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McKinsey & Company

Type	Incorporated Partnership
Industry	Management consulting
Founded	1926
Founder(s)	James O. McKinsey and Marvin Bower
Number of locations	over 100 offices over 45 countries
Key people	Dominic Barton (Managing director) Ron Daniel (Senior partner emeritus) Fred Gluck (Senior partner emeritus) Rajat Gupta (Senior partner emeritus) Ian Davis (Senior partner emeritus)
Services	Management consulting services
Revenue	$ 7 billion (est. 2010)[1]
AUM	over $ 5 billion (MIO Partners)
Employees	17,000 (9,000 consultants)[2]
Website	www.mckinsey.com

McKinsey & Company, Inc. is a global management consulting firm that focuses on solving issues of concern to senior management. McKinsey serves as an adviser to many businesses, governments, and institutions. It is recognized as one of the most prestigious consulting firms in the world,^[3][4] has proportionally produced more CEOs in large-scale corporations than any other company,^[5] and has been a top employer for new MBA graduates since 1996.^[6]

History[link]

McKinsey & Company was founded in Chicago in 1926 by James O. ("Mac") McKinsey as James O. McKinsey and Company. Previously, McKinsey served as an accounting professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is considered the father of managerial accounting. In 1935 Marshall Field's became a client and in 1935 convinced McKinsey to leave the firm and become its CEO. This led to a merger between James O. McKinsey and Company and Scovell, Wellington & Company as McKinsey, Wellington & Company. The new firm had both an accounting practice and a management engineering practice.^{[citation needed]}

In 1937 James O. McKinsey died unexpectedly of pneumonia, which led to the division of McKinsey, Wellington & Company in 1939. C. Oliver Wellington returned to manage Scovell, Wellington & Company full time and took the accounting practice with him. The management engineering practice was split into two affiliated firms: McKinsey & Company and McKinsey, Kearney & Company. McKinsey & Company was led by Guy Crockett, Dick Fletcher, and Marvin Bower. McKinsey, Kearney & Company was led by Andrew Thomas Kearney.^{[citation needed]}

By 1952 McKinsey & Company formally parted ways with McKinsey, Kearney & Company, which was renamed A.T. Kearney & Company. At the time, McKinsey was led by Marvin Bower as then-managing director. Bower had joined the firm in 1933 and served as managing director from 1950 to 1967. During his tenure he oversaw the firm's rise to global prominence and established many of its guiding principles. Even after formally leaving McKinsey in 1967, Bower continued to provide guidance and counsel to the firm for many years. He is called the father of modern management consulting.^{[citation needed]}

Ron Daniel was Bower's protégé, and managing director from 1976 to 1988. As of 2004, he remains a senior partner and “the bridge between McKinsey's founding generation and the present.”^[7] The firm takes mentorship very seriously; Daniel mentored Rajat Gupta, who mentored Anil Kumar, who advised current managing director Dominic Barton. Gupta and Kumar were later entangled in the Galleon scandal, described as the firm's most significant crisis to date.^[8]

Organization and administration[link]

McKinsey & Company, while formally organized as a corporation, functions as a partnership in all important respects.^{[citation needed]} Its managing director (currently Dominic Barton) is elected for a three-year term by the firm's other senior partners. Each managing director can serve a maximum of three terms, a policy instituted by Rajat Gupta. At a strategic level, a number of committees are charged with the development of policies and making critical decisions. Committee memberships, senior roles, and the managing director position all rotate regularly among the firm's senior partners and directors.^[9]

Former managing director Rajat Gupta explains McKinsey's structure as follows:

It is very much, in many dimensions, like an academic organization. We have senior partners who are very much like tenured faculty: they are leaders in their own right. [...] We have about 80 to 100 performance cells -- a geographic office or industry practice or functional practice. They are very much autonomous and they are not organized in any hierarchy beyond that. We don't have any regional structures or sectoral structures. So all these performance units, in a theoretical sense, report to me, which means they don't report to anybody, because nobody can have 80 or 100 people reporting to them.^[9]

