Page 120 - The McKinsey Mind

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Interpreting the Results 95

In this section, we show you how to move from the story to the
solution.

THE McKINSEY WAY
McKinsey has one principle relevent to this section: you must make
sure the solution fits your client.
Make sure the solution fits your client. Management, like pol-
itics, is the art of the possible. The most brilliant solution, backed
up by libraries of data and promising billions in extra profits, is
useless if your client or business can’t implement it. Know your
client. Know the business’s strengths, weaknesses, and capabili-
ties—what management can and cannot do. Tailor your solutions
with these factors in mind.

LESSONS LEARNED AND IMPLEMENTATION
ILLUSTRATIONS
When McKinsey consultants leave the Firm and join other orga-
nizations, they often find that the challenge of generating an end
product as an insider is, if anything, greater than it was as an out-
side consultant. The lessons from our McKinsey alumni reflect this,
as they expand on the idea of fitting your solution to your client:

• See through your client’s eyes.
• Respect the limits of your client’s abilities.

See through your client’s eyes. When McKinsey consultants
talk about their organization, whether recruiting new consultants
or undergoing a “beauty parade” for a potential client, eventually
someone will utter the term CEO focus (or sometimes top man-
agement focus). CEO focus is the external counterpart to finding
the key drivers: it’s your view of what the five or six priorities of
the organization ought to be. This is the first step toward seeing