BCG Senior Partner's Daily Routine: Basketball & AI Strategy

Amanda Luther, a managing director and senior partner at BCG, has developed a specific routine to manage her demanding schedule. She begins her day at 7 a.m. with basketball, describing it as her 'Zen moment' to reset before work. Following her game, she walks approximately 15 minutes to her office in Austin, stopping at Veracruz for coffee and breakfast tacos.

Her professional life revolves heavily around AI strategy. Mornings are reserved for deep thinking and research, where she reviews internal BCG communications and newsletters. She avoids podcasts, preferring to read about AI, and maintains an active group chat with former classmates from Stanford. Her afternoons are consumed by internal meetings and client discussions, where she addresses the existential anxiety many C-suite executives feel regarding AI implementation. She also travels frequently, often flying to two, three, or four different cities a week, prioritizing direct flights to save time.

Balancing this intense workload requires strict discipline. Luther relies on an assistant to optimize her schedule hour by hour, especially when flight delays threaten her routine. She values her commute time for one-on-one calls and insists on reading 100 books a year, currently working through biographies of US presidents and Hugo Award-winning science fiction. By Friday, she is ready for a complete weekend reset to prepare for the next week's challenges.

Amanda Luther begins her day at 7 a.m. with a specific ritual: playing basketball. She describes this activity as her 'Zen moment,' utilizing her local neighborhood park to go through her shooting routine before starting her professional responsibilities.

After her game, Luther returns home to shower and prepare for the day. She walks to the BCG office in Austin, a commute that takes approximately 15 minutes from her apartment. Along the way, she stops at Veracruz, her favorite taco spot, to grab coffee and breakfast tacos.

The morning hours are designated for 'deep thinking' time. Luther focuses on preparing for client discussions and conducting research on broader AI trends. She spends time reading internal BCG communications and AI-related newsletters. She notes that the firm circulates a weekly aggregation titled 'Here are the top 10 things to read this week,' which pulls from various media sources.

Luther explicitly avoids podcasts, stating a preference for reading materials related to AI that hit her inbox. She also participates in an AI group chat with former classmates from Stanford, who work in various sectors including academia, investing, and engineering, allowing them to compare notes on industry developments.

Afternoons are typically filled with internal meetings for Luther. She notes that there is often 'low-grade tension' within the office as the team pushes themselves and their clients. A significant portion of her work involves addressing the AI question at the C-suite level, where the topic feels 'almost existential' to many executives.

Executives face a difficult dilemma: they know they must adopt AI because boards are asking for it, yet they are aware that most AI projects fail. This creates tension between the need to innovate and the fear of failure. As conversations move deeper into organizations, the questions become more personal, with employees worrying about the impact on their specific roles and feeling protective of established workflows.

Luther also focuses on the convergence of AI and the restaurant industry. While customer-facing innovations like apps and chatbots have existed for years, she finds the operational side exciting. She believes AI can simplify the complex work of running a quick-service restaurant, such as managing orders and inventory, by putting the right intelligence in a shift manager's hands.

Part of her role involves difficult conversations regarding careers. Luther acknowledges that emotions often arise during these discussions, with people sometimes crying. She keeps a box of tissues nearby and reassures them, stating, 'It's OK. Take your time,' emphasizing the importance of remembering the human element in these moments.

By 5 p.m., Luther is often flying out to another city. She identifies herself as a 'direct flight loyalist' and usually travels within the United States. In recent months, she has flown frequently to Dallas and Chicago, noting that Minneapolis has quietly become her new favorite city.

Her schedule is highly compressed, often involving travel to two, three, or four different cities in a single week. Consequently, flight delays represent the most fragile part of her schedule. To mitigate this, she stays in constant contact with her assistant to optimize the schedule, sometimes adjusting plans hour by hour.

Luther aims for seven to eight hours of sleep each night. While she can usually achieve this when she controls her schedule, flight delays remain a significant obstacle. To maximize efficiency, she utilizes her commute time as a 'productivity hack.' She ensures she is on one-on-one calls during her walk to the office or on the way to the airport to avoid wasting 'dead time.'

Despite the busy schedule, Luther maintains a strict boundary for personal time. She has one non-negotiable rule: she always makes time to read at the end of the day. She reads every day and aims to finish 100 books a year. Her current reading list includes biographies of every US president in order and science fiction novels, specifically working through all the Hugo Award winners.

Work-life balance is challenging to master, but after more than 14 years at Boston Consulting Group, Luther has learned to keep up with the consultant schedule while still getting a full night's sleep. She notes that what makes her anxious has changed over the years; she no longer gets nervous about meetings but worries about putting her teams in the right positions, as consulting is episodic and missing a good project can mean waiting months for another opportunity.

She faces a constant time crunch, currently trying to finish a perspective on generative AI. Finding two uninterrupted hours to sit down and think is difficult, even though she finds the work fun. By Friday afternoon, she is ready for a 'weekend reset'—two days completely off to recharge before Monday arrives.

When Monday comes, she returns to the 'puzzle' of moving pieces around and solving new problems. She notes that this challenge is what keeps her at the firm. Another thing that keeps her going is sugar; she admits that getting a good cookie during the day is a 'big plus' for her morale.