When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm

by Walt Bogdanich

From two prize-winning New York Times investigative journalists, an explosive, deeply-reported expose of McKinsey & Co., the international consulting firm that advises corporations and governments around the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Politics, History, Economics, Audiobook, Journalism

Audible Audio

First published October 2, 2022

Reviews

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was excellent but somewhere I imagine a room of lawyers and McKinsey execs were somewhat relieved to read it. It lacked a real knockout blow, and some of the content was almost discrediting to the authors.

There's a fair amount of late-capitalism, bad corporation stuff. Companies hire McKinsey to help them deliver more value to shareholders, and often the workers are the victims. This isn't at all revelatory, even if it's frustrating. This is covered quickly and effectively early in the book.

There are several chapters in the middle that reveal ways that McKinsey's actions contradict their values - working against the Affordable Care act, working with ICE during the Trump border detainment debacles, etc. This caused a lot of internal strife among the McKinsey rank and file, which is interesting to read about.

There are several examples of governments enlisting McKinsey to deliver terrible policy advice for exorbitant fees, while also working for the companies which benefit from these policies. Governments are not businesses and should not be run by the same principles, but we're still learning that the hard way.

The meat of the book, in my opinion, documents McKinsey's involvement with objectively unethical, and sometimes illegal mandates for big tobacco, Purdue Pharma, Allstate and Enron, among others. The stories here are shocking but not surprising, and all end on some variation of "McKinsey apologised/paid a fine/fired a couple people and promised never to do it again".

There are several pages devoted to the Houston Astros cheating, which I liked reading but found irrelevant and somewhat damaging to the thesis of the book.

Overall the book is a good read -- if you don't know McKinsey or the world in which they operate, much of this will be eye-opening and enraging. At this point in America's history though, it all feels depressingly unsurprising, part-and-parcel of How America Does Business. There is some hope in the form of moral, idealistic younger employees who abhor the 'growth at all costs' mantra and are vocal about it. Maybe this will incite more revealing and damning exposes, in the way that Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America and Pain Killer: A "Wonder" Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death opened the door for books like Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty.

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG!! Fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Highly recommend! Most intriguing business book I have read in 2023.

Walt Bogdanich does an amazing job peering under the hood at the inner workings of McKinsey in his book, When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm which is a huge nod to his phenomenal investigative journalism skills since McKinsey and their employees and ex-employees typically keep company and client information confidential.

Bogdanich shares many stories of McKinsey's work and influence on various companies, countries, industries, and government agencies. Many McKinsey alums are/were in senior leadership positions in government (Senator Tom Cotton, Senator Trent Lott, Lael Brainard: Vice Chair of Federal Reserve, Pete Buttigieg: US Secretary of Transportation), banking (Tidjane Thiam: CEO of Credit Suisse, Ian Narev: CEO Commonwealth Bank Group, Philip Purcell: CEO Morgan Stanley, Peter Wuffli: CEO UBS Asset, Peter Orszag: CEO Lazard), and business (Sundar Pichai: CEO Google, James McNerney: CEO Boeing, Sheryl Sandberg: COO Facebook, Jonathan Schwartz: CEO Sun Microsystems, Jeff Skilling: CEO Enron, Tad Smith: CEO Sotheby's, Helmut Panke: CEO BMW, Fred Malek: President Marriott Hotels, Hubert Joly: CEO Best Buy).

Bogdanich shares stories where McKinsey advised Disney to reduce costs related to ride maintenance and safety and suggested that all ride maintenance employees be moved to a night shift. Founder Walt Disney focused on ride safety and maintenance. Once Michael Eisner was the CEO, McKinsey was brought in to evaluate how to reduce costs and increase profits. Unfortunately, a roller coaster that was making unusual noises killed and injured park guests when wheel axles broke.

