Page 15 - The McKinsey Mind

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xiv Introduction

Several senior McKinsey partners have risen to international
prominence in their own right. Lowell Bryan advised the Senate
Banking Committee during the savings and loan crisis. Jon Katzen-
bach’s books on the management of high-performance teams
appear on the bookshelves of CEOs around the world. Even more
visible are some of McKinsey’s alumni who have gone on to senior
positions around the world: Tom Peters, management guru and
coauthor of In Search of Excellence; Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM;
and Jeff Skilling, CEO of Enron, to name but three.
To maintain its preeminent position (and to earn its high fees),
the Firm seeks out the cream of each year’s crop of business school
graduates. It lures them with high salaries, the prospect of a rapid
rise through McKinsey’s meritocratic hierarchy, and the chance to
mingle with the elite of the business world. In return, the Firm
demands total devotion to client service, submission to a grueling
schedule that can include weeks or months away from home and
family, and only the highest-quality work. For those who meet
McKinsey’s standards, promotion can be rapid. Those who fall
short soon find themselves at the latter end of the Firm’s strict pol-
icy of “up or out.”
Like any strong organization, the Firm has a powerful corpo-
rate culture based on shared values and common experiences.
Every “McKinsey-ite” goes through the same rigorous training
programs and suffers through the same long nights in the office. To
outsiders, this can make the Firm seem monolithic and forbidding.
One recent book on management consulting likened McKinsey to
the Jesuits.
The Firm has its own jargon, too. It is full of acronyms: EM,
ED, DCS, ITP, ELT, BPR, etc. McKinsey-ites call their assignments
or projects “engagements.” On an engagement, a McKinsey team
will search for the “key drivers” in their quest to “add value.” Like
most jargon, much of this is simply verbal shorthand; some of it,