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{{Short description|US-based worldwide management consulting firm}}
{{POV}}
{{Redirect|McKinsey}}
{{Infobox_Company |
{{Use American English|date=July 2020}}
company_name = McKinsey & Company |
{{Infobox company
company_type = Incorporated ]|
company_logo = <!-- ] -->| | name = McKinsey & Company
| image = 3 World Trade Center 002.jpg
foundation = ]|
| image_caption = McKinsey's New York office are in five floors of ]
location = 86 offices in 46 countries|
| logo = ]
key_people = ], Managing Director|
| type = ]
num_employees = about 13,000|
| founder = ]
revenue = US$ 3.8 billion (est. 2005) |
| area_served = Worldwide
industry = ] |
| key_people = ],<br />Global Managing Partner<ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-06-30 |title=Four McKinsey & Company partners relocate to Paris office |publisher=consultancy.eu |url=https://www.consultancy.eu/news/6423/four-mckinsey-company-partners-relocate-to-paris-office |url-status=live |access-date=2021-06-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709181705/https://www.consultancy.eu/news/6423/four-mckinsey-company-partners-relocate-to-paris-office |archive-date=2021-07-09}}</ref>
products = ]|
| industry = ]
homepage =
| services =
| revenue = {{same position|a}} $15+ billion (2021)<ref name="McKinsey">{{Cite news |title=McKinsey & Company |work=] |url=https://www.mckinsey.com/spContent/bespoke/esg-pdf/pdfs/in/McKinsey_2021_ESG_Report_VF.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=6 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210904003954/https://www.forbes.com/companies/mckinsey-company/?sh=7fed595b24c1 |archive-date=4 September 2021}}</ref>
| aum =
| num_employees = 45,000 (2023)<ref name="McKinsey" />
| divisions =
| homepage = {{URL|mckinsey.com}}
| foundation = {{start date and age|1926}}
| location_city = New York City<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 1, 2021 |title=McKinsey Fact Sheet |url=https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/about%20us/media%20center/mckinseymediafactsheet_1jul2021.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604195727/https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/About%20Us/Media%20Center/McKinseymediafactsheet_11-Dec-2019.ashx |archive-date=June 4, 2021 |access-date=June 21, 2023}}</ref>
| locations =
| subsid =
}} }}


'''McKinsey & Company''' (informally '''McKinsey''' or '''McK''') is an American ] strategy and ] firm that offers ] to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by ], McKinsey is the oldest and largest of the ]. The firm mainly focuses on the finances and operations of their clients.
'''McKinsey & Company''' is a privately owned ] firm that focuses on solving issues of concern to senior management in large corporations and organizations.


Under the direction of ], McKinsey expanded into Europe during the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s, McKinsey's ]—along with ]'s ], ] at ], and ]'s ]—initiated a program designed to transform ].<ref name="Kiechel2010" /><ref name="FT_2010">{{Cite news |title=Synopsis of The Lords of Strategy by Walter Kiechel |work=] |url=https://ig.ft.com/sites/business-book-award/books/2010/longlist/the-lords-of-strategy-by-walter-kiechel/ |url-status=live |access-date=June 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803220432/https://ig.ft.com/sites/business-book-award/books/2010/longlist/the-lords-of-strategy-by-walter-kiechel/ |archive-date=August 3, 2020}}</ref> A 1975 publication by McKinsey's John L. Neuman introduced the business practice of "overhead value analysis" that contributed to a ] trend that eliminated many jobs in ].<ref name="Deal_CorporateCulture_1999" /><ref name="theatlantic_Markovits_20200203" /> McKinsey publishes a business magazine, the '']''.
Known among its employees and clients simply as '''"The Firm"''' , James O. McKinsey & Company was founded in ] in ] by ]. McKinsey was a professor at the ] who pioneered budgeting as a management tool. ] became a client in ], and soon convinced James McKinsey to leave the firm and become its CEO; however, he died unexpectedly in ].