In the 1950's, McKinsey was asked to conduct an executive compensation study. Their study indicated that hourly worker's wages were increasing faster than executive wages. At the time, executives earned approximately 20x what front-line employees earned. Now that ratio is 350x. Many firms hire McKinsey to research executive compensation packages to ensure they are competitive. According to the book, it has been a race to the top to ensure executives continue to receive large compensation packages.

McKinsey created "matrix management" where employees reported to a myriad of bosses and accountability and responsibility levels were pushed lower in the organization. Banks, in particular, began allowing junior employees to issue and approve large loans. McKinsey also introduced the securitization of loans which allowed loans to be kept off balance sheets. This enabled banks to issue more loans and to use special purpose vehicles. We all know what happened to shaky mortgage loans.

Business author, Tom Peters, describes McKinsey's matrix management model as similar to playing tennis, soccer, and basketball on the same court at the same time with the same players. Bogdanich indicated that savvier companies stayed away from McKinsey fads.

Allstate hired McKinsey to help them reduce costs and increase profits. A college student was rear-ended in a car accident and McKinsey refused to pay his claim. The student ended up hiring a lawyer and the case dragged on for over seven years. The court ordered Allstate to provide the McKinsey powerpoint and Allstate refused. The fine was $25,000 per day. Allstate's fine rose to over $7 million dollars because they refused to provide the McKinsey powerpoint slides. Eventually a state prosecutor threatened to pull Allstate's Florida license so that they couldn't do any business in Florida. Allstate eventually provided the slides which showed the details on how claim agents were to slow-walk, deny, or lowball claims. In the meantime, State Farm and many other insurance companies had already hired McKinsey to help their companies reduce costs with the same model Allstate had implemented.

Bogdanich describes this as reverse Robinhood. The cost savings and increased profits put money in the executives' coffers as well as McKinsey's coffers.....all at the expense of policyholders. It was like declaring war on insurance policyholders. Bogdanich suggested to readers the book, From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves: The Dark Side of Insurance, for additional information about Allstate.

Additional stories are told about McKinsey's involvement with country governments, like Russia, China, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia. Other business stories include US Steel, Enron, and other well known companies. After the movie, Moneyball, McKinsey got involved in sports analytics and was advising the Houston Astros during the season they were cheating.

McKinsey develops systemized processes and then sells those processes to many companies within the same industry, regardless of conflict of interest. These systemized processes then metastasize within an industry. The end result is often a larger chasm between the haves and the have-nots. McKinsey is typically not held liable because they provide advice, they don't implement the processes.

Insightful and scary look at the level of influence McKinsey has played in the US, other countries, and many companies.

[Callum's Column · Rating 3 out of 5]

McKinsey and Company is the largest management consultancy firm in the world. It attracts top-tier talent with lucrative contracts while ostensibly improving people's lives. However, its clientele is hidden from public view, it plays both sides by doing concurrent work for clients with competing interests and routinely conducts business amorally—e.g., working for clients that harm people and the environment. Of particular egregiousness is the provision of their services to the Sackler family to increase OxyContin sales, tobacco companies to obscure the harm of smoking, and authoritarian regimes like Saudi Arabia and China.

This book lacks dynamism. Much of the exposés are essentially a tale of late-stage capitalism and would not really surprise anyone. Some companies only care for profit and are willing to sacrifice their supposed values along the way. Although McKinsey has done some shameful business, the authors try to blame it in certain cases when it has had only negligible involvement. For instance, in the chapter "The Enron Astros," the Astros cheating saga was blamed on McKinsey despite it only being consulted briefly by the club. While a former McKinsey employee was GM and spearheaded the cheating, McKinsey was not involved at all. Too much of the book reads like this.

This book paints a rather grim picture of the profession, which is not accurate. I am a management consultant working for a firm founded by a former McKinsey employee. I primarily work in public policy and human services, with my work producing positive influence across the country. For example, I have supported the restructuring of health systems to provide more holistic care, worked on family violence prevention policies and services, improved disaster response services, and advanced First Nations self-determination. What a company achieves depends on sticking to its values. Fortunately, mine does.

