La estrategia McKinsey: Principios de éxito de la consultora de negocios más poderosa del mundo

by Shu Hattori

Descubre los 4 pasos para elevar tu perfil y llevar tu carrera al siguiente nivel.

La estrategia McKinsey comparte las mejores prácticas de un exclusivo grupo de ejecutivos y consultores de McKinsey & Company, la legendaria firma de consultoría que da servicio al ochenta por ciento de las corporaciones más grandes del mundo.

Con base en su gran experiencia como Engagement Manager de McKinsey, Shu Hattori presenta consejos probados y rigurosamente seleccionados que te darán la ventaja necesaria para elevar tu perfil y llevar tu carrera al siguiente nivel utilizando un programa dinámico y efectivo de cuatro pasos:

1. Construir una mejor versión de ti mismo: aprende maneras más eficaces para salir adelante por medio de múltiples auto-mejoras.
2. Crecer con otros: fortalece tus habilidades de comunicación, conexión y comprensión para influir en tu equipo y en otros socios.
3. Domina la gestión de procesos: aumenta tu productividad y rendimiento utilizando herramientas que se adapten mejor a tu entorno.
4. Da el paso extra: esfuérzate más para enfocar tu energía, renovar tu vida y revitalizar tu carrera con un nuevo perfil de liderazgo.

Cada sección incluye estrategias precisas y consejos que te ayudarán a hacer frente a los retos de cada nivel de la administración. Mediante la aplicación de estos principios a tu situación y lugar de trabajo, serás capaz de cambiar no sólo tu forma de pensar y tu eficacia de gestión, sino también la percepción que los demás tienen de ti como líder. Descubrirás los mejores métodos para tratar con clientes, solucionar problemas, motivar equipos y superar expectativas.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Management, Audiobook, Productivity, Finance

209 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 27, 2015

Reviews

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of these 47 tricks (and these ARE tricks) are really good:
- Don’t Show Half-Baked Output. Nay, baby. Never do that: they'll eat you whole.
- Question More and Talk Less
- Frontload Your Project - OMG, YES! I swear by it. Though I'd add 'frontthink it' to that.
- Focus on What Really Matters. Uh-huh. Taken under advisement that different people will think different stuff matters and trying to align everyone is fun.

Some are effective but irritating (always or just when misapplied):
- “What Would Marvin Do?” Find Your Role Models. - Ever known someone who's a bad copy of someone else?
- Catch Small Signals and Make a Difference - Works right ONLY if you are catching the RIGHT signals and interpreting them just RIGHT. If you don't you can easily wind up making elephants fly.
- Smile When You Are Under Stress - Yes, 'Grace Under Pressure' and be the nice little 'Steadfast Tin Soldier' right until they pack you off to some nice little room with nice padded walls.
- Communicate Using Fewer Words - Sometimes it's a good advice. At other times it prevents people from communicating at all.
- Be Flexible on the Perception of Your Passion - Practice being an amoeba at will.

Some are atrocious and inspire me to commit cosmicide:
- Pause Three Seconds Before Answering Difficult Questions- GAWD, I hate this one. Ever met people who make the requisite pause to make up their mind on whether they want a cup of tea or what is the weather like outside or any and each trivial thing? And they'd do this not because they are otherwise preoccupied or distracted but just because they are implementing thissorry-ass bullshit! So, a small 2-minute interaction becomes a 3-minute one, a 5-minute morphs into a 7.5 one, and every half-hour meeting turns into an hour-long snoozefest. Each time! This should be used SPARINGLY!
- Turn No into Yes - Sure and make sure to sell that snake oil by the barrels.

[Lorilin · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The McKinsey Edge, Shu Hattori aims to communicate the tips and tricks he has learned while working for the global management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company. Truthfully, I'm not completely sure I understand what McKinsey & Company does, but, as far as I can tell, the firm exists to help big companies become more efficient, productive, and profitable.

