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166 The McKinsey Mind

Two underlying themes emerge from these lessons. The first is
that proactive steps must be taken to manage client involvement:
keep them involved through active participation, not just periodic
updates; deal with troublesome team members in a direct, devel-
opmental manner (or work around the worst cases); and rejoice
in small victories that help win the war. Like the management
lessons from the previous chapter, mediating client involvement is
best considered a separate task that requires special attention and
thinking on your part as the client manager. The other theme cen-
ters on consideration of the clients: work around their schedule,
send agendas ahead of time, don’t take too much of their time,
appreciate what they have done, and keep client data strictly
confidential.

LESSONS LEARNED AND IMPLEMENTATION
ILLUSTRATIONS
The “client involvement” theme resonates with McKinsey alumni
as they move into their post-McKinsey positions. The primary les-
son from their implementation efforts simply focuses on becom-
ing creative and proactive: create involvement opportunities.
Create involvement opportunities. Shyam Giridharadas left
McKinsey to found and run his own consulting firm, Prism Con-
sulting International. He learned that delivering consistent high-
quality work was not enough; client involvement was critical:

Fact-based, creative problem solving and objective, intellec-
tually honest recommendations are the hallmarks of an
excellent management consultant, but this is only half of the
equation. Consulting work is most effectively undertaken in
the client’s own backyard. It becomes extremely important
to integrate client team members at all levels within the orga-