[Jenna ❤ ❀ ❤ · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a nutshell, When McKinsey comes to town, the average person is screwed.

This book is both illuminating and horrifying.... and unfortunately not all that surprising.

Pretty much all of us have been screwed one way or another, or many ways, by McKinsey and Company's influence on and recommendations to corporations and governments.

There's too much to say about this. If you're interested, and you should be, read this book.

[Brandice · Rating 3 out of 5]

When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm details various instances of the firm’s work as well as the secrecy surrounding its culture. Conflicts of interest appear prevalent, at least in several of the work examples described in this book.

In an effort to reduce expenses and improve efficiency, a common solution proposed by McKinsey (in the book’s examples) was cost cutting. This took place through both workforce reduction and in some instances, shortcutting safety protocols and procedures.

The most glaring, infuriating work shared in WMCTT is that the firm was advising major pharmaceutical companies while also advising the FDA at the same time. Another example of work described includes McKinsey advising a major insurance provider to make lowball offers and cheap settlements, wearing down those who don’t accept the initial offers and dragging claim cases out in court. Some consultants spoke out, but their well-intentioned, ethical takes weren’t often well-received.

While I found WMCTT interesting, learning more about the company, its work and largely confidential culture, the book itself didn’t always flow smoothly — It felt more like a collection of random examples. McKinsey has a statement about the book on its website, denouncing its accuracy, though the statement is quite generic. I felt the criticism in this book was more warranted than not, however the earlier chapters, focused on those most impacted by the corporate and consulting decisions, were by far the most compelling — 3.5 stars

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hopefully more people will review this book so the partisans at McKinsey will not artificially lower the book rating. Although their disingenuous criticism of the book will paradoxically highlight what is wrong with McKinsey-- their inability to recognize that efficiency is not the sine qua non of business excellence.

Although the book will not win any literary awards-- it is written in pedestrian, investigative journalism that would be found in The NY Times-- it is still riveting and infuriating. The authors recount the history of McKinsey's founding and the business relationships it has cultivated over the past century. It depicts the recycling of McKinsey analysts into government and business and thoroughly documents how McKinsey has been at the forefront of advising businesses who have brought us the 2007 financial crisis, the opioid crisis and the climate crisis among others. The conflict of interests that the authors highlight-- where McKinsey will advise the government along with the companies who fall under government regulation-- highlights the duplicity of the company. McKinsey states that there are company safeguards in place that mitigate these profound conflicts of interest. This is balderdash. St. McKinsey, however, requires strict confidentiality, making it impossible to understand the clients whom they serve on different sides of an issue , and more infuriating, purports to be a values-driven organization.

One of the most powerful aspects of the book is when employees call-out McKinsey for their hypocrisy and duplicity and are met by company bromides of "we care," "we have to be better," etc., while secrecy continues. For a company that boasts of "scientific management," shouldn't these purportedly intelligent employees recognize that in scientific publication, authors are required to list ANY potential conflict-of-interest because of the potential bias that arises when money is involved because it potentially influences the findings. McKinsey is a for-profit entity. A lot of scientific research is non-profit that might get translated into commercial use. Therefore, "science" gets filtered through a specific ideology and becomes less rigorous.


Science is a search, a quest for answers that isn't motivated (at its best) by money. Bastardizing science in the name of management in the quest for profits that enriches shareholders and executives while cities, employees and the environment suffer is insulting. Also, if economics is the "dismal science" because there are so many variables that aren't included in modeling because of complexity, then shouldn't scientific management be the "abysmal science," because to truly use a scientific lens, one has to factor individual, community, national, international variables that are complex so it essentially becomes a pseudo-science. How many times do we have to hear that " our models" said this is "once and a lifetime occurrence?" Remember McKinseyites, if you use "science" based on published data to develop "best practices," you are always one step behind the innovators who come first so that you have to incorporate them into future models. Sorry McKinsey employees, it must be a shock to be told you are the best and the brightest when you are the equivalent of those you get a participation trophy for playing-- unfortunately your participation often leads to disaster.