McKinsey operates under a practice of "up or out", meaning that consultants must either advance in their consulting careers within a pre-defined timeframe or leave the firm. "25% of the firm is new every year," Gupta says, "so half the people have less than two to three years' tenure in the firm, and their values need to be reinforced." All senior roles rotate among the directors (senior partners).^[9][10]

McKinsey has about 9,000 consultants in 97 locations in 55 countries,^[11] working with more than 90% of the 100 leading global corporations and two-thirds of the Fortune 1000 list. Forbes estimated the firm's 2009 revenues at $6.6 billion.^[12] The notion of company growth has been controversial from the 1970s as the firm began its global expansion; McKinsey opened many new offices under Rajat Gupta's tenure in the late 1990s. The election of British-born Ian Davis as Gupta's successor was seen as "a return to McKinsey's heritage".^[13]

Another controversial McKinsey practice is its non-exclusivity policy: a conflict of interest could arise as different teams of consultants might work for direct competitors in an industry. This works to McKinsey's advantage, because it does not rule out working for potential clients.^{[citation needed]} Furthermore, knowing that a competitor has hired McKinsey has historically been strong motivation for other companies to seek McKinsey's assistance themselves.^{[citation needed]} The policy also means McKinsey can keep its list of clients confidential.^{[citation needed]} However, because of this there is great emphasis placed on client confidentiality within the firm, and consultants are forbidden from discussing details of their work with members of other teams.^{[citation needed]} While still working for McKinsey, consultants are prohibited from serving direct competitors unless they wait two or more years between the date they cease serving one competitor and begin serving the next; in some cases, consultants are forbidden from ever serving a competitor.^{[citation needed]}

This philosophy has come under increased scrutiny with the Galleon case, with some questioning whether the firm is a discreet broker of confidential or even inside information marketed as "best practices".^[14]

Notable longtime McKinsey partners include: Dominic Barton; managing director, Ron Daniel; senior partner emeritus, Ian Davis; senior partner emeritus, Anil Kumar; former senior partner, Rajat Gupta; senior partner emeritus and Michael Patsalos-Fox; senior partner.

Recruiting[link]

Marvin Bower broke with then-common industry practice by hiring recent graduates from the best business schools rather than among experienced managers.^[15] Today the firm is among the top recruiters of graduates of the top-ranked business programs in the US and overseas, in addition to hiring a significant number of people with other advanced degrees in science, medicine, engineering and law. The firm is notable for the number of Rhodes Scholars it is able to attract.^[16]

The Firm is organizationally divided into partners and non-partners. It is generally not possible to join the firm as a partner; instead, partners are promoted internally from the existing ranks of principals and associates. According to the Firm's career website, "successful consultants who join McKinsey early in their career can expect election to principal (the first stage of partnership) within five to seven years. ... There is no limit to the size of our partnership."^[17] Successful partners are sometimes elected director (senior partner) after at least seven years as partner, though there are fast-rising exceptions (notably Ron Daniel, Rajat Gupta, and Anil Kumar) who become directors ~10 years after joining the firm as associates.

Officially, "director" is the highest position (other than the rotating managing director) at McKinsey, though top directors are distinguished by reputation and influence. The firm's mandatory retirement age is 60, after which directors become "director emeritus."^[18]

Compensation[link]

As a private firm, McKinsey is not required to disclose any compensation figures. Compensation also differs from the financial services sector in that consultants are not paid proportional to the business they bring in; top senior partners and the managing director (also a senior partner) maintain similar compensation. This was estimated to be $2-4 million in 1994 dollars ($3-5 million today),^[19] and has at least doubled ($6-12 million) today given the Firm's growth over the last 15 years.^{[citation needed]} Other estimates place the managing director's compensation between $5 and 10 million.^[20]

Senior partner and former managing director Rajat Gupta's McKinsey retirement salary the year after he retired from from the firm was $6 million — followed by $2.5 million a year for at least the next three years — though the article didn't specify if this applied to all top senior partners or only former managing directors.^[21]