McKinsey has been the subject of significant controversy and is the subject of a ] into its business practices. The company has been criticized for its role promoting ] use during the ] in ], its work with ], and its work for authoritarian regimes like ] and ].<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Gladwell |first=Malcolm |date=2002-07-14 |title=The Talent Myth |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/07/22/the-talent-myth |access-date=2024-09-19 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite episode |series=] |last=Oliver |first=John |network=] |date=October 24, 2023 |season=10 |number=14 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiOUojVd6xQ |title=McKinsey |via=]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Top US consultancies face scrutiny over role in Saudi Arabia's sports push {{!}} Saudi Arabia {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/06/consultancies-saudi-arabia-sports-us-senate-disclosure-subpoena |access-date=2024-09-19 |website=amp.theguardian.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Bogdanich |first1=Walt |last2=Forsythe |first2=Michael |title=McKinsey Issues a Rare Apology for Its Role in OxyContin Sales |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/business/mckinsey-opioids-oxycontin.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=19 September 2024}}</ref> The criminal investigation by the ], with a ] to determine charges, is into its role in the opioid crisis and ] related to its activities in the sector.<ref name=FoBaPa24/>
], who joined the firm in 1933 and succeeded James McKinsey when he left, oversaw the firm's rise to global prominence. When McKinsey died, the Chicago and New York branches of the firm split up. In 1939, with the help of the New York partners, Bower resurrected the New York office and named it McKinsey & Company. While he always gave James McKinsey credit for the firm's success, Bower established many of its guiding principles. Inspired by his experience at the law firm of ], he believed that management consulting should subscribe to the highest standards, emphasizing professionalism over any other consideration.


==History==
For many years, McKinsey was the unchallenged leader in consulting, and many of its alumni went on to head leading companies, often their former clients, generating further business for the firm. It now maintains offices on all continents (except Antarctica) and in most major cities; in the last few years, the majority of its work has derived from non-U.S. clients.
===Early history===
]
McKinsey & Company was founded in ] under the name James O. McKinsey & Company in 1926 by ], a professor of accounting at the ].<ref name="Kiechel2013">{{Cite book |last=Walter Kiechel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uFO1bi3pY2AC&pg=PT55 |title=The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World |date=December 30, 2013 |publisher=Harvard Business Press |isbn=978-1-4221-5731-2 |page=347 |oclc=259247279 |access-date=June 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805211636/https://books.google.com/books?id=uFO1bi3pY2AC&pg=PT55 |archive-date=August 5, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="SniderHoward2010">{{Cite book |last1=David Snider |url=https://archive.org/details/moneymakersinsid0000snid |title=Money Makers: Inside the New World of Finance and Business |last2=Chris Howard |date=February 16, 2010 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-61401-7 |pages= |url-access=registration}}</ref> He conceived the idea after he had witnessed inefficiencies in ] while he was working for the ].<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{rp|4}} The firm called itself an "accounting and management firm" and started out giving advice on using accounting principles as a management tool.<ref name="Edersheim2010" />{{rp|3}} McKinsey's first partners were ], hired in 1929,<ref name="Bouée2014" />{{efn|Some sources say he was hired in 1930, instead of 1929.<ref name="WoodWood2002">{{Cite book |last1=Cunningham Wood |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pmtFnrYHFOgC&pg=PA282 |title=F. W. Taylor: Critical Evaluations in Business and Management |last2=Wood |first2=Michael C. |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-415-27666-5 |page=282 |author-link=John Cunningham Wood |access-date=2015-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611035244/https://books.google.com/books?id=pmtFnrYHFOgC&pg=PA282 |archive-date=2016-06-11 |url-status=live}}</ref>}} and ], hired in 1933.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sWZaAAAAYAAJ |title=Consulting Magazine |publisher=Kennedy Information |year=2004 |access-date=2015-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513044134/https://books.google.com/books?id=sWZaAAAAYAAJ |archive-date=2016-05-13 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="MayoNohria2007">{{Cite book |last1=Mayo |first1=Anthony J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TzZrRLLtSewC&pg=PA133 |title=Paths to Power: How Insiders and Outsiders Shaped American Business Leadership |last2=Nohria |first2=Nitin |last3=Laura G. Singleton |date=January 1, 2007 |publisher=Harvard Business Press |isbn=978-1-4221-0198-8 |page=133 |access-date=December 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140820173602/http://books.google.com/books?id=TzZrRLLtSewC&pg=PA133 |archive-date=August 20, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|133}}{{efn|Some sources say he was hired in 1932,<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" /> while others say that they first met in 1932, but he was not hired until 1933.<ref name="Bouée2014" />}}