The book, overall, does contain insightful and helpful points. Some of my favorites:

(*) Have a 30-second answer to everything. If someone wants more detail, she will ask.
(*) Pause 3 seconds before answering difficult questions. Show others you can withstand the weight of silence.
(*) Put your best effort into a project early, since this is when you will make the strongest, most lasting impression.
(*) Ask questions sooner rather than later. The earlier you ask, the less judgment and irritation there will be.
(*) Create a holiday card for yourself one year in advance. Write down what you will have accomplished by the end of next year.
(*) Schedule time for "new learning" (reading books, meeting new people, etc.) by putting it on your to-do list.

I most enjoyed the advice given in Chapter 2, about "growing with others." I thought this section really showed Hattori to be a thoughtful, caring, intentional, engaged, and kind person. I can see why he would be a good boss. Some of my favorite pieces of advice in this section:

(*) Assume people have good intentions. Find the good, and remember it.
(*) Deliver feedback using positive criticism.
(*) Assign meaningful tasks to employees.
(*) Meet with new people every week. And don't "grade" the interactions afterward. The value is in the meetings themselves.

I enjoyed the content of this book. However, I have two HUGE criticisms. First, I really wish the author had gone into more detail about what the firm actually does. There is an appendix in the back that describes the structure of the company somewhat, but I still found it insufficient. I ended up having to research the company on my own, so I could understand what I was actually reading about--and, even now, I'm still confused. It didn't help that the author seemed to be writing SO specifically to McKinsey employees. He says things like "the associate to engagement manager transition is the most challenging" and "people who work at McKinsey must learn to use a blank callout text box with an arrow pointed to a manlike figure made up of a circle and an isosceles triangle." Huh? Is that supposed to mean something to anyone who doesn't work at McKinsey? Why alienate readers by putting such specific information like that in there?

Second--and this is the biggie--this book is very, very poorly written. The author bio claims that Hattori is a native English and Japanese speaker, but this book definitely reads like it is written by someone who does not speak English as a first language. There is awkward sentence structure, incorrect grammar, and random shifts in verb tense. Hattori says things like "an encapsulating speech" and "Now, let the curtain unveil!" and "You want to show a solid reputation" and "But like most first timers, the experience takes a steep nosedive at first." (Do first timers take steep nosedives at first?) Ugh, it's just bad writing.

Normally, I would give a book written like this two stars, max. But the content in here is actually pretty good. Plus, the more I read the book, the more I became accustomed to the author's writing style, and the easier it was to read. So, take it for what it is. There is good info in here, and I would argue that the book IS worth checking out. But be prepared to work to get something out of it; the many grammatical mistakes and odd language choices are undeniably distracting.

[Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

International consulting company McKinsey has a reputation for helping its clients know things and do things. This book sets out to share some of the principles of the firm that contribute to individual project success, culling best practices from the cream of McKinsey executives to offer up 47 actionable, powerful tips to help any business and employee.

It sounded a brave boast at first, yet once you read through the book you will discover that it delivers a lot of potential. Of course, the hard part may be implementing any necessary changes, both individually and corporately, yet the effort can be a worthwhile investment.

Whilst the book itself is written in a clear, engaging style that is a pleasure to read, it remains hard going because you will keep breaking off to think about the latest nugget of information and rapidly consider how to implement it into your work-stream. At the same time, the book also gives a great insight into how this massive consulting company works and interacts with its clients.

Some of the advice is fairly common, general and obvious… yet far too many of us ignore it, such as failing to use our most productive time for creative efforts. Even when you see the advice in black and white, such as avoiding spending a lot of time first thing in the working day, when arguably you’d be at your most refreshed and creative, on routine, mundane issues such as responding to email. It is hard to break a bad habit, so it is the default to read and respond first to email, leaving longer, creative jobs to later in the day, when you are perhaps more tired, more distracted and not running at your best. Sadly there was no magic cure given to breaking these bad habits other than the instillation of discipline.

