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I’d love to hate on McKinsey, but this piece is just anger with a few cherry picks. It’s a bad habit to take this seriously. It doesn’t even address the simple

I’d love to hate on McKinsey, but this piece is just anger with a few cherry picks. It’s a bad habit to take this seriously. It doesn’t even address the simplest explanation for most of this: big companies that are doing bad contact McKinsey to try and change strategies, so of course many bankruptcies follow hiring them. It’ll be like blaming the fire department for fire deaths because the trucks always seem to be near a fire.

civilized 4y ago
The author doesn't do a great job making the point, but there's more to it than that. In many cases, McKinsey encouraged strategies that harmed either the company, society, or both: - Shady accounting at Enron - Aggressive denial of claims at Allstate - Aggressive marketing of opioids at Purdue Pharma These strategies were not just one-off misfires, but deeply involved McKinsey's senior leadership over multiple years. EDIT: after poking around for more info on the Enron-McKinsey relationship, I'm not sure what is known with certainty other than that Jeffrey Skilling, CEO during the scandal, was a former McKinsey consultant, and McKinsey was doing stuff with Enron the whole time. McKinsey appears to have successfully convinced everyone that they weren't involved in the accounting scandal.
- fleetwoodsnack 4y ago
  Well said. It’s almost a meme at this point: HN commentor takes a reductive stance that sounds clever in theory, but collapses when confronted with the actual factual circumstances. Repeat ad nauseam with no gains in collective self-awareness.
- notahacker 4y ago
  That's completely consistent with the GP's point that companies who are struggling or companies that are taking big decisions tend to hire McKinsey to do some reports for them. That applies equally to some really successful clients whose successes McKinsey deserves essentially no credit for. The company that actually advised Enron on how to do its false accounts, Arthur Andersen, was broken up. McKinsey's documented involvement was fluffy stuff on management culture and writing press releases citing Enron as a success story which look pretty funny in hindsight.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

civilized 4y ago

The author doesn't do a great job making the point, but there's more to it than that. In many cases, McKinsey encouraged strategies that harmed either the company, society, or both: - Shady accounting at Enron - Aggressive denial of claims at Allstate - Aggressive marketing of opioids at Purdue Pharma These strategies were not just one-off misfires, but deeply involved McKinsey's senior leadership over multiple years. EDIT: after poking around for more info on the Enron-McKinsey relationship, I'm not sure what is known with certainty other than that Jeffrey Skilling, CEO during the scandal, was a former McKinsey consultant, and McKinsey was doing stuff with Enron the whole time. McKinsey appears to have successfully convinced everyone that they weren't involved in the accounting scandal.

fleetwoodsnack 4y ago
Well said. It’s almost a meme at this point: HN commentor takes a reductive stance that sounds clever in theory, but collapses when confronted with the actual factual circumstances. Repeat ad nauseam with no gains in collective self-awareness.
notahacker 4y ago
That's completely consistent with the GP's point that companies who are struggling or companies that are taking big decisions tend to hire McKinsey to do some reports for them. That applies equally to some really successful clients whose successes McKinsey deserves essentially no credit for. The company that actually advised Enron on how to do its false accounts, Arthur Andersen, was broken up. McKinsey's documented involvement was fluffy stuff on management culture and writing press releases citing Enron as a success story which look pretty funny in hindsight.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]