]
In ], McKinsey made headlines when it hired ], daughter of former ] ] ] and ] ].
Bower is credited with establishing McKinsey's values and principles in 1937, based on his experience as a lawyer. The firm developed an "]" policy, where consultants who are not promoted are asked to leave. In 1937,<ref name="vault" /><ref name="Observer_Caulkin_19970629" /> Bower established a set of rules: that consultants should put the interests of clients before McKinsey's revenues, not discuss client affairs, tell the truth even if it means challenging the client's opinion, and only perform work that is both necessary and that McKinsey can do well.<ref name="Fortune_Huey_19931101" /><ref name="Observer_Caulkin_19970629" /> Bower created the firm's principle of only working with CEOs, which was later expanded to CEOs of subsidiaries and divisions. He also created McKinsey's principle of only working with clients the firm felt would follow its advice.<ref name="MacDonald_Firm_20130910" /><ref name="OShea_Dangerous_1997" /> Bower also established the firm's language.<ref name="Observer_Caulkin_19970629" />


In 1932, the company opened its second office in ].<ref name="Edersheim2010" />{{RP|20}} In 1935, McKinsey left the firm temporarily to be the chairman and CEO of client ].<ref name="GreinerOlson2004">{{Cite book |last1=Greiner |first1=Larry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=91NEAAAAYAAJ |title=Contemporary consultant casebook: educating today's consultants |last2=Thomas Olson |date=June 25, 2004 |publisher=Thomson/South-Western |isbn=978-0-324-29019-6 |access-date=December 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140820222746/http://books.google.com/books?id=91NEAAAAYAAJ |archive-date=August 20, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|5}}<ref name="MayoNohria2007" />{{rp|133}}
International renowned publications acknowledge McKinsey's qualities: ''Newsweek'' called McKinsey “by far the most influential consulting firm in the world”. ''The Financial Times'' stated McKinsey is “the world’s leading management consultancy.”


In 1935, McKinsey merged with accounting firm Scovell, Wellington & Company, creating the New York-based McKinsey, Wellington & Co. and splitting off the accounting practice into Chicago-based Wellington & Company.<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{rp|5}} A Wellington project that accounted for 55 percent of McKinsey, Wellington & Company's billings was about to expire<ref name="seventysix" /> and Kearney and Bower had disagreements about how to run the firm. Bower wanted to expand nationally and hire young business school graduates, whereas Kearney wanted to stay in Chicago and hire experienced accountants.<ref name="MayoNohria2007" />{{RP|134}}
Many reputable financial-services companies have added consulting branches over the past two decades and many other large companies, recognizing the importance of consulting, have created their own in-house consulting divisions, drawing business that might otherwise have gone to McKinsey.


In 1937, James O. McKinsey died after catching pneumonia.<ref name="Edersheim2010" /><ref name="WoodWood2002" /> This led to the division of McKinsey, Wellington & Company in 1939. The accounting practice returned to Scovell, Wellington & Company, while the management engineering practice was split into McKinsey & Company and McKinsey, Kearney & Company.<ref name="Bouée2014">{{Cite book |last=Bouée |first=Charles-Edouard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7jRMAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 |title=Light Footprint Management: Leadership in Times of Change |date=January 2, 2014 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-4729-0385-3 |page=10 |access-date=November 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502095120/https://books.google.com/books?id=7jRMAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 |archive-date=May 2, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="seventysix" /> Bower had partnered with Guy Crockett from Scovell Wellington, who invested in the new McKinsey & Company and became managing partner, while Marvin Bower is credited with founding the firm's principles and strategy as his deputy.<ref name="seventysix" /><ref name="MayoNohria2006">{{Cite book |last1=Mayo |first1=Anthony J. |url=https://archive.org/details/pathstopowerhowi0000mayo |title=Paths to Power: How Insiders and Outsiders Shaped American Business Leadership |last2=Nohria |first2=Nitin |last3=Singleton |first3=Laura G. |publisher=] |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-4221-0198-8 |pages= |url-access=registration}}</ref> The New York office purchased exclusive rights to the McKinsey name from the former McKinsey Chicago office which was separated with AT Kearney in 1946.<ref name="CurnowReuvid2005" />{{rp|25}}
==Competitors==
McKinsey's main strategy consulting competitor is the ].


