Page 158 - The McKinsey Mind

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ManagingYour Team 133

of whom prepped at Groton, majored in economics at Harvard,
worked for two years on Wall Street, and received MBAs in finance
from Wharton? Our book is about ways to enable more success-
ful decision making in your organization, and that doesn’t happen
by counting individuals like beans. When we talk about valuing
diversity, we don’t mean some arbitrary program of affirmative
action; we mean diversity of experience.
Take McKinsey, for example. It is hardly a diverse firm with
regard to race, gender, or school backgrounds (the “average”
McKinsey consultant in the United States is a white male with an
MBA from a top-five business school). Over the past 10 years,
though, the Firm has launched study after study on how to diver-
sify its profile of consultants, and as a result, the mix is becoming
much more diverse—and for good reason. The focus of this effort,
however, has been to recruit more individuals with different back-
grounds. For example, the Firm is hiring an increasing number of
law students, Ph.D.s from all disciplines, and specialized industry
hires.*
Dan Veto was a leader of recruiting in the Pittsburgh office of
McKinsey. He claims that the real value of a team comes from
diversity and the right balance of “background, enthusiasm, and
strong intellect.” He uses headhunters but is also open to hiring
from “nontraditional” sources if that will help him assemble the
best possible team.
What are the actual benefits of diversity on teams? Beyond
simply broadening the skill mix of the team, diversity can bring
fresh perspectives to bear on the problem and challenge assump-
tions that are too easily taken for granted. It can also make the

*Please remember that these are the views of the authors, not of McKinsey & Company. We
don’t speak for them, and they don’t speak for us.