In many ways, if you let it, this book provides a great “how you should do business”-series of guidelines. It can be a very helpful overview of best practice but rather soul destroying when you realise just how many things you could be doing better! Change is good and essential in this area, even if it won’t be an overnight process.

This is more than just a book promising success. It is a fascinating collection of elements affecting so many areas of a business. It can be something you need to read several times to get the most out of it. A highly enjoyable, recommended read for everyone in business; surely no one is immune to possibly changing something for the better?

Autamme.com

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of useful consultant tricks to appear smarter and more capable than otherwise. Many of these are obvious, some are outdated (his email management techniques are Boomer-tier), some make sense in organizations but shouldn't need to exist (keeping sensitive things off email), but there's a lot of utility in having it all in one place. It is helpful advice for anyone, but the book should also make consumers of consultancy services more skeptical of the actual insight/knowledge/competence of consultants they engage.

[Daniel Rayo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think is a must to read book through your career in any organization, it explain what is the game you are playing now that you are in the work industries and some principles to help you play the game.

Some of the thinks you starting do it instinctively as you enter the corporate world, but the way he describes it and help you understand it gives the things you already do to make more sense and improve it.

I do not giving him 5 starts, because i think he lacks of adding details that would give you some guidance, for example learn to take fewer notes, I mean he only describe the end but not the how, so you would end in the same stage and trying to figure out elsewhere how to take fewer notes.

[Andres Barreda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, written by a former ex McKinsey, gives useful bit-sized tips and principles for the consulting world. There are over 50 principles, so each one is very brief and general, nothing too specific.

Overall, they are functional principles and easy to put in practice. The book also gives you a glimpse of the methodology at McKinsey and their work culture.

[Amal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heard on hoopla liked it a lot, would consider buying the paperback as a reference for career things

Made me start writing down a list of learnings as well in my current role as procurement consultant

[Chase Borchardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this! Really bite-size, practical pieces and generally sound advice that I agree with. Did a good job including a variety of stories and examples.

[Max M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that was clearly written for consultants from a veteran consultant. This book serves as an epitome of institutional knowledge and ways of working at McKinsey. This book is instrumental for any consultant minded professional to hone their skills, solve problems, and strategize solutions in a concise format.

[Harry Harman]

accomplishing great things requires “setting an extremely low bar” so that it is easily attainable at first. For example, instead of saying you will go exercise five times a week to lose weight, just say you will go once a week.

What really matters can be different from industry to industry. For the automotive industry, it’s safety and design. For the pharmaceutical industry, it’s the effectiveness of the drug, how fast it works, and how long it lasts. For a headhunting company, it’s the candidate’s average length of stay at his or her newly appointed jobs. For consulting, it’s the message (so what?) and the estimated impact that implication brings

so many people still dwell on insignificant things like the name, logo, and how the business card will look. Those are important but less meaningful, especially in the beginning.

keep this kind of decision tree in your mind.

Just like musicians need to produce music but may listen to other artists for inspiration, you should know what tasks directly link to the money.

Creating a “get up early and go to sleep earlier” biorhythm

There are some mornings, however, when it’s incredibly hard to concentrate or get going. At times like this, here’s my advice: Pick up a business book (or a self-help book—I am a junkie at this), and start reading your favorite passages. You will get the urge to work on the important stuff within 5 to 10 minutes.

The Clevel executive asks, “How is the project coming along?” Immediately you need to stand in the executive’s shoes. What does he or she want to know? It’s probably going to be along the lines of the four detailed questions below.
1. What is the overall project status, good or bad?
2. What are one or two examples that support the status?
3. What do I plan to do about any problems?
4. What can the C-level executive do to help?

As a leader, you want to avoid making people work on irrelevant tasks.

Delegate any work you don’t need to handle yourself.

Frontloading is a way to keep your head above the water.

not concocting stuff out of thin air, or POOMA (“pulled out of mid air”).