===Years of growth===
Other competitors include ], ], ], and ].
McKinsey & Company grew quickly in the 1940s and 1950s, especially in Europe.<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|12–13}}<ref name="CurnowReuvid2005" />{{RP|25}}<ref name="newlk" /> It had 88 staff in 1951<ref name="McKenna2006">{{Cite book |last=McKenna |first=Christopher D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9SJKYmkfvt8C&pg=PA48 |title=The World's Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century |date=June 19, 2006 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-521-81039-5 |pages=48– |access-date=December 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140727161038/http://books.google.com/books?id=9SJKYmkfvt8C&pg=PA48 |archive-date=July 27, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> and more than 200 by the 1960s,<ref name="CurnowReuvid2005" /> including 37 in ] by 1966.<ref name="McKenna2006" /> In the same year, McKinsey had six offices in major US cities, including ], ], ] and ], as well as six abroad. These foreign offices were primarily in ], such as in ], ], and ], as well as in ].<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|12–13}} By this time, one third of the company's revenues originated from its European offices.<ref name="CurnowReuvid2005" /> Guy Crockett stepped down as managing director in 1959, and Marvin Bower was elected in his place.<ref name="seventysix" /><ref name="MacDonald_Firm_20130910" />{{RP|61}} McKinsey's profit-sharing, executive and planning committees were formed in 1951.<ref name="seventysix" /> The organization's client base expanded especially among governments, defense contractors, ] and military organizations in the post–] era.<ref name="vault" /> McKinsey became a private corporation with shares owned exclusively by McKinsey employees in 1956.<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|12}}<ref name="seventysix" />


After Bower stepped down in 1967, the firm's revenues declined.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kiechel |first=Walter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uFO1bi3pY2AC&dq=After+Bower+stepped+down+in+1967%2C+the+firm%27s+revenues+declined.&pg=PA98 |title=Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World |date=2010-03-03 |publisher=Harvard Business Press |isbn=978-1-4221-5731-2 |language=en}}</ref> New competitors like the ] and ] created increased competition for McKinsey by marketing specific branded products, such as the ], and by selling their industry expertise.<ref name="newlk" /><ref name="bw">{{Cite news |date=July 7, 2002 |title=Table: McKinsey Over the Years |work=BusinessWeek |url=http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_27/b3790004.htm|url-status=dead |access-date=August 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020806110801/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_27/b3790004.htm |archive-date=August 6, 2002}}</ref><ref name="Fortune_Huey_19931101">{{Cite news |last=Huey |first=John |date=November 1, 1993 |title=How McKinsey Does It |work=Fortune |url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1993/11/01/78550/index.htm |url-status=live |access-date=August 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531083444/https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1993/11/01/78550/index.htm |archive-date=May 31, 2008}}</ref>
==Organization==


In 1971, McKinsey created the Commission on Firm Aims and Goals, which found that McKinsey had become too focused on geographic expansion and lacked adequate industry knowledge. The commission advised that McKinsey slow its growth and develop industry specialties.<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{rp|14}}<ref name="newlk">{{Cite news |last=Bartlett |first=Christopher |date=January 4, 2000 |title=McKinsey & Company: Managing Knowledge and Learning |publisher=Harvard Business School |url=http://hbr.org/product/McKinsey---Co---Managing-/an/396357-PDF-ENG |url-status=live |access-date=August 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135844/https://hbr.org/product/McKinsey---Co---Managing-/an/396357-PDF-ENG |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref>
McKinsey is formally organized as a corporation, but functions as a partnership in all important respects. (It dropped the "Inc." from its company name in ].) Its managing director is elected for a limited term of three years by the firm's senior shareholders, titled directors. Each managing director can only serve for three terms. Several committees develop policies and make critical decisions. Geographically based offices act as the main organizing cells, but the firm maintains cross-geographical practices around industry sectors and management areas. Associates are invited to join the partnership through an evaluation and election process, and shareholders who reach a certain age are obliged to sell back their shares according to a set formula.


In 1975, John L. Neuman, a McKinsey consultant at the time, published "Make Overhead Cuts That Last" in '']'',<ref name="HBR_Neuman_19750501">{{Cite news |last=Neuman |first=John L. |date=May 1, 1975 |title=Make Overhead Cuts That Last |work=] |issue=May 1975 |url=https://hbr.org/1975/05/make-overhead-cuts-that-last |url-status=live |access-date=June 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529083033/https://hbr.org/1975/05/make-overhead-cuts-that-last |archive-date=May 29, 2020 |issn=0017-8012}}</ref> in which he introduced new rules for scientific management such as "overhead valuation analysis" (OVA).<ref name="Deal_CorporateCulture_1999">{{Cite book |last1=Deal |first1=Terrence E |title=The new corporate cultures: revitalizing the workplace after downsizing, mergers, and reengineering |last2=Kennedy |first2=Allan A |date=1999 |publisher=Perseus Books |isbn=978-0-7382-0069-9 |location=Reading, Mass.}} (extra {{ISBN|978-0-7382-0380-5}})</ref>{{rp|65}} OVA guided McKinsey's "path to downsizing", responding to the "mid-century corporation's excessive reliance on middle management".<ref name="theatlantic_Markovits_20200203" /> Neuman wrote that the "process, though swift, is not painless. Since overhead expenses are typically 70% to 85% people-related and most savings come from work-force reductions, cutting overhead does demand some wrenching decisions."<ref name="HBR_Neuman_19750501" />
McKinsey operates under a practice of "up or out," in which consultants must advance in their consulting careers within a time frame, or else are asked to leave the company.