Junior directors were said to earn at least $1 million a year in 1994 dollars ($2 million in 2009).^[19] There were over 400 directors at the Firm in 2009, up from 150 in 1994.^[22][23]

A 1993 Fortune profile says, "The Firm places itself above discussing money as a motivation, yet senior partners often earn as much, or more, than the CEOs they advise"^[23], though over the last 15 years CEO compensation has increased disproportionately.^[24]

Competitors[link]

Three firms primarily compete in providing management consulting services to Fortune 500 and large enterprises, consistently recruiting top talent from elite colleges and professional/graduate schools globally: McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, and The Boston Consulting Group.^[25] This top tier of the consulting industry is commonly termed the "MBB" by executive recruiters and industry insiders.^[26]

Although these firms compete directly across all major sectors and geographies, each firm possesses its own unique profile that defines its sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. McKinsey & Co., on account of its experience, deep board/C-level relationships and scale, is currently a strong player in general strategy, financial services, operations and IT. McKinsey holds the highest market share among the firms globally with geographic strength across the Americas, Europe and Asia. BCG displays competitive strength in general strategy and holds the second-highest market share globally after McKinsey. Bain & Co. is the strongest player in the PE/LBO space, servicing most major private investment firms globally.

Publishing[link]

McKinsey publishes several journals, most notably McKinsey Quarterly.^[27] It also publishes McKinsey on Business Technology, McKinsey on Payments, McKinsey on Corporate and Investment Banking, and McKinsey on Finance. Several business books have been authored by McKinsey consultants, including Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, The Alchemy of Growth, Creative Destruction, and The War for Talent. Former consultant Tom Peters authored the well-known book In Search of Excellence based on a project initiated by Ron Daniel in 1977.

Knowledge management system[link]

McKinsey invests significantly in its knowledge management system to support field consultants. The system includes generalist researchers, industry- and function-specific experts and librarians, and access to journals and databases. McKinsey maintains an organisation called the McKinsey Knowledge Centre (McKC) that provide rapid access to specialized expertise and business information.^[28] In addition, consultant-authored internal "practice development" documents capture generalizable insights from client engagements. There are also methods to access individual consultants with expertise from previous client studies or previous employment, for background assistance (competitive information is not shared).

This system was created and chaired by former senior partner Anil Kumar as an early example of knowledge process outsourcing.^[29]

Asset management[link]

McKinsey maintains a secretive and low-profile family of hedge funds and private equity firms collectively known as the McKinsey Investment Office (MIO Partners) for its own exclusive use. MIO is a wholly owned subsidiary of McKinsey and Company and reports to its finance and investments committee, which is chaired by a top senior partner (formerly William Meehan).^[30][31]

These funds have had over $5 billion in assets under management (AUM).^[30]

From the firm's website:

This firm manages a wide array of investment vehicles for the Firm’s Partners and pension plans, with significant expertise in alternative strategies including hedge funds and private equity. A principle objective of the Investment Counseling Function is to help our investing partners create long term wealth by constructing appropriate investment portfolios and avoiding expensive and/or inefficient products. At the same time, the products and services offered must save Partners time relative to those which are available externally. This firm’s role is to provide investment education, counseling and select products to Partners.^[32][33]

MIO is "responsible for pension and discretionary partner investments, with a particular focus on alternative investments."^[34]

Notable alumni[link]

McKinsey has produced more CEOs than any other company and is referred to by Fortune magazine as "the best CEO launch pad".^[35] More than 70 past and present CEOs at Fortune 500 companies are former McKinsey employees. Among McKinsey’s most notable alumni are:

• Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL
• Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone
• Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton
• Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., former chairman and CEO of IBM and chairman of The Carlyle Group
• James P. Gorman, President and CEO of Morgan Stanley
• Stephen Green, chairman of HSBC
• Rajat Gupta, former managing director of McKinsey & Company, co-founder of the Indian School of Business, and corporate board member
• Bobby Jindal, current Governor of Louisiana
• Marius Kloppers, CEO of BHP Billiton
• Anil Kumar, former senior partner of McKinsey & Company and co-founder of the Indian School of Business
• David McCormick, co-CEO of Bridgewater Associates and former Under Secretary for International Affairs within the United States Department of the Treasury
• James McNerney, chairman and CEO of Boeing
• Helmut Panke, former chairman and CEO of BMW AG
• Corrado Passera, Italian Minister of Development and Minister of Infrastructures, ex-CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo
• Tom Peters, business management writer and author of In Search of Excellence
• Jonathan Schwartz, former CEO of Sun Microsystems
• Christopher A. Sinclair, former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
• Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO of Enron
• Kevin Sharer, CEO of Amgen
• Peter Wuffli, former CEO of UBS AG

Criticism[link]

According to firm policies, firm members may not discuss specific client situations. The firm also maintains a deliberate and low-profile external image. Maintaining client confidentiality protects client interests and allows McKinsey continued license to operate. However, it also blocks public scrutiny and assessment of its client base, success rate, and profitability.^[36] This confidentiality also helps conceal McKinsey's fee structure.

The policy of client confidentiality is maintained even among former employees; as a result, journalists and writers have had difficulty developing fully informed accounts of mistakes which McKinsey employees may have made. It naturally also prohibits quantifying the benefits that good advice may have delivered. Despite this difficulty in attributing mistakes to McKinsey employees and alumni, some suggestions have been put forward:

• In June 2011 McKinsey & Company created some controversy by releasing a study on the effects on small businesses of the US Administration’s health care bill.^[37] The study’s findings contradicted most previous estimates made by renowned research institutes and the independent Congressional Budget Office.^[38] McKinsey’s initial decision not to disclose any information regarding its methodology, the questionnaire used and the target group that was polled, caused widespread criticism. This lack of transparency led to accusations of partisanship and cast serious doubts upon the company’s claim to independence and objectivity.^[39] McKinsey finally bowed to the pressure by the media and the White House and released the questionable survey, arguing that “[t]he survey was not intended as a predictive economic analysis of the impact of the Affordable Care Act”. They furthermore admitted having used suggestive language by saying “[w]e understand how the language in the article could lead the reader to think the research was a prediction, but it is not.”^[40],^[41] The company's decision to stand by the findings was met with additional criticism. The New York Times quoted the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee as saying that “[t]his report is filled with cherry-picked facts and slanted questions. [...] It did not provide employers with enough information for them to make honest choices and fair evaluations. Rather than correct the major deficiencies in their report, McKinsey has chosen to again stand by their faulty analysis and misguided conclusions.”^[38]

• In 2010 Rainforest Foundation UK released a report revealing the poor quality of the recommendations McKinsey had given to developing countries on how to reduce deforestation. The NGO pointed out that the company’s work has serious methodological flaws and as a result systematically underestimates the destructive impacts of industrial agriculture while exaggerating those of subsistence farming.^[42] Adding to this, a Greenpeace investigation brought to light that McKinsey’s advice does not only fail to address some of the main drivers of deforestation such as logging and mining, but that the company’s proposals would actually reward those industries. Greenpeace pointed out that if McKinsey’s recommendations were followed, large-scale monoculture plantations would expand into ecologically important areas.^[43] Discussing McKinsey’s decision not to publish the data and assumptions underlying their recommendations, senior personnel at the World Bank has criticized the company’s lack of transparency, noting ‘that the blackbox is a problem for everybody’.^[44] Potential conflicts of interests could arise from the fact that if McKinsey’s policy recommendations were implemented, they would heavily benefit industries like logging, mining and paper with whom McKinsey maintains close business relations.^[45] McKinsey’s refusal to disclose its business clients has added to those concerns. The firm’s work was subsequently criticized by think tanks and in academic reviews. Researchers from the University College London called attention to the fact that by not considering highly relevant implementation barriers such as forest governance and the costs of enforcement and the installation of sufficient institutional frameworks, McKinsey promotes an overly simplistic view of environmental policy-making.^[46] A study by the Stockholm Environment Institute which was granted access to McKinsey’s data set found considerable discrepancies between the company’s estimates of the costs for reducing deforestation rates and those assumed by most renowned scientific models.^[47] While the quality of the company’s advice has become a widely discussed question at the World Bank and in United Nations meetings on climate change, McKinsey is reported to continue its work in rainforest nations such as Papua New Guinea (PNG), where the company has ‘refused to comply with PNG laws and register with the Investment Promotion Authority and Internal Revenue Commission’.^[48],^[49],^[50]