[Jake O'Neil · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this as soon as it came out--it had been heavily hyped on Twitter and in the media--and hoped to dig into an insider's account of how McKinsey, or the consulting industry in general, went wrong. Unfortunately, there is really nothing new in the book and most of its allegations against McKinsey are pretty big stretches (McKinsey is evil because coal is bad and McKinsey works with coal producers? Or McKinsey is evil because it advised US immigration authorities and...borders are evil? Or McKinsey is evil because it operates in China, like every other meaningful company?). McKinsey's work with Purdue Pharma is certainly the most damning story in the book--and it is abhorrent--but even there I might have expected a more thoughtful or nuanced examination.

The most charitable thing I can probably say is that if your views align with the editorial staff of the 2022 NYT, where both the authors come from, then you will like this book, as it adopts a similarly simplistic mindset in laying blame for all the progressive world's bugbears on one actor, McKinsey, and it foregoes any attempts at rigorous or nuanced analysis in making its case. But if you are anyone else I'd suggest taking a pass.

[JS · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hate McKinsey. I worked for a McKinsey-consulted company and of course they ruined it. Since I heard about the McKinsey role in Enron I have been waiting to hear of their downfall, but this book just provides proof that they’re likely too powerful and too enmeshed in the marketplace/government to fail. Great book with great anecdotes about their practices. This book should shock you

[Nathan Shuherk · Rating 4 out of 5]

The books doesn’t offer a ton in the way of analysis, but it is a really fascinating work of investigative journalism. Each chapter is relatively short and hard hitting. Both a quick and very dense read that people who are interested in stories about financial crimes would probably enjoy.

[Jess Owens · Rating 4 out of 5]

“To those convinced that a secretive cabal controls the world; the usual suspects are Illuminati, lizard people, or globalist. They are wrong, naturally. There is no secret society shaping every major decision and determining the direction of human history. There is, however, McKinsey & Company.”

I would rate this 3.5/5 but obviously rounded up. I feel really torn because I rate non-fiction primarily on if it teaches me something new and then on its delivery.

I thought the writing was good and so was the narration, and I did learn a lot from this book. I had heard of McKinsey before but didn't know much about them. This book is a long-form piece of investigative journalism as they dive deep into the company that is McKinsey and all of the various governments and corporations they have advised over many decades.

If you've heard of it, McKinsey has probably been involved in it. American government? Yep. Major League Baseball? Of course. National Basketball Association? Definitely. National Health Service? For sure. Juul Vapes? Yuppp. I could go on and on and this book did. It was separated into industries that McKinsey was involved with/consulted. I would have preferred a chronological story of how McKinsey came to be and all the entities they were involved in, but that's just me.

It is fascinating and infuriating to read about how much influence they have. How many companies call them in for help for various reasons and in numerous fields. Here's the thing, they're consultants yes but they're not experts on everything. How helpful can you actually be to doctors and how their budget should be spent or to basketball players and how their health data affects the way they play? They can't know all and they don't! They know how to go in and make companies more money which in the end usually hurts the majority of employees at said company and makes the CEOs more money.

McKinsey appears to be a company with no morals or values except MAKE MORE MONEY. They will work with any and everybody. However, my biggest gripe with this book is that they don't put equal blame on the government or companies that choose to hire McKinsey. Maybe in the beginning of their business, it was less known how they operate. But they've been around for decades and they keep getting hired. And they're not making chump change, these corporations are paying them millions of dollars for their services, while simultaneously laying off their own employees. So I was both disgusted at every company that hired McKinsey and McKinsey themselves. But the authors don't really seem to place fault on the businesses, as if McKinsey was forced upon them.

In the end, this was informative. And it just cements the fact that capitalism is the devil. CEOs suck and only care about more making more money and paying the people who do the work even less. I hate everything.

[jmilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a quote from a former consultant at the end of this book joking that while the Illuminati and other secret societies are a conspiracy, McKinsey & Co is real. Honestly shocking to read about everything this company has consulted on from Big Pharma to terrorist regimes…

[Rick Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s good.

Really deep level of access that I haven’t seen in other books about McKinsey. It really hammers on the idea that they are talking out of both sides of their mouth as an organization. Assisting Purdue Pharma and the FDA. Despots, dictators and democracies. Any client is acceptable. Conflicts of interest again, and again, and again as a business model.

Worth a read before engaging with the company. Either from the hiring side or on the industry side. Although, I’m not sure, one could say other highfalutin consulting organizations really differ that greatly. There is sort of the shadow of Bain and BCG in the backdrop here. And I know from personal experience that Accenture runs some of the most despotic campaigns known to man. From Facebooks content moderation sweat shops to polling public perception during Arab spring. This book keeps its focus narrow, but I could see it being a compelling indictment of the whole industry if you wanted it to be.

The book is organized into individual topics and scandals McKinsey has been involved in. It does a good job diving into them and contextualizing the larger picture here. I think the one bit that was lacking was a sort of overall arc that ties them together. Some of the bits felt scattered. It does seem, if I were to attribute a sort of prevailing theme, that the organization has been on a slide into becoming more and more mercenary from the ideals presented in the 60s and 70s of a sort of gentleman manager, to today where any Saudi Prince or panopticon wielding Chinese state might hire the organization.

[Diogo Silva · Rating 2 out of 5]

Missed opportunity

Half of this book talks about situations where McKinsey behaved badly and should be exposed.
The other half tries to blame them for everything that is wrong with capitalism. McKinsey was responsible for the financial crisis, for climate change, for tobacco consumption in young people, for offshoring jobs, for safety failures in theme parks and deadly rail accidents. The causation chain between making some PowerPoint slides and most of the issues is tenuous at best, libellous at worst.
I am not a huge fan of McKinsey but found the book mostly unbearable to read unless you want to find an unlikely scapegoat for all of humanity’s problems. This is a firm of 30,000 consultants that produces recommendations in slide format, often rubber stamping things that businessmen and managers already want to do. A lot of their output goes to waste
I think the authors tried to transform a series of investigative NYT articles into a full book of conspiracy.
Did McKinsey behave badly in South Africa, ICE, Saudi Arabia and other cases? Yes
Is this inconsistent with their stated values? Yes
Do they behave like intellectual illuminati that are above rules? Yes
But personally I’d give them a fair trial and focus the book on the real bad issues, instead of the intellectual dishonesty of blaming their for all evil
Definitely a missed opportunity.

[Ajit Mathew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tries to paint Mckinsey as a bad actor but I am not convinced that Mckinsey is the problem. I think the problem is that if you give really smart people tough problems to solve with incentives that are paid out in short term you have a recipe for disaster. Reading the book I realized that the whole model of management consulting is flawed because it does not incentivize long-term growth. I also feel that the authors were unfairly attributing issues to McKinsey where any consulting firm or even a person like me with a pea sized brain would have come up with the solution which eventually caused the issue. For example, the authors attributes outsourcing of American jobs to McKinsey but I am convinced that any other consulting firm in Mickeny's position would have come up with the same solution. Of course, McKinsey can do a better job of vetting which projects it wants to take but it is not as simple as it sounds. I'm pretty sure McKinsey has a lot of morally upright consultants who would not like to work for dubious projects but I also see hordes of other consultants who for career growth or money would take such projects without batting an eye. At the end of the day, it comes down to misaligned incentives. I think the broader issue is that capitalism in it's current form prioritizes profits and productivity over well-being of individuals and the society as a whole over the long term. Like maha-kavi Ice-T once said "Dont blame the player, blame the game"

[Trin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possible reviews:

Wanna be furiously angry? Read this book!

Why did I read this? I'm already mad!

This explains a lot about the corporation I work for and probably most American corporations.

ahahaha fuck capitalism

[Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea how many lives powerpoint presentations could ruin.

