Page 29 - The McKinsey Mind

01 (001-030B) chapter 01 1/29/02 4:48 PM Page 7

Framing the Problem 7

possible or not. Of course, this depended on understanding
how good we were. The only way I could come to grips with
that was to lay out an issue tree.* By the time I was done, I
had a MECE issue tree with all the branches covered by
yes/no questions. That proved very useful to me as the line
manager and chief strategist of Key Corp.’s largest business
in making sure that we were on the right track with our per-
formance improvement program.
I did it myself and then exposed others to it and the gen-
eral idea behind it. The issue tree in and of itself probably
strikes people as a bit “consultanty,” but when I’ve been able
to translate it into a communicable message, it’s never failed
me in any setting, anywhere.

Another example of the successful application of McKinsey
frameworks in a large organization comes from Bill Ross, who was
then at GE:

The biggest “framing the problem” issue I found involved
the big question, “Do we know where we are going in the
long term and have we developed our growth strategy?” The
answer in many cases was no. I worked individually with
some of the other general managers and then actually used
McKinsey to put together a workshop with the senior lead-
ership team to talk explicitly about our growth strategy. This
allowed me to start feeding them information and expose
them to some of the previous frameworks that I learned at
McKinsey. When they saw those, it triggered light bulbs in
their heads.

Large, cash-rich corporations might seem the ideal place to
apply McKinsey techniques. After all, most of McKinsey’s clients
fit that description. What might surprise you, however, is how

* We will discuss issue trees later in this chapter.