[Wayne Zhang · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book because I wanted to learn how Mckinsey, the world’s most prestigious consulting company helps its customer. But the book does not really have much information about it. As I read more, I understand because of the confidential agreement, the consultant can’t disclose their business. However, I did find some useful tips and tricks about personal and managing career growth that the author shared based on his experience working at Mckinsey.
Some of my favoriate tips are:
Focus on what really matters
Have a 30 sec answer to everything
Creat the right end output image
Go beyond your self-perceived limit
Always imagine the worst case scenario
Go jogging to smell the flowers
Always remember the first 3 sentences of a presentation
Communicate with few words
Questions more and talk less
Don’t show half baked output
Find the best intent in people
Learn team member’s defining moments and personal sides
Go out for a meal with interesting people every week.
Consciously gauge your people
Deliver positive feedback using positive criticism
Focus on outcome, not activities
Speak up as early as possible in the meeting
You can find similar tips in other self-help book as well, e.g. “focus on what really matters” is similar to “put first things first” and “create the right end output image” is similar to “ beginning with the end in mind” in Steve Covey’s 7 Habits of the Most High Effective People. However, there are some I didn’t see in other books, e.g. in “speak up as early as possible”, Shu explained there are several ways you can speak up so that you can contribute even when you feel you don’t have much to say in a meeting.
The downside of this book is it is not organized very well and you can easily get lost as you move from one principle to another. There are 47 principles in the book and it is hard to grasp them as a whole. It would be nice if Shu can distill these tips and share in a better way. Perhaps it is because Shu is a consultant/entrepreneur, not a writer.

[Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book offers a select mixture of advice and useful tips on productivity, interpersonal relationship, leadership, process management, and personal growth. The guiding principles underlying all the author's key points, however, aren't all that different from what have been widely discussed in a plethora of self-help/productivity books and other media. What this book adds to such literature is thus how they fit into the context of McKinsey's consulting work; in such a high-pressure, performance-driven environment where outstanding leadership and execution are expected, the veracity and applicability of any advice are put to the ultimate test. Perhaps just as fascinating was through the author's writing the peek into the M.O., mindsets, work ethics, and company culture that top-tiered McKinsey people embody through both their work lives and private lives.

[Daehwan Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Waited for long. I knew this book published and my eyes fixed on this book on the bookshelf at a bookstore. But, I did not purchase. delayed and delayed. One reason is that my current work became far from this type.

The temptation was strong. Irresistible to peek into the mind of so called "cream of pie".

I have a copy of Mc.K Engagement and Mc.K Mind. I revisited those book numerous times. They are dry but insightful and fundamental. When I feel my business got jumbled up and the urge of zerozing thoughts they are in my hand for skimming through.

I had that kind of expectation with this book. It is much less dry with some whiff of personal development stuff. That is in common with other Mc.K books is that it is well thought out.

What this book triggered me personally is that you have to be ready always with confidence and trust in you and strive to be professional with commitment beyond anyone can imagine.

[Gareth Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent look at how things are done at McKinsey including some context of the hierarchy and career path, how engagements/projects are carried out and lots of genuinely actionable advise on how to be organized and excel in this kind of environment.

Even if you are not thinking of joining management consulting or any similar professional services company I'd recommend reading this and applying whatever fits your context as it's a generally good guide on how to do well in a professional environment and become an exceptional leader.

[Donn Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent book. Didn’t agree with a number of things (what comes to mind is his tip on note-taking, in particular taking fewer notes), but overall it did give some pretty good ideas on becoming a better consultant/professional, including things you may not have heard much about in other books of its kind.

Worth picking up if you’re looking for general “career advice”, even if you’ve already read those, because I think the advice is relatively unique and will cover gaps you may never have known were there.

