Page 175 - The McKinsey Mind

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150 The McKinsey Mind

THE McKINSEY WAY
McKinsey intensively trains its first-class consultants to solve busi-
ness problems. Development at McKinsey is so ingrained in the
culture that it has become second nature.

LESSONS LEARNED AND IMPLEMENTATION
ILLUSTRATIONS
We dissected development at McKinsey and interviewed alumni
to find ways that other organizations can evaluate and enhance
their development programs. Our McKinsey alumni were very
clear in articulating how they have transferred McKinsey lessons in
development into their new organizations. They gave us two broad
guidelines:

• Set high expectations.
• Evaluate regularly, and make it balanced.

Set high expectations. At the beginning of our interview with
Jim Bennett, who was in charge of retail banking at Key Corp. at
the time, high performance aspirations became the central topic
of the discussion:

The single most important McKinsey tool I have in my new
position is the power to set very, very high performance
aspirations and drive the organization to achieve them.
For example, my team and I established a $100 million
cost reduction target and made it public. Quite a goal, but
we are going after it aggressively, and it is amazing what you
can accomplish when you do it in a “take no prisoners”
manner.

What applies to the organization also holds for the individu-
als within it. High expectations lead to high results; low expecta-