Venkat Atluri

Venkat Atluri is a Senior Partner and global leader of tech/telecom practice at McKinsey. With 22 years of experience in the firm, he has also co-founded and led the firm’s Internet of Things (IOT) practice. He is also an author and thought leader contributor at McKinsey, including  co-authoring ‘The Ecosystem Economy: How to Lead in the New Age of Sectors Without Borders’ along with Miklos Dietz.

Venkat’s academic background includes an MBA in Strategy and Finance from the University of Chicago.  Prior to joining McKinsey, Venkat held global operating leadership roles at General Electric as well as product development, management, and deployment at 3M.

He joined McKinsey in 2001 and has held many leadership positions throughout his tenure at McKinsey. Venkat co-founded and led McKinsey’s IoT (Internet of Things) Practice. He also created a group that aims to incubate new analytic and digital assets, develop innovative client offerings, and build alliances and partnerships with innovators.

He has also led McKinsey’s efforts globally for the TMT Practice to help clients fast-track and sustain transformational impact through leadership alignment, execution support, capability building, and leadership development; with a distinctive set of assets and exceptional digital-learning programs.

As an author, he has recently co-authored with Miklós Dietz ‘The Ecosystem Economy’, a book that offers a fresh perspective on how the global economy is being fundamentally transformed by the acceleration of new technology development, evolving consumer preferences and behaviours, business models and organisational and performance management constructs. He also writes regularly for McKinsey.

Outside of McKinsey, Venkat serves on the board of 1871, a not-for-profit start-up incubator. He is the current chairman of the board and a founding member of Current Water, a not for profit that seeks sustainable solutions to water challenges through innovation and collaboration for developing and deploying the tools, practices, and technologies to promote sustainable blue economy growth.

Besides being a thought leader at McKinsey, Venkat is a sought-after speaker at industry events, including McKinsey’s representation at the Mobile World Congress 2017, leading two panels around IOT and the Internet.

After his Masters in Business Administration (Strategy and Finance) from the University of Chicago, Venkat joined 3M as the Leader of Global Product Development and Product Launches. He led the global product development teams to drive innovation by fostering 3M’s great culture and heritage for developing some of the most creative products.

At 3M, Venkat also achieved the Gold Step award for generating significant financial performance with new products globally. He also led manufacturing operations and drove efforts to significantly improve performance with portfolio redesigns, and operational improvements (cycle time and yield) on the manufacturing floor.

In 1996, he joined GE to start in the leadership rotation program. Venkat held various leadership roles to lead mature and emerging businesses towards growth and profitability through product portfolio revamps and go-to-market transformations. He drove key investments both organic and inorganic (M&A) by leveraging various investment vehicles (private equity, structured financing) from GE capital.

He joined McKinsey in 2001 and has held many leadership positions throughout his tenure at the firm. Venkat co-founded and led McKinsey’s IoT (Internet of Things) Practice. He also created a group that aims to incubate new analytic and digital assets, develop innovative client offerings, and build alliances and partnerships with innovators.

Venkat, apart from his work with McKinsey, is the Chairman of the board of 1871, a highly-regarded not-for-profit start-up incubator, as well as a founding member of Current Water. This not-for-profit organisation strives to provide sustainable solutions to water problems through innovation, collaboration and the deployment of tools, practices and technologies to foster sustainable blue economy growth.
 

Published Work:

Venkat Atluri is an author who has written extensively on the topics of technology and industrial transformation. His most recent publication, "The Ecosystem Economy: How to Lead in the New Age of Sectors Without Borders," was published by John Wiley & Sons in October 2022. This book provides guidance on how companies can navigate the changing business landscape and leverage digital transformation to succeed in a world of interconnected sectors.

Prior to this, Venkat authored several articles for McKinsey & Company on related topics. In November 2020, he wrote "The industrial CEO’s plan for the digital recovery," which outlines strategies for industrial companies to recover from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, he wrote several articles on tech-enabled transformations in the industrial sector, including "Accelerating the impact from a tech-enabled transformation," "Why industrials should pursue a tech-enabled transformation now," and "Tech-enabled transformations: A CEO’s guide to maximizing impact in industrials."

In November 2018, Venkat wrote "The trillion-dollar opportunity for the industrial sector: How to extract full value from technology," which explores the potential for technology to transform the industrial sector. Other articles by Atluri include "Competing in a world of sectors without borders" (2017), "How tech-enabled consumers are reordering the healthcare landscape" (2016), "Unlocking digital health: Opportunities for the mobile value chain" (2015), "New trends in smart devices" (2014), and "Making smartphones brilliant: Ten Trends" (2012).

Venkat Atluri has co-authored a book, ‘The Ecosystem Economy’, with  Miklós Dietz, a fellow Senior Partners at McKinsey. The book offers a fresh perspective on how the global economy is being fundamentally transformed by the acceleration of new technology development, evolving consumer preferences and behaviours, business models and organisational and performance management constructs. 

In a recent interview with Dinis Guarda, he said:

“There is a lot more acceleration of technology, you can measure it with AI, Chat GPT, and many others taking place around us. But, in addition to this change, there is also a change in consumer behaviour. Collectively, these are bringing a lot of barriers down. With ecosystem trends, the players in various industries can now participate in different spaces that could have been harder otherwise."