When McKinsey Comes To Town — inside the global consulting giant
Some of the fiercest critics of McKinsey quoted in a new book about the consulting firm are its own employees. At riotous all-hands meetings or in coruscating exit emails fired off to the whole firm, they call out management for working with controversial clients.
McKinsey is an “amoral institution”, one departing consultant wrote to colleagues around the world, because it advised coal companies “directly responsible for putting us on the incomprehensible fast-track to planetary omnicide”.
And amid an internal revolt in the US over work for the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agency, one speaker at a town-hall meeting asked: “If we helped southern states ‘improve agricultural asset yield’ in the 1850s would we still stand behind that? Our guidance so far would indicate the answer is ‘maybe’.”
But it has also sounded a note of defiance. Bob Sternfels, current managing partner, has defended its work for fossil fuel companies, saying it is better to stay engaged and help them cut emissions, echoing the argument of asset managers opposed to divesting shares in oil companies.
In an interview with the Financial Times in June, Sternfels said: “There’s a lot of choice in this world, so if that doesn’t appeal to you, you don’t have to stay with us or come to us.” It was a startling thing to say to current and future employees because it stood out from the slick branding around purpose and positive impact used by most modern businesses, and indeed by McKinsey itself. Will Bogdanich and Forsythe find more blistering exit emails to quote in future editions?
When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm, by Walt Bogdanich & Michael Forsythe, Doubleday $32.50 / Bodley Head £20, 368 pages
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Stephen Foley
