Choice Words

In this episode, Riccardo Zacconi shares his experience as co-founder and CEO growing the gaming company King from a 100-person startup to a 2,000-person global leader in mobile gaming, steering Candy Crush Saga to over 2.7 billion downloads and a $6 Billion sale of the company to Activision. Riccardo Zacconi is a co-founder and former CEO of gaming company King. He was instrumental in the growth of its blockbuster game Candy Crush Saga and is now a partner at Sweet Capital.

In this episode, McKinsey Senior Partners Jesko Perrey and Brian Gregg share their perspectives working with global business leaders on navigating the return to growth in 2021 -- and beyond. Jason, Jesko, and Brian dive deep into agile marketing, who is winning with AI, and the strategic imperative for leaders to adopt the mindset needed for a digital-first future. Jesko Perry is a Senior Partner in McKinsey’s Dusseldorf office and helps clients deliver above-market growth by transforming their marketing and sales capabilities. Jesko leads McKinsey’s Marketing and Sales Practice globally. Brian Gregg is a Senior Partner in McKinsey’s San Francisco office and has deep expertise in digital marketing, e-commerce, multichannel excellence, customer experience, and customer-relationship management/loyalty. Brian co-leads McKinsey's Marketing and Sales Practice in North America.

In this episode, Rishad Tobaccowala–thought provocateur and strategic advisor to leaders around the world–pushes our thinking on what it means to compete and lead in the 21st century. Drawing from his wealth of experience with agencies and clients, Rishad shares stories from his book Restoring the Soul of Business and offers advice on how to balance spreadsheets and storytelling. Rishad Tobaccowala spent over 35 years at Publicis Groupe in various leadership positions, including Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Growth Officer. Rishad has deep experience across digital transformation, advertising, marketing, and business strategy. Rishad’s key skill is getting people to see, think, and feel differently about how to grow themselves, their teams, and their company. You can find Rishad's latest thought leadership in his newsletter on Substack [https://rishad.substack.com/p/the-great-re-invention].

In this episode, Raja Rajamannar draws on his 25+ year career to go behind the scenes on what it takes to transform marketing into an agile driver of business growth. From engaging C-Suite peers to embedding data throughout the organization, Raja details how to design and scale a marketing organization with gravitas. Raja Rajamannar is Chief Marketing & Communications Officer for Mastercard and President of the company’s healthcare business. He is an accomplished global business executive with more than 25 years of experience. Raja has been named Global Marketer of the Year by the World Federation of Advertisers, top 5 “World’s Most Influential CMOs” by Forbes, top 10 “World’s Most Innovative CMOs” by Business Insider, and is an inductee to The CMO Club Hall of Fame.

In this episode, Jeff Maggioncalda shares his growth CEO playbook and the magic behind a platform business model. Under Jeff’s leadership, Coursera is transforming learning and education across the globe. Jeff and Jason go into detail about how to build a data-driven company that has a laser focus on product-market fit. Jeff Maggioncalda is the CEO of Coursera, having joined the company in June 2017. He previously served for 18 years as the founding CEO at Financial Engines Inc, a company co-founded by economist and Nobel Prize winner William Sharpe. Jeff also worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company and Cornerstone Research and holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.