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Kevin Sneader P’24, global managing partner at McKinsey & Company, spoke about predictions for the world through a business lens to senior business students on March 2 as part of “Lessons from Leaders,” a speaker series for students in the Strategic Management course.

Sneader discussed his co-authored article, which was published by McKinsey & Company on Jan. 4. He acknowledged the importance for businesses and leaders to create solutions to pressing problems they experienced during the pandemic.

“2021 will be the year of transition,” Sneader wrote in the article. “Barring any unexpected catastrophes, individuals, businesses, and society can start to look forward to shaping their futures rather than just grinding through the present.”

Sneader identified several significant trends that will shape the “next normal” including:

• Increased consumer demand fueled by renewed confidence
• A return of leisure travel, but less business travel
• Entrepreneur and small business-led innovation
• An acceleration in new business practices, including supply-chain redundancies and reconfigured business operations
• A biopharma and healthcare revolution tied to new vaccine technologies
• Renewed and increased emphases on climate change and environmental sustainability

Throughout the conversation, facilitated by Associate Professor of Management Rosey Bao, Sneader brought attention to the remarkable period of digitization and innovation that has resulted from the pandemic. “Trends that have occurred will not be reversed,” Sneader said. “The pandemic accelerated the shift to a digital economy by 300 percent.”

Trends that have occurred will not be reversed. The pandemic accelerated the shift to a digital economy by 300 percent.

We are in a remarkable period of innovation, he continued. “Just to think about how we were able to develop the vaccine itself was the fastest development of a vaccine. Remarkable breakthroughs. People had to reinvent things, people had to think of new ideas.”

An ���ϲ����� student asked about the most exciting innovation that McKinsey & Company has experienced since the pandemic. Sneader claimed it is “doing what we do remotely.” He explained McKinsey and Company manufactures products to increase efficiency for individuals, so a lot of their work was done in person and interacting with robotics. Today, McKinsey and Company successfully brings people together from all over the world to do the work and innovate their analytics processes utilizing apps and digital tools.

Robert Moorman, Frank S. Holt Jr. Professor of Business Leadership, asked Sneader how students can prepare for the skills needed to be attractive to “future-ready” companies. Coping with uncertainty, having strong people skills, and being comfortable with technology are three ways Sneader revealed will promote students’ success in the professional world.

“It was very insightful to hear someone speak so passionately about the changes that are underway due to COVID-19,” said marketing major Madison Stadler ’21.

Sneader earned his MBA from the Harvard Business School and holds a degree in law with first-class honors from the University of Glasgow. He joined McKinsey & Company in 1989, and serves a broad range of global clients in multiple industries and functions with his work in strategy, organization, and operations.

His research is focused around global economic and business trends, productivity growth and innovation in emerging markets, and gender and diversity. He is the coauthor of several reports, including “The power of parity: Advancing women’s equality in Asia Pacific, Overcoming global turbulence to reawaken economic growth,” and “Beyond coronavirus: The path to the next normal.”