• Enron was headed by McKinsey alumni and was one of the firm's biggest clients before its collapse.^[51] In particular, McKinsey's "deep-seated belief that having better talent at all levels is how you outperform your competitors", a HR program implemented at Enron with McKinsey's knowledge, resulted, in the opinion of one author, a workplace culture of prima donnas that "took more credit for success than was legitimate, that did not acknowledge responsibility for its failures, that shrewdly sold the rest of us on its genius, and that substituted self-nomination for disciplined management."^[52] Jeff Skilling, sentenced to 24 years in federal prison as the CEO of Enron, was formerly a partner at McKinsey and "loyal alum."

• Another notably troubled company associated with McKinsey is Swissair, which entered bankruptcy twelve years after McKinsey recommended The Hunter Strategy.^[53]

• Misguided analysis, such as its recommendation in 1980 to AT&T that cellular phones — admittedly then a tiny market — would be a niche market.^[54]

• Several civil suits have been filed against home insurance and vehicle insurance companies after the insurers were advised by McKinsey, and allegedly paid the insured parties significantly less than the actual value of the damage.^[55] McKinsey was cited in a February 2007 CNN article with developing controversial car insurance practices used by State Farm and Allstate in the mid-1990s to avoid paying claims involving soft tissue injury.^[56]

• General Electric's CEO Jeff Immelt in defending GE Capital's poor performance, maintained that no one had foreseen the crisis. He maintained that he had sought external opinions from McKinsey in 2007 before the global financial crisis which suggested that that "money from nations with a trade surplus, like China, and sovereign wealth funds, among other investors, would provide enough liquidity in the financial system to fuel lending and leverage for the foreseeable future."^[57]

• Concerns from teachers and parents regarding their consultation for public school districts. Recently, McKinsey worked for the Minneapolis Public Schools, where the firm recommended that the district cut "high costs" such as teacher health care, and recommended converting the 25 percent of schools that scored the lowest on standardized tests to privatized charter-school status. Teachers in Seattle passed a resolution of non-compliance with McKinsey's study of the Seattle Public Schools in protest.^[58]

Among other books and articles, The Witch Doctors, written by The Economist editor-in-chief John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, presents a series of blunders and disasters alleged to have been McKinsey's consultants' fault. Similarly, Dangerous Company: The Consulting Powerhouses and the Businesses They Save and Ruin by James O'Shea and Charles Madigan, critically examines McKinsey's work within the context of the consulting industry.

Galleon insider trading scandal[link]

	Rajat Gupta and Raj Rajaratnam FBI wiretap from July 28, 2008 of McKinsey senior partner emeritus Rajat Gupta speaking to Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam about Goldman Sachs, senior partner Anil Kumar, Galleon International and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
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McKinsey senior executives Rajat Gupta and Anil Kumar were among others charged in an ongoing government investigation into insider trading for allegedly sharing inside information with Galleon Group hedge fund owner Raj Rajaratnam. Gupta and Kumar were close friends of each other and of Rajaratnam, as well as the co-founders of the Indian School of Business.^[59][60] Though McKinsey was not accused of any wrongdoing, the incident was embarrassing for the firm, for which integrity and protecting client confidentiality is a major premise of its business.^[61][62][63] McKinsey no longer maintains a relationship with either senior partner after the allegations,^[64][65] though the manner in which it severed ties attracted controversy.^[66]

Senior partner Anil Kumar left the firm after the allegations in 2009 and pleaded guilty in January 2010.^[67][68] While he and other partners had been pitching McKinsey's consulting services to the Galleon Group, Kumar and Rajaratnam reached a private consulting agreement violating McKinsey's policies on confidentiality and against outside consulting.^[69]

