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Had a lot of experience with McKinsey doing projects at my company at different levels I’ve been in throughout it the years. When it’s highly technical things l

by Vaslo 7y ago

Had a lot of experience with McKinsey doing projects at my company at different levels I’ve been in throughout it the years. When it’s highly technical things like implementing a new technology you know nothing about or a new manufacturing footprint that is tangible to perform, they do good work. Anything “Strategic” or fluffy I find a waste of time. They are excellent salespeople and do a lot to calm the C-suite but I rarely see these fluffy items driving employee happiness or the bottom line after spending millions.

mumblemumble 7y ago
Doesn't seem surprising. If it's implementing a specific technical process, there are measurable outcomes that must be met, and your client will know whether or not you met them. Senior leadership contracting an outsider to tell them how their own industry works and explain their place in it, though, is right up there with asking the Psychic Friends Network for career advice. They're just begging to be taken for a ride.
- mumblemumble 7y ago
  I'm realizing that I should temper my cynicism. "Senior leadership contracting an outsider to tell them how their own industry works and explain their place in it" might be a straw man. Strategic consulting could just as easily be, "We're considering expanding into this new market that we don't know as well, and we're hiring a consultant who specializes in that." Or, a previous employer hired a consultant for guidance on how to prepare the company to be sold.
- gadders 7y ago
  The old phrase about consultants is that they borrow your watch to tell you the time.
mdorazio 7y ago
FYI that's likely due to there being different organizations inside McKinsey (and all the big consultancies) with very different goals and employees. Technical implementation work usually comes out of a different org than management/strategy consulting.
hogFeast 7y ago
A question I have asked myself a few times as the guy who has to work out whether to invest in the guys hiring McKinsey: if you need McKinsey to do "technical" work for you then why am I giving you money? Strategy is very useful...but, again, McKinsey know almost nothing about this too. In my experience, capital allocators are born not made. The idea that you can be a strategic genius without ever taking any risk yourself (i.e. the kind of person who goes to the colleges McKinsey hires from) is just wrong. And the funniest thing about McKinsey is they are, apparently although not so much anymore, arch capitalists but largely exist to milk money from the principal-agent problem. McKinsey is the problem.

by Vaslo 7y ago

mumblemumble 7y ago

Doesn't seem surprising. If it's implementing a specific technical process, there are measurable outcomes that must be met, and your client will know whether or not you met them. Senior leadership contracting an outsider to tell them how their own industry works and explain their place in it, though, is right up there with asking the Psychic Friends Network for career advice. They're just begging to be taken for a ride.

mumblemumble 7y ago
I'm realizing that I should temper my cynicism. "Senior leadership contracting an outsider to tell them how their own industry works and explain their place in it" might be a straw man. Strategic consulting could just as easily be, "We're considering expanding into this new market that we don't know as well, and we're hiring a consultant who specializes in that." Or, a previous employer hired a consultant for guidance on how to prepare the company to be sold.
gadders 7y ago
The old phrase about consultants is that they borrow your watch to tell you the time.

mdorazio 7y ago

FYI that's likely due to there being different organizations inside McKinsey (and all the big consultancies) with very different goals and employees. Technical implementation work usually comes out of a different org than management/strategy consulting.

hogFeast 7y ago

A question I have asked myself a few times as the guy who has to work out whether to invest in the guys hiring McKinsey: if you need McKinsey to do "technical" work for you then why am I giving you money? Strategy is very useful...but, again, McKinsey know almost nothing about this too. In my experience, capital allocators are born not made. The idea that you can be a strategic genius without ever taking any risk yourself (i.e. the kind of person who goes to the colleges McKinsey hires from) is just wrong. And the funniest thing about McKinsey is they are, apparently although not so much anymore, arch capitalists but largely exist to milk money from the principal-agent problem. McKinsey is the problem.