In 1976, ] was elected managing director, serving until 1988.<ref name="Edersheim2010" />{{RP|42}} Daniel and Fred Gluck helped shift the firm away from its generalist approach by developing 15 specialized working groups within McKinsey called Centers of Competence and by developing practice areas called Strategy, Operations and Organization. Daniel also began McKinsey's knowledge management efforts in 1987.<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|15–17}} This led to the creation of an IT system that tracked McKinsey engagements, a process to centralize knowledge from each practice area and a resource directory of internal experts."<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|6–7}} By the end of his tenure in 1988 the firm was growing again and had opened new offices in ], ], ] and ].<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|15–17}}<ref name="newlk" />
Today McKinsey has over 7,500 consultants in 84 offices across 45 countries. They help solve strategic, organizational, operational and technological problems, for some of the world's largest organizations. Clients include three of the world's five largest companies, two-thirds of the ], governments and other non-profit institutions. McKinsey also performs '']'' engagements for a number of charitable organizations and government agencies worldwide. ']' estimated the firm's 2005 revenues at $3.8 billion in its .


Fred Gluck was McKinsey's managing director from 1988 to 1994.<ref name="BW_Byrne_19930919">{{Cite news |last=Byrne |first=John |date=September 19, 1993 |title=The McKinsey Mystique |work=BusinessWeek |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/1993-09-19/the-mc-kinsey-mystique |url-status=dead | url-access=subscription |access-date=June 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150110063840/http://www.businessweek.com/stories/1993-09-19/the-mc-kinsey-mystique |archive-date=January 10, 2015}}</ref> The firm's revenues doubled during his tenure.<ref name="Fortune_Huey_19931101" /> He organized McKinsey into 72 "islands of activity" that were organized under seven sectors and seven functional areas.<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|18}} By 1997, McKinsey had grown eightfold over its size in 1977.<ref name="Observer_Caulkin_19970629" /> In 1989 the firm tried to acquire talent in IT services through a $10 million purchase of the Information Consulting Group (ICG), but a culture clash caused 151 out of the 254 ICG staff members to leave by 1993.<ref name="Fortune_Huey_19931101" /><ref name="BW_Byrne_19930919" />
A controversial aspect of McKinsey's practice is that it is non-exclusive, and thus a conflict of interest could arise as different teams of consultants might work for direct competitors in an industry. This works to the company's advantage, as it does not require it to rule out working for potential clients; furthermore, knowing that a competitor has hired McKinsey has historically been a strong impetus for companies to seek McKinsey's assistance themselves. The policy also means McKinsey can keep its list of clients confidential. However, because of this there is great emphasis placed on client confidentiality within the firm, and consultants are forbidden to discuss details of their work with members of other teams.


In 1994, ] became the first non-American-born partner to be elected as the firm's managing director.<ref name="eight">{{Cite news |last=Sreenivasan |first=Sreenath |date=April 22, 1994 |title=How did McKinsey's Rajat Gupta become the first India-born CEO of a $1.3 billion US transnational? |work=BusinessToday |url=http://sree.net/stories/bt-gupta.html |url-status=dead |access-date=May 20, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170528181929/http://sree.net/stories/bt-gupta.html |archive-date=May 28, 2017}}</ref> By the end of his tenure, McKinsey had grown from 2,900 to 7,700 staff and 58 to 84 locations.<ref name="BusinessWeek_Byrne_20020708" /> He opened new international offices in cities such as ], ] and ].<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|20}} Continuing the structure developed by prior directors, Gupta also created 16 industry groups charged with understanding specific markets and instituted a three-term limit for the managing director.<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|22}} McKinsey created practice areas for manufacturing and business technology in the late 1990s.<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|21, 23}}
==Recruiting==