During Raj Rajaratnam's trial, a wiretap recording showed Rajaratnam and his brother had also contacted McKinsey junior partner David Palecek (now deceased), saying he was "a little dirty."^[70][71] Palecek's widow claimed he was approached but refused to be a part of the incident.^[71]

After stepping down as McKinsey's managing director (CEO) in 2003 and becoming senior partner emeritus in 2007, Rajat Gupta joined the boards of Goldman Sachs and Proctor & Gamble among other institutions. In March 2011, the SEC charged Gupta for allegedly sharing insider information from these confidential board meetings with Rajaratnam.^[72][73] Gupta countersued the SEC, both sides dropped suit,^[74] and the Department of Justice filed criminal charges in October 2011. Gupta was arrested by the FBI on October 26, 2011; the SEC filed suit again the same day. Among other allegations, prosecutors maintain that Gupta passed information to Rajaratnam within 4 minutes of the completion of a special Goldman Sachs board meeting to approve a capital injection by Warren Buffett during the height of the financial crisis in 2008; Gupta allegedly stood to profit as prospective chairman of Galleon International and as chairman of New Silk Route.^[75] At least twice, Gupta used a McKinsey phone to call Rajaratnam and retained other perks -- an office, assistant, and $6 million retirement salary in 2008^[76] -- as a retired director.^[77] The cases remain ongoing, and Gupta has maintained his innocence.^[78][79][80]

After the scandal McKinsey performed an independent review of its policies and procedures, including investigating other partners' ties to Gupta.^[81][82] There is no evidence of any damage to McKinsey's brand, though the firm has came under controversy for having former leading senior partners (Gupta and Kumar) as well as a junior partner (Palecek) all implicated with the Galleon Group and insider trading.^[83] The firm's revenues grew 10% during the same period, though its long term impact remains unknown.^[70][72]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Web Site
• McKinsey Quarterly
• McKinsey on Business Technology
• Google Finance - McKinsey & Company Company Profile
• McKinsey Hospital Institute
• McKinsey Solutions
• Consumer & Shopper Insights
• McKinsey Investment Office

Dominic Barton
Dominic Barton at the 2009 World Economic Forum
Born	1962
Citizenship	Canada
Alma mater	University of British Columbia Oxford University
Occupation	Consultant, Management expert
Employer	McKinsey & Company, Inc.
Title	Senior Partner and Worldwide Managing Director

Dominic "Dom" Barton (born 1962) is a longtime top senior partner and director at management consultancy McKinsey & Company, serving as its current managing director (chief executive) since 2009. He graduated from the University of British Columbia and pursued an MPhil in Economics as a Rhodes Scholar at Brasenose College, Oxford University.

Career[link]

Barton was one of six students from a high school class of 200 to attend college.^{[citation needed]} After the studying at the University of British Columbia he won a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University. He began his career as a currency analyst at Rothschild.

He joined McKinsey's Toronto office in 1986 and had a difficult time making partner, saying "It took me three times before I was elected a partner....I was working hard and I was rejected….it was a bit of a slap in the head." ^[1] From then on, he said, "my bar will be higher than McKinsey's." ^[2]

In the late 90s he made the then-counterintuitive career move of relocating to Korea to develop McKinsey's practice in the region. Barton enjoyed close relationships with the president and government of South Korea.^[3] He subsequently parlayed those relationships into a role running McKinsey in Korea from 2000–2004 and then McKinsey in Asia from 2004-2009.^[4] Barton's experience in Asia ultimately made him a strong candidate in the firm election as global managing director.^[2]

He is the author of China Vignettes: An Inside Look at China, a trustee of the Rhodes Trust and the Brookings Institution, and Chairman of the International Advisory Committee to the President of South Korea on National Future and Vision.

References[link]

External links[link]

• McKinsey & Co.: The man behind the curtain
• A Conversation with Dominic Barton
• McKinsey Asia bio
• Rhodes trustee bio
• Dominic Barton 101
• Barton interview
• McKinsey MD bio

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