house. We’ve seen a lot of flexibility from carriers. forward telehealth will account for up to 50 percent Some have moved quickly on the electronic medical- of visits in certain ambulatory settings, and perhaps record side. We’ve also seen carriers increase the 30 percent of visits overall. Before COVID-19, less face amount that they’re willing to underwrite using than 1 percent of visits were telehealth. Says Fisher, data instead of the medical exam. . . . Overall, I think “I keep pushing myself and our team to think about this has pushed the industry to adopt some changes how we use this inflection point to reimagine our much more quickly than it otherwise would have.” potential together, as opposed to allowing our In a week, companies went from having 100,000 organization to just go back to the comfort of ‘Let’s people working in offices to having 100,000 people do what we’re doing.’” working from home—a shift requiring systems and policy transformation that under normal Research by our colleagues in McKinsey’s Strategy circumstances might have taken years. and Corporate Finance Practice has long shown that CEOs making bold moves is vital to achieving Of course, the unprecedented scale and speed outstanding performance, which itself is elusive— of the pandemic have created “burning platform” only one in 12 companies goes from being an impetus for these feats, but it is still remarkable that average performer to a top-quintile performer over organizations have been able to make it happen. a ten-year period.2 Making one or two bold moves These achievements have come partly from people more than doubles the likelihood of making such working faster and harder, although this is not the a shift; making three or more makes it six times whole story, and many CEOs are taking the long- more likely. Our research has also shown that CEOs term view. Says Guardian CEO Deanna Mulligan, who are hired externally tend to move with more “We’ve been worried about our broader team in boldness and speed than those hired within an general because they’ve been working very hard. organization, partly because of the social pressures We’ve found that people are substituting their that constrain internally promoted CEOs. As a commuting time with working. Our IT guys are telling result, we often advise CEOs who are promoted us that they’re getting three extra hours a day out from within to ask themselves the question that of the coders. We’re mandating across the whole famously prompted Andy Grove and Gordon Moore company that they can’t work after a certain hour to focus Intel on microprocessors: “What would an at night or that they have to take vacation because outsider do?” Given the performance we have seen nobody’s taking their vacation days; they don’t want during the pandemic, we would now encourage to waste their time off hanging around at home. But CEOs to ask themselves and their teams a follow-on it’s going to be this way for a while, and we don’t question: “What would your COVID-19 answer be?” want them to go a whole year working at this pace The power that these frames of reference hold, to without a break.” reimagine the possible and recalibrate what can be achieved, is profound. CEOs are recognizing that the barriers to boldness and speed are less about technical limits and more Other questions for CEOs to reflect on to help about such things as mindsets toward what is calibrate their aspirations include: possible, what people are willing to do, the degree to which implicit or explicit polices that slow things — Where should we be aspiring 10x higher and/or down can be challenged, and bureaucratic chains of 10x faster? command. — What beliefs or long-held assumptions do I need Realizing this, CEOs are appropriately celebrating to explicitly reset in the organization and with the magnitude of what their organizations have stakeholders to achieve this? achieved and considering how to stretch for more. Michael Fisher, CEO of CCMHC, thinks that going — What do we say no to, or stop doing, to create the additional space to go bigger and faster? 2 See Chris Bradley, Martin Hirt, and Sven Smit, “Strategy to beat the odds,” McKinsey Quarterly, February 2018, McKinsey.com. 146 What now? Ten actions to emerge stronger in the next normal September 2020