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Nothing compares to you, McKinsey In an industry with a handful of leaders, McKinsey & Company has come to be regarded as the most influential consulting firm in the world. Founded by James O. McKinsey in 1926, McKinsey earns more money per consultant than any other consulting firm. Now with 79 offices in 39 countries, and more than 5,000 professional employees, McKinsey dominates its industry. When rival consulting firms want to give themselves a boost, they say they're second only to McKinsey. McKinsey consultants profit from this aura of prestige - per head, consultants reportedly bring in $450,000 annually. Among its employees and clients, McKinsey is known simply as "The Firm" (a nickname that predates John Grisham's oeuvre). Bright blue chips Clients of "The Firm" are the bluest of the blue chips. They include AT&T, Pepsi, IBM, General Electric, and General Motors. A consultant at competitor Bain sums up: "The hardest part about competing with McKinsey is that they have these deep relationships with senior management that lead companies to return to McKinsey unquestioned." Besides serving huge global companies, wealthy commercial banks, and vast technology firms, McKinsey also prides itself on offering pro bono assistance to educational, social, environmental, and cultural organizations. The firm is also working an increasing amount with emerging market companies and family-owned ventures. The bulk of the firm's work is in the private sector, but McKinsey also advises public sector organizations. The ultra-international consulting firm McKinsey consultants become part of a global network and a truly international firm. Despite its far-flung empire, McKinsey adopts a "one firm" approach and makes an effort to maintain a consistent "McKinsey culture" in each of its offices worldwide. (At present, a non-American majority controls the governing committee and 60 percent of revenues comes from overseas.) Lead or leave (or both) The McKinsey culture includes an emphasis on upward advancement. The firm has an "up-or-out" policy - consultants must either earn promotion or leave the company. New associates have about six years to make partner; partners then face a similar deadline in their efforts to become directors. On average, only one in 11 consultants who starts at McKinsey finishes this journey. Those who leave McKinsey may find themselves in politics (like Roger Ferguson, governor of the Federal Reserve Board); best-selling authors (the authors of the enormously successful business guide In Search of Excellence were former McKinsey consultants); or may even start up rival consultancies (as Tom Steiner did with Mitchell Madison). And many McKinsey consultants wind up in top spots in corporations: the CEOs of IBM, Federal Express, and Levi Strauss are all alums of The Firm. Doing their homework McKinsey prides itself on collecting and interpreting all business theories and information of any possible utility. Firm employees are fond of claiming that McKinsey does more research into business issues than the business schools at Wharton, Harvard, and Stanford combined. The firm also builds knowledge through conferences, research projects, online databases, and intrafirm training and communication. In addition, McKinsey publishes a large amount of booklets, documents, papers, and magazines, including the well-regarded McKinsey Quarterly. In Washington, DC McKinsey runs the Global Institute, which, located just steps from the White House, studies macroeconomic trends. In total, it is estimated that McKinsey spends more than $50 million per year on its information gathering and internal research. Entering the world of IT McKinsey has historically been known as a strategy consulting firm. But as technology consulting continues to outpace strategy earnings, McKinsey is adapting. The firm has launched a Business Technology Office, based "virtually" (though locations include Silicon Valley, Stamford, CT, London, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Madrid, and Zurich). The technology arm, integrated into McKinsey's mainstream strategic competency, will work on architecture design through implementation, though the firm will not do full-blown systems implementation.