[Miguel Yances Rojas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Las bases de un ejecutivo de alto nivel

Este libro comparte las mejores prácticas de un grupo de ejecutivos de una las firmas de consultorías de alto nivel como lo es McKinsey. A grandes rasgos el libro desarrolla 4 dimensiones para elevar el perfil profesional y llevarlo a un ejecutivo de alto nivel: 1. Construir una mejor versión de ti 2. Crecer con otros desarrollando habilidades de conexión y comunicación 3. Domina la gestión de procesos 4. El paso extra para enfocar la energía.

[Yoko · Rating 5 out of 5]

The McKinsey Edge gives us the essence to move ourselves to the next level - How we can do better, how we can perform differently from others.
This 47 rules are very practical and actionable to apply our own situation and workplace, and bring the immediate results encouraging us to take an action today. Those could be quite obvious guidance, but we hardly get those from our managers and mentors. This is really helpful, a must book for our success in our career.

[Shobeir · Rating 5 out of 5]

To the point

This book is very well organized. It has many thought provoking nuggets that can help you see other ways of looking at problems and day to day job. While one may not agree with every inference and at time self-righteous tone may put one off a bit, the book is absolutely worth your time to read and to meditate on.

[Jason L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book that distills the best practices to succeed in the professional setting, especially in the consulting/professional services field. There are so many valuable advice in this book that will certain overflow in this review box.

So my only advice is this: pick up this book and read it gingerly, because you can pick up so many actionable insights from each of the 47 principles!

[Bishal Banerjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a classic example of having corporate handbook. While it details out perspectives from the McKinsey point of view but is it applicable for anyone who reads it. From behavioural change to the work approach changes, this book gives deep insights on what is done, could be altered and what is followed in the organisation which has produced CEOs for many organisations.

[Andrew Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Self Help Book for Business Professionals

This is not exactly a study in synthesis but a nice reflection on some key elements required to be a successful consultant and business leader. It could have been titled 47 steps to being a McKinsey consultant. An interesting read and you will need to do the prioritization of the key learnings yourself…

[Claya Chu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty sure Mckinsey as a top boutique consulting firm has a lot more to offer. This book is more at tactical level - probably more for rookies who just join the firm as survival tip.

Capture here the only tip I could still recall:
“Write everything that matters, and get back to reflect on it, so that you learn. Write your own guideline to success.”

不看也沒關係的Self Help書籍，時間用在別的好書上會有更多收穫

[Esteban Llanos · Rating 5 out of 5]

100% recomendado para personas que deben liderar día a día

Recomendado para personas que quieran aprender más sobre trabajo en equipo y gestión de proyectos. Es fácil de leer y va al grano, no se explaya demasiado para explicar una idea.

[Ernesto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro de muy “ágil digestión” con una lista de principios a implementar para mejorar la forma en la que entregas o generas valor a tus clientes seas o no consultor.

Texto muy breve pero ampliamente recomendado como “libro de cabecera”

[Angela O'Meara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful

Clarity, brevity, critical thinking enhancing. Many golden eggs to consider. Recommended reading for those in senior positions to those just venturing out of college or the military.

[Kalyan Garimella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me coming from a consulting background, I wish I read this book a while back. Easy to understand principles followed by great examples from the consulting world, made this an easy read. Highly recommend this book to everyone who is about to start their management consulting journey

[Olmo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, interesting and most of the suggestions are enough landed to be able to implement them quite easily, not like other much more abstract documents. It's a matter for you to adapt them to your own style and take the ones that are more relevant to your situation, industry and position.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well expressed ideas written book with truly actionable principles. A must read, even if the principles are sometimes obvious, but the author took care of writing them down. This book and samples are very credible, since I work with McKinsey consultants and can testify they apply these principles

[Jack Maguire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of what makes for an excellent management consultant. Hattori does a good job of outlining the various aspects of working in a complex consulting environment and offers semi-practical tips for how to become very good in a challenging work environment.

[Toni Kokkonen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprised how interested I was in the book. Nice to read through someone else’s tenants in work success and reflect upon these. Not going to try to copy them but a good book of food for thought.

Basically 47 few pages long ideas that true author seems important in progressing one’s career.