[Carla Bayha · Rating 5 out of 5]

McKinsey consulting tells Ivy League recruits that working for them will allow them to do good in the world. But as detailed in When McKinsey Comes to Town,
a McKinsey consultant's true deliverables--whether in industries, health care, or governments-- are to flatter the executives who hire them, suggest higher executive compensation for them at the expense of other employees or clients, achieve short term gains through efficiencies that usually involve layoffs, and sustain a powerful global network of former McKinsey workers, politicians, lobbyists, and bureaucrats that allows their influence, compensation, and McKinsey Partners offshore funds to grow. Whether advising our government on regulations (while working the other side for oil and coal companies, investment banks, and opioid manufacturers), teaching insurance companies how to avoid payouts to victims, or helping China grow its sphere of influence, the ultimate excuse is always, "if we don't do it, someone else will." There are a suspicious number of online one star reviews of this book already. For fans of The Big Short and Empire of Pain.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Nothing beckons investigative reporters more than powerful institutions that believe they are exempt from public scrutiny.”

Exposé of what happens when a company’s espoused values do not match corporate actions. McKinsey is one of the most recognized and profitable consulting firms with a worldwide reach. They hire the “best and brightest” and give them the option of declining to work with companies on moral grounds. Many of these people are idealists who want to “do good in the world.” The authors of this book have peeled back they layers of secrecy surrounding McKinsey’s clients and their past consulting work. They have found a disconnect between people on the ground (consultants) and the actions of the executives in charge, where profit has often been placed above all else.

The book examines McKinsey’s involvement in:
- Maintenance and safety in the steel industry
- 2008 financial crisis
- Immigration center cost-cutting
- Tobacco products and vaping
- Insurance companies’ payout reductions
- Baseball analytics
- Enron
- Big Pharma and the opioid crisis
- Advising authoritarian regimes: China, Saudi Arabia, Russia
- South African contracting scandals

It highlights the importance of ethical leadership, which is always important for any company, and essential for those with wide-ranging global impact. It occasionally wanders far afield from work McKinsey has done into areas where their former associates have been involved, but overall, if you have ever worked in management consulting, it is definitely worth reading.

[Siying · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very eye-opening and thrilling read. My interest was initially piqued because I wanted to understand the hidden forces shaping the current business landscape, like layoff waves at Big Techs. This book is deeply reported and insightful. The only nit I have is that some chapters could have included more explanations on the mechanisms of how things work, e.g. for the AllState chapter I only got the hint that there's something in there because McKinsey was willing to spend a gigantic amount of money to cover up, but there's not so much clarity on the mechanisms of how this insurance manipulation worked out to cut cost, applicable to what scope to what extent etc.

Nevertheless, I recommend this book, even stronger recommended because you wouldn't see such recommendations from authoritative business channels -- for the exact reason what this book is about :)

[Ayesha Bhalla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have finally finished this (I have genuinely been reading this book since last year and even ruined Varuns copy and rebought him one in the process). Despite my terribly slow pace, it was great and I think an important read.

I was truly shocked (and angry) at some of the stuff McKinsey (and other consulting firms) have gotten up to.

I found the chapters on ICE and insurance companies to be particularly egregious.

[Sebastian Gebski · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book could have been much better ;/

Why so?

1. In theory, it's well structured and provides varied material on McK controversial involvement within different geographies, industries, etc. But there's relatively little on what McK was actually doing there. Their engagement may have had relatively little with what we condemn Saudis, the Tobacco industry, or Big Pharma for. Of course, there will always be ethical questions on whether you should support such entities in any way, but one can always coin some justification (e.g., influence for the sake of the greater good).

2. Even regarding ethical judgment, not everything is as unequivocal as the author presents it. One good example: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

3. I got it - it's super hard to reach the details. McK protects its business (& privacy of its customers) - nevertheless, the book suffers from the lack of details. There's a lot of greed here (but hey, consultants), there's ruthless optimization/cost cutting (but hey, consultants), and there's also a very narrow focus on business metrics w/o taking a wider (moral) context under consideration (but hey, consultants). Sadly, it doesn't prove any point about McK - well, maybe a single one: apparently, they are better at execution than others who would like to but can't deliver.

