpha: A new approach to generating private equity outperformance CEO Excellence: The six mindsets that distinguish the best leaders from the rest A CEO for All Seasons: Mastering the Cycles of Leadership The Strategic CEO Support the show: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance/ See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information
People in this episode
Guests: Sacha Ghai, Marla Capozzi
Topics covered
- CEO leadership
- private equity
- business resilience
- performance improvement
- team building
- CEO alpha
Keywords
- private equity
- CEO alpha
- business performance
- leadership
- team building
- financial engineering
- resilient businesses
- top-performing CEOs
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: McKinsey & Company, Harvard Business Review
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