Dana Asher shares a compendium of thoughts on “top management approach” and a review of McKinsey values that limit vision.
Having concluded When McKinsey Comes to Town I stand in awe of this account: an investigative reporter’s version of what I was trained to understand as a work of deep and unstinting — if not entirely unsympathetic — organizational observation.
While spokespersons for the Firm might not agree, McKinsey and its journalistic critics have in common an uncommon prowess for accumulating an uncontestable fact base. Of course, they tell different stories about these facts.
Spoiler alert… the thesis with which Bogdanich and Forsythe conclude the book:
“McKinsey’s laissez-faire style of management has allowed its consultants to reap big paydays promoting addictive products, recommending policies that expand income inequality, and serving bad actors on the international stage, including major polluters. There is no questioning McKinsey’s desire to do good, to give back. But, as one former consultant said, McKinsey should also find a way to do less harm.” (278)
The “laissez-faire style of management” the authors observe is of course different from the brand of responsible leadership McKinsey would prefer to be known for. It’s my hypothesis that the so-called “top-management approach” (a stated McKinsey value, which the authors don’t discuss) exerts a “hidden influence” (to borrow from the subtitle of When McKinsey Comes to Town) on what leaders say and how they put it. In short, the story that makes sense of the facts.1
What is the “top-management approach” — and what does it keep us from seeing and saying?
Top-management approach means many things to many people, but two points are generally agreed: 1) a top-management approach necessitates that consultants hew to corporate strategy writ large — priorities for the whole company from which priorities of divisions, business units, teams, etc. derive, and 2) a top-management approach assumes that consultants work at the “top of the house” — with CEOs and CXOs and/or members of division-level executive leadership teams, true “buyers” (a non-McKinsey word but it is worth spelling out the commercial implications) of services who can approve McKinsey-scale budgets and square that sizable spend with assurance of revenue growth or savings in acceptable excess of consulting fees.
Read the full article, On Outward Existence & Inward Life, on Substack.