In the end - 3.2 stars. I didn't learn much here, neither I got particularly entertained.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very good investigative reporting, but the reading experience for the book leaves something to be desired. It starts off strongly with the people affected by McKinsey's actions. That goes along with the title and the cover. And that approach gives us good guys--or at least innocent victims--to root for in contrast with the bad guys from McKinsey.
In subsequent chapters, though, there's too much detail about the lavish lifestyle and whatnot of the corrupt McKinsey bad guys and very little about their victims or anybody standing up to them. I get it that the whistleblowers are so scared of McKinsey that they are anonymous. But the authors could have done more with the victims. For example, in the last chapter on the NHS and such, they could have talked to doctors or patients or railroad inspectors. Those people are not hidden behind a wall of nondisclosure agreements and corporate secrecy.
It's a shame they got derailed from the initial approach because this information is crucial for understanding one aspect of why so many things are so shambolic.

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a new trade book/expose chronicling the successes, deeds, and misdeeds of McKinsey, the legendary global strategy consulting firm. As these sorts of books go, this is a fine effort. It is well written, current, makes use of less common information about McKinsey’s clients, and does some nifty drawing together of points. It is not a positive account o McKinsey, but that is true for virtually all of the large literature reporting on the work of various consultants, investment bankers, lawyers, and the like - the so-called “advisory” businesses. Or put another way - when was the last major popular trade book you read extolling the virtues of elite advisory firms without criticism? Most such volumes, and I am unaware of many, can be seen as company history or even advertising and marketing, both internal and external.

Before I move on to the book, it is worth noting some points about these firms, especially about McKinsey.
1) The decision situations for which advice is sought are generally unusual and complex ones for which the firm seeking advice may well not have much experience or expertise. Take mergers for example. A firm could easily decide that it wishes to grow but that internal growth may be expensive and time consuming. Ok, so let’s acquire a firm instead? How to do that? How should managers determine what they want, find a target, or go through the process of buying another firm? It is not something that “typical” firms do a lot of in their daily routines. Deciding that a merger is needed does not mean that a firm knows what to do. It needs some advice - likely from a consultant. The consultant, if chosen wisely, has lots of experience and skill in the activity where guidance is sought by a client.

… so there is nothing inherently inappropriate or wrong about working with a client.

2). What about the consultant pushing hard to increase firm profits? Is there anything wrong with that? Hmm… Probably not, but recall what is meant by profit here. It is largely unspoken but “supernormal” profits are the target, not “normal” profits. “Normal” profits can be seen as the basic rate of return on capital for a firm. How much does your capital.earn as a result of regular activities? Every industry has some basic return rate. BUT the profits sought by engaging a consultant are in excess of normal returns - otherwise how do you pay the consultant and have anything left over?

3) Obtaining supernormal profits means exceeding the competitive return in an industry - which means you are asking the consultant for advice on how to beat out the competition and get an edge. But wait! If markets are competitive at all, then obtaining a return about the market should be very difficult for a firm. That is why you pay big bucks to elite consultants!

4) But how do you know that the consultants know what they’re doing and can help you? SPOILER ALERT - They might not know and might not be able to help you. You have to go on the firm’s reputation as a justification for following the advice and paying the large fees. So it is risky. On top of that, following advice to get a big return but force a client into areas of behavior where the rules are unclear and highly complex. High returns can result from bending the rules or even cheating. To get the high return that is not already being obtained by other competitors, it may indeed be necessary to more into unusual or even shady areas and try to leverage “relationships” with key actors.

