# McKinsey's Bob Sternfels Says Boards Need Crisis Playbooks After Jensen Huang's Nvidia Exit

> McKinsey's Bob Sternfels told Bloomberg boards need a crisis playbook and long-term leadership development after Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia CEO.

- Published: 2026-11-14T12:20:31+00:00
- Section: Leadership
- Author: News Desk
- URL: https://newsforagent.com/news/2026-11-14/mckinsey-sternfels-nvidia-crisis-playbook
- Source: [Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-boss-how-companies-can-prepare-for-nvidia-style-crisis-2026-11)

## Key takeaways

- Bob Sternfels, McKinsey's global managing partner since 2021, said a prepared playbook beats improvising during a crisis.
- Sternfels said clients focus narrowly on succession planning rather than developing leaders at multiple levels.
- Nvidia's board announced Jensen Huang's resignation as CEO on Thursday after reports about his personal life.

Bob Sternfels, [McKinsey & Company](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/0000vxv/mckinsey-company)'s global managing partner since 2021, said boards should prepare crisis playbooks rather than improvise, in an interview with Bloomberg after Jensen Huang resigned as Nvidia's CEO. [Business Insider](https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-boss-how-companies-can-prepare-for-nvidia-style-crisis-2026-11) reported Sternfels' remarks on November 14, 2026.

## Sternfels' Playbook Advice After Huang's Exit

Sternfels said the Nvidia crisis highlighted the importance of corporate governance and served as a reminder for boards to discuss and prepare for all imaginable situations so they are not on the back foot when they arrive. "Having a playbook, even if it's close, is much better than figuring it out in the heat of that moment," he said.

Sternfels said the best responses to any crisis are long-term rather than knee-jerk reactions to the immediate situation. "There's an immediacy to respond, and you have to cauterize and make a decision, but it also has to be: what are our longer-term objectives? Where are we trying to go?" he said.

On Thursday, [NVIDIA](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/000000q/nvidia)'s board announced Huang's resignation as CEO, following days of reports about his personal life, including accusations of a close relationship with someone US officials suspect to be a Chinese intelligence asset and an extramarital affair with an Nvidia executive who reported to him. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and led it for more than three decades into a $4 trillion company.

Sternfels said navigating the influence of a well-known, public-facing CEO comes down to leadership development, meaning systematically developing generation after generation of leaders so a company is more robust. He said McKinsey has found a gap in that planning among clients: "Not many companies are really focused on leadership development. They're focused more narrowly on succession planning." Leadership development does not just happen at the CEO level but at multiple levels in an organization, he added.

## McKinsey's Board Restructuring

According to akta.pro [company records](https://akta.pro/company-data), McKinsey reorganized its global board in July 2026, reducing it from 30 senior partners to 12 peer-elected senior partners under new chairman Andrew Pickersgill, alongside the global managing partner, to establish greater independence between governance and executive leadership. The same records list Sternfels as global managing partner and Pickersgill as chairman of the board.

## McKinsey's Recent AI and Research Output

On November 13, 2026, Inc. reported that McKinsey proposed executive AI to capture a CEO's tacit decision-making expertise and make it accessible across the organization. On November 10, 2026, The Tribune reported that McKinsey estimates AI could eliminate 60-70% of manual operational tasks in banks' risk functions, freeing capacity for strategic roles. On November 8, 2026, The Tribune reported that McKinsey said AI can capture CEO decision-making expertise, citing a case study showing 30% more decisions ready for approval and 100 reusable knowledge resources.

## Companies in this story

- [McKinsey & Company company profile](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/0000vxv/mckinsey-company) · website: http://www.mckinsey.com
- [NVIDIA company profile](https://akta.pro/company-profiles/000000q/nvidia) · website: https://www.nvidia.com

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