Page 133 - The McKinsey Mind

05 (103-126B) chapter 5 1/29/02 4:50 PM Page 108

108 The McKinsey Mind

“Here’s a lot of data I know.” The board would become vis-
ibly agitated during his presentations. It took me two years
to break him of this habit.

—An alumnus in the retail industry
It’s no wonder they sound frustrated. A poor presentation can
make a good idea tough for an audience to grasp. More often,
though, a poorly designed presentation reflects a poorly thought-
out idea. It’s difficult to put incoherent thoughts into a coherent
structure.
Conversely, a well-written presentation in service to a good
idea can be a powerful instrument of change. Communicating a
course of action throughout an organization acts as a catalyst.
When Bob Garda became CEO of a brand-name consumer goods
manufacturer, he had just such an experience:

Most people don’t feel comfortable structuring a coherent
presentation that lays out a theme from which the subthemes
emerge. When I arrived on the scene, the company lacked a
clear vision for the future: what the organization was and
what it wanted to be when it grew up. Vision was one of the
first things that I felt we needed to address, and just the fact
that I was able to put together a presentation around that
theme—because I felt very comfortable laying out my ideas
in a structured manner—had a tremendous impact.

This ability to present ideas in a flowing, logical structure lies
behind the Firm’s self-proclaimed ability to “make change hap-
pen.” It’s not just that McKinsey consultants come up with good
ideas; it’s that they can communicate the full impact of these ideas
to their clients. This skill carries over extremely well into the out-
side world. As S. Neil Crocker, general manager of Pearson PLC’s
Virtual University Enterprises, remarks: