3 ms·

I think a big part of the value proposition that firms like McKinsey and BCG brought during the 70s'-80s' is the idea of operational excellence. Many companies

I think a big part of the value proposition that firms like McKinsey and BCG brought during the 70s'-80s' is the idea of operational excellence. Many companies work on the same markets and sell the same products than others, but operate much more efficiently. Best practices are hard to share though, because companies cannot become full monopolies or engage in corporate espionage. McKinsey became then a discreet way of ensuring that your operating model was at least as good as the competitor, as they would share with you some fully anonymised benchmarks related to how competitors are operating.

thinkloop 6y ago
It's more than just benchmarking, a core part of the model is being able to legally share proprietary information. With a veneer of anonymity a person's "knowledge" and "experience" are too nebulous to regulate strictly - similar to silicon valley nda's.
ghaff 6y ago
When I was a product manager in the 80s, there was a whole class of company that was largely in the business of being an intermediary for data that everyone needed to operate but which they couldn't request directly from a competitor. It worked by the intermediary firm requesting things like data sheets from everyone which they were generally given because the firm was an ostensibly neutral analyst firm. Then when we needed competitive data we'd basically request the analyst firm to fax us over whatever they had in a particular product segment we had a subscription for. The firm did some value-add work too but a lot of their business was basically acting as a conduit for companies to indirectly share information.