What is the punchline here? Given the nature of big time consulting, the story told by Mr. Bogdanich does not seem to be as extreme as it is made out to be in the book. This is what large global consulting firms do and comparable stories could be told about the other large firms. So in this sense, the book is valuable as an update. It also provides considerable detail on McKinsey’s activities in a number of areas that generally do not receive such detail.

The book is also valuable as an introduction to potential new consultants who should know what they are getting into. The trouble with that is I suspect most would be McKinsey consultants already have a good idea of what they are getting involved with. McKinsey is after all perhaps the best known of the major strategy consulting firms. There are other books that address the interviewing, hiring, and training processes in these firms.

Overall, Bogdanich has written a fine book that is well worth reading.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover art shows a giant pair of scissors or empty office space and the introduction tells of cost cutting at US Steel and Disney with deadly consequences. So is this a book about the evils of corporate cost cutting? Thankfully no, the subject doesn't appear again until the final chapter.

The book consists of 14 chapters that stand on their own. Each took me around 20 minutes to read. All were very well written and highly readable with the first several packing the biggest wallop. The difficulty in writing an investigative book about McKinsey is that the firm seems to guard its secrecy better than the CIA, so it's a tribute to the authors that they were able to uncover lots of damning information such as client lists, billing information and internal communications. Some of the later chapters seemed to be lacking key elements to allow the authors to frame specific examples of serious wrongdoing but there was always enough to credibly cast the firm in a bad light. (Except maybe the chapter about the Astros, the weakest chapter in the book.)

The book's subtitle - The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm - capture's its essence. But there's another theme: hypocrisy and double-dealing at a firm that projects an image of the highest principles. Books like this highlight the need for good investigative reporting and remind us to maintain a healthy dose of skepticism where money and power are at stake.

[Saba Houmani · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was developmentally inappropriate for me at my big age but I’m going to urge people in my life to read up the chapter 4, skip the chapter on China, and maybe read the insurance chapter too

[Haley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shoutout to Sarah’s book talk for inspiring me to read this. The book clearly has an agenda against McKinsey and tries to drop bombshells via case studies highlighting questionable ethics and unchecked greed at McKinsey (Purdue Pharma, MBS, Juul/FDA, etc.).
It was interesting to read, but so sensationalist and one-sided that the authors’ damnation didn’t hold much water for me. Didn’t offer any productive conversation or acknowledgement of the broader system that allowed these issues to fester (which are not at all unique to McKinsey) or ideas on how we can do better.

[Jamele (BookswithJams) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having been a consultant in a prior life I was always aware of McKinsey so I was absolutely interested in reading this one and it did not disappoint. This is a detailed account of how they run their firm, the clients they took on, and how they focused on cutting costs to a point where people got hurt and some even died. The book continues on to McKinsey’s work with both China and the US at the same time (yes that is most likely a conflict of interest), Big Pharma, and tobacco companies such as Juul. It was an absolutely fascinating and horrifying read that I could not put down.

Thank you to Doubleday Books for the finished copy to review.

[Hal Triedman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid nonfiction account of the myriad fucked-up things that McKinsey has gotten mixed up in over the last few decades

Biggest takeaway for me is that McKinsey (and other consulting firms) really is/was the lubricant of neoliberalism — they grease the gears of institutions in flux, and that flux (since the 80s, at least) has tended to flow from public services to privatization. As authoritarianism illiberalism rises, it's interesting to see how these neoliberal bastions move when confronted with the hard, non-market power of state actors. In the cases of China, Saudi Arabia, (pre-war) Russia, and (pre-war) Ukraine McKinsey has consistently chosen to side with the states.

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise drew me in, but there was not much substance or analysis here. Each chapter was a drawn out telling of a separate example, but the underlying idea was the same. I wish there was more cohesion here. Yes, they care about profits. Yes, they have been on the sidelines and avoiding blame. Yes, they embody what is wrong with capitalism. But didn't we already know that? If Patrick Radden Keefe tackled this topic, that would've been another story.

[Mary West · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fucked up, learned a lot of new stuff that wasn’t so shocking. A bit repetitive but a good read.