At a time when capital is tight and the core business feels under pressure, it’s easy to see why many companies would hesitate to invest in new ventures. But those who do invest are increasingly seeing outsize returns not just in financial growth but also in organizational agility and resilience.
In this conversation between Cindy Van Horne, a McKinsey global director, and Daniel Aminetzah, a McKinsey senior partner and global co-leader of McKinsey Business Building, Daniel unpacks why now may be the time to build. From mindset shifts to AI-driven velocity, he shares what distinguishes companies that are breaking through.
Why business building now
Cindy Van Horne: Given the current macroeconomic uncertainty and tightening capital environment, why is now the right time for corporates to double down on business building?
Daniel Aminetzah: I often hear the refrain: “Now’s not the time to build.” It’s understandable why many corporate leaders choose to hold back, wait, and preserve what they have.
But I, and many others, believe the opposite: this is precisely the time to build. The alternative paths to growth are narrowing. With the right talent, access to gen AI and digital tools, and strong top-down conviction, the ability to identify and act on opportunities quickly has never been greater. In this environment, a portfolio approach to business building—testing, scaling, and iterating—is not only viable but more compelling than ever.
We’re also starting to see the data back this up. Over the past five years, our research and annual surveys have tracked the impact of business building inside large enterprises. The results are encouraging: Companies that allocate just 20 percent of their growth capital to business building are seeing an average of two additional percentage points of annual growth. That may sound modest, but for many corporates, that represents a doubling or more of their typical growth trajectory.
Cindy Van Horne: Can you share examples of where you’ve seen companies break out of traditional business models to unlock new growth opportunities?
Daniel Aminetzah: Two examples come to mind. A colleague recently shared a great case from the airline industry: the use of stopover programs. Some airlines are actively encouraging travelers to extend their stopovers beyond 24 hours, turning what used to be a layover into a tourism opportunity. It’s a smart way to unlock additional value, not just for passengers but for airport economies and local tourism sectors. What’s impressive is how quickly some carriers have moved to operationalize this and capture the upside.
Another space we’re seeing major shifts in is the blurring of lines between B2B and B2C. Traditional B2B players are increasingly building direct-to-consumer capabilities, developing brand, recommendation engines, and customer experience infrastructure from scratch. It’s a big leap, and we’ve been working closely with several organizations on this transformation. Interestingly, we’re also seeing the reverse happen as B2C players are exploring B2B opportunities and learning to navigate enterprise sales and procurement environments.
The necessary mindset shifts
Cindy Van Horne: What holds most CEOs back from really going after business building?
Daniel Aminetzah: The role of a CEO today is more complex than it’s ever been. You’re dealing with uncertainty in your core business, limits on what you can do with M&A, and real pressure to find new sources of growth. And in that mix, business building starts to look really attractive if you believe in your company’s ability to build something from the ground up.
The good news is many CEOs do see the value. They’re bought into the vision of business building as a major lever for future growth. But then reality sets in. You’re leading a public company, you’re reporting quarterly results, your core business is demanding most of your attention, often under real pressure, and there’s a question of whether your organization is truly agile enough to move at the speed required.
What typically ends up happening is that initial ambition gets scaled back. Not because the strategy doesn’t make sense, but because the system and the mindset aren’t set up to support it. That’s the shift that needs to happen. There are moments in a company’s life when you have to make a choice. You have to take some risks and make bold, top-down calls that may not align with how the company has always operated. But what’s worked for the last few decades isn’t necessarily going to work for the next few. And when leaders do lean in and commit to business building, the upside can be game-changing.
Cindy Van Horne: How is AI forcing leaders to rethink traditional assumptions about time, talent, and control when it comes to building new ventures?
Daniel Aminetzah: You can’t approach business building the same way you did five or ten years ago. What once took a full team four weeks to accomplish, AI can now help us do in 12 minutes. That’s not just productivity but a different pace of thinking. To operate at that speed, you have to be willing to rewire how decisions are made and who makes them. The real opportunity isn’t just about AI transforming existing businesses but how we use AI to build new ones.
Internally, we’re seeing this firsthand. AI tools are allowing us as noncoders and business builders to rapidly prototype minimum viable products. You can test, learn, iterate—and fail fast—at a pace that would have been unthinkable even a year or two ago. We’re using AI not only to generate better ideas but to evaluate them in real time—to pressure-test assumptions, identify patterns, and guide us toward higher-potential directions. Then, when it comes to blueprinting and business design, AI helps us develop sharper, more tailored plans faster than we could before and with insights drawn from adjacent domains we might otherwise miss.
Speed is everything in business building, and AI fundamentally changes the velocity equation. It reduces the cost of experimentation, increases the quality of insight, and creates a constant feedback loop that makes the entire process more dynamic. But to benefit, leaders have to let go of old assumptions about time, resources, and control and embrace a new, faster, more iterative way of working.
Separating the leaders from the rest
Cindy Van Horne: What distinguishes companies that excel at business building in today’s environment?
Daniel Aminetzah: What sets winning companies apart in business building today is their ability and willingness to reallocate resources decisively. Too many organizations still operate under the assumption that once a strategic choice is made, it should remain in place for years, even decades. That mindset no longer works. In today’s environment, the right answer one year may not be right for the next year. The key differentiator is how quickly leaders can recognize that shift and how boldly they move capital, talent, and attention to support a new direction.
Some of the brilliant moves I’ve seen begin when a CEO has real clarity on their company’s unique advantage, combined with a sharp view of where the industry is heading. From that position, they make focused bets, reallocating resources into a few priority areas. These aren’t incremental adjustments; they’re top-down, high-conviction shifts that can cascade into significant value creation moving forward.
Cindy Van Horne: What does it take to help companies move faster and build differently in today’s competitive landscape?
Daniel Aminetzah: Many CEOs today see the pressure clearly. They look right and see hyperscalers moving fast. They look left and see start-ups attacking their value pools. But internally, they often face rigid structures, slow decision-making, and limited appetite for change. That’s where we come in with the scale, experience, and execution capabilities to help them move differently. And we’ve had to evolve too. We’ve changed how we work, who we hire, the tools we use, and how we partner with clients, start-ups, and hyperscalers alike.
There’s a limit to how many Steve Jobs the corporate world can handle. McKinsey Business Building emphasizes proven concepts over chasing novelty for novelty’s sake. The truth is many of the most successful businesses are built on models that have worked before with thoughtful adaptation. That’s where we focus: identifying what’s replicable, what’s scalable, and where we can confidently deliver ROI.
McKinsey Business Building also offers our people a chance to focus deeply on multiyear missions that shape not just client outcomes but careers. These are the kinds of journeys that leave a mark. What keeps me up at night is velocity. Are we moving fast enough as a firm and with our clients? That urgency, more than anything else, will define the winners in this space.