McKinsey hires only 1 percent of the approximately 100,000 candidates who apply to the firm each year. Successful candidates usually have excellent academic records and degrees from top universities. Although McKinsey was recently slapped with a gender discrimination lawsuit by a former employee, the firm is well known for actively recruiting talented women, minorities, gays, and lesbians. At the analyst, or undergrad level, McKinsey assigns one campus team per school. Some schools, like the University of Rochester, for example, are not covered; graduates of these schools must pass their resumes to the closest firm office (the New York office in the case of Rochester) or apply online. MBAs are hired into McKinsey as associates, more than 45 percent of the firm's associates don't have business degrees – the firm also recruits law students, PhDs and MDs for associate positions. "We are also looking for people who hold 'APDs' or Advanced Professional Degrees," says one firm insider. "They are associates, not analysts, even if they graduate with a worthless PhD in Renaissance literature or what have you." The firm's interview process typically involves one or two rounds on campus, and then a third, final round in the office at which the candidate wants to work. McKinsey will fly final-round candidates cross-country (or cross-ocean), if need be. The final round is normally half a day of interviews, plus a meal (either lunch or dinner). Most final-round interviews are case interviews. It is McKinsey's intention that all candidates visit the office where they want to work before they get offers. While some offices are significantly larger than others, McKinsey is flexible about placement, believing there is always room for talent. At business schools, each recruiting team decides which case or cases they want to use in the interviews. The morning of the interview session, school team members normally present their cases to the team leader (a partner), who approves their cases or suggests new ones. These cases are usually based on the interviewer's own recent projects or assignments. The interviewers are told to use the same case all day, so they can gauge how well the candidates perform. "The downside, of course," admits one interviewer, "is that word gets out about the case." McKinsey "doesn't like brainteasers," but will give guesstimates if there is reason to believe that the candidate has a quantitative deficiency. On many campuses, McKinsey evaluates candidates through a "town hall" process, during which salient information about a candidate is flashed up on a screen. This information includes the candidate's resume, what McKinsey events he or she attended, and other intelligence on the person, including (in the case of business school students) opinions from former business analysts who attend classes with the individual. Normally (that is, "90 percent of the time") a consensus quickly develops. Otherwise, the firm will try to break the tie through one more interview or more extensive questioning of McKinsey alums who know the candidate.
Moving up and away McKinsey's high turnover rate is not due to employee dissatisfaction. Though McKinsey consultants are "universally elated" with their "challenging," "rewarding" assignments, they leave because they are actively recruited by corporate America to serve as executives; many McKinsey consultants are hired away by their clients. And of course, there's McKinsey's notorious up-or-out policy; the firm is "vigilant about pushing out those who don't meet its exacting standards." While they're there, McKinsey employees appreciate the "thorough" training they receive as well as the camaraderie of their colleagues, who are "bright, interesting, and fun to be around." Relatively down to earth Some consider the culture at McKinsey to be "on the snobbish side." Perhaps because consultants are the most highly paid in the industry: McKinsey consultants with a few years' experience receive more than $200,000 a year. Another consultant opines that "a lot of the people here are pretty square." Still, says one consultant: "Most people are down to earth. Some are very elitist, but those people usually find that in the long run they don't survive. When you visit a client you can't come off as uppity." Long on hours, long on prospects If you want to work at McKinsey, you should expect to work long hours. "Hours never go below 60 and at the high end can be 90 to 100 hours a week," reports one insider. While the firm is "proactive" about recruiting minorities and women, the numbers are "hard to find" at the higher levels. All in all, say consultants, they have "a lot of respect" for McKinsey. The firm "offers great promotional prospects," and "when you're ready to move on to another firm or industry, McKinsey gives you a tremendous variety of career prospects." The birth of specialization "There is definitely a move toward greater industry specialization going on at McKinsey," discloses one insider. "The number of generalists is still high, but we are hiring more and more industry experts. In my department, we've recently taken in a health care expert and a market research expert." How does McKinsey decide who qualifies as an "expert" in a particular field? "Our experts are usually PhDs," reports another insider, "or those with a great deal of experience in a desired industry ? especially on the strategic side." What factors account for this change? "I think there are two reasons," replies one thoughtful insider. "First, industry-specific firms like Greenwich Associates are giving us a lot of competition. And second, the other large strategy consulting firms like Andersen are gaining industry-specific expertise that they didn't have five or 10 years ago. To compete, we've needed to become sharper, more focused." Classes on where to put your hand Employees can attend brief training sessions, called "micro-trainings" at McKinsey. "There's one training called Health Care 101," remarks one insider. "It's only a day; and if you want to be better informed, there's always Health Care 102." As far as computer training is concerned, quickie tutorials are easy to come by. "You can go for computer training whenever you want. All you have to do is call a day ahead of time, say you want to learn advanced Excel, and go the next afternoon." During their first year at McKinsey, new associates receive ongoing training, including "extensive training on how to behave with clients." Young consultants are drilled on everything from "how to shake hands," "how to present to the client," and "the use of graphs and slides," to "where to keep your hands when you sit and when you're presenting." "Remember," McKinsey warns its new hires, "you are always being watched."
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