It's not really a McKinsey thing, they just have a mystique. The value a consultancy can offer requires understanding a concept related to "stakeholder salience

It's not really a McKinsey thing, they just have a mystique. The value a consultancy can offer requires understanding a concept related to "stakeholder salience," which is essentially the logic of how group decisions get made. Their networks are also valuable, since if McKinsey facilitates the introduction, the person is going to return the call. I've also seen some VC firms move more into this role where they use their brand to get enterprise exec meetings for their portfolio companies, and I think that model could be an endgame for a lot of VC firms, not unlike Bain's private equity/consulting plays. In this sense, some of McKinsey's near term competition might not come from big-5 accounting firms, but from tech VC firms leveraging the brands, networks, talent, and tech of their portfolio companies.