McKinsey set up "accelerators" in the 1990s, where the firm accepted ]-based reimbursement to help internet ];<ref name="BusinessWeek_Byrne_20020708" /><ref name="Leonhardt">{{Cite news |last=Leonhardt |first=David |date=October 22, 1999 |title=Big Consultants Woo Employees by Offering a Piece of the Action |page=C1, C21 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/22/business/big-consultants-woo-employees-by-offering-a-piece-of-the-action.html |url-status=live |access-date=February 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135838/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/22/business/big-consultants-woo-employees-by-offering-a-piece-of-the-action.html |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref> the company performed more than 1,000 e-commerce projects from 1998 to 2000 alone.<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|24}}
Marvin Bower broke with industry practice in his time by focusing hiring efforts on recent graduates from the best business schools, rather than among experienced managers. The premise for this was that analytical rigor and fresh insights were of greater value to clients than conventional wisdom. McKinsey has been known to make rare exceptions to this policy by hiring senior staff from industry (] being a noted example).


An October 1, 2000, article in the ''New York Times'' described the compulsory mini-courses that McKinsey—and its two largest rivals Boston Consulting and Bain—offered their "hyper-educated" young new recruits. Once completed, these newly certified management consultants would begin their work of "advising the executives of multibillion-dollar companies" on "projects" not related to their academic backgrounds"—"awyers would help packaged-foods companies develop new products, and physicists would tell Internet start-ups how to stand out from the crowd."<ref name="NYT_Leonhardt_20001001">{{Cite news |last=Leonhardt |first=David |date=2000-10-01 |title=A Matter of Degree? Not for Consultants |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/01/business/a-matter-of-degree-not-for-consultants.html |url-status=live |access-date=2020-06-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617005651/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/01/business/a-matter-of-degree-not-for-consultants.html |archive-date=2020-06-17|url-access=limited |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
Recently, McKinsey has diversified by soliciting candidates from graduate programs in law, medicine, engineering, science, and the liberal arts as well as by recruiting "experienced hires" from a variety of professional backgrounds including the military, law and medicine. Today, roughly half of McKinsey consultants with a graduate degree are not MBAs. These APDs ("Advanced Professional Degree candidates") attend a "mini-MBA" training program before starting their careers at McKinsey.


The burst of the ] led to a reduction in utilization rates of McKinsey's consultants from 64 to 52 percent. Though McKinsey avoided dismissing any personnel following the decline,<ref name="BusinessWeek_Byrne_20020708" /> the decline in revenues and losses from equity-based payments as stock lost value, together with a recession in 2001, meant the company had to reduce its prices, cut expenses and reduce hiring.<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|25}}
McKinsey also recruits very selectively among undergraduates, hiring as "Business Analysts" recent graduates from top universities to work as consultants alongside its associates for about 18 to 24 months. The BA program is one of the most competitive in industry and is coveted by many business-oriented undergraduates. Some business analysts choose to stay at McKinsey for an additional year as a BA, often to join an office abroad or specialize in a given industry. Many business analysts are sponsored by McKinsey to attend graduate schools, usually for a ] but sometimes for other master's or Ph.D. degrees, after their initial two years at McKinsey and rejoin the firm afterwards. Some are offered a coveted "DTA" - direct to Associate offer which means they effectively skip 2 years ahead of their peer group, but must forgo any educational support from McKinsey.


In 2001, McKinsey launched several practices that focused on the public and social sector. It took on many public sector or non profit clients on a ] basis.<ref name="vault" /> By 2002, McKinsey had invested a $35.8 million budget on ], up from $8.3 million in 1999.<ref name="vault">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h5RZAAAAYAAJ&q=Vault+Employer+Profiles+-+Mckinsey+%26+Company |title=Vault Employer Profile: McKinsey & Company |publisher=Vault |year=2004 |isbn=9781581313352 |access-date=July 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929140622/https://books.google.com/books?id=h5RZAAAAYAAJ&q=Vault+Employer+Profiles+-+Mckinsey+%26+Company |archive-date=September 29, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|1}} Its revenues were 50, 20, and 30 percent from strategy, operations, and technology consulting, respectively.<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|20}}
==Interviewing==
McKinsey's interviews are notorious for their difficulty and rigor. MBA-level interviews usually take place on-campus and follow a two round process. The first round typically consists of two 45 minute interviews. Each interview consists of two parts. The first part, usually referred to as the "FIT" portion, is designed to test the interviewees skills in 4 key areas: Problem Solving, Achieving, Personal Impact, and Leadership. Common questions during this portion of the interview include: "Tell me about a time you had to convince someone of something" and "Tell me about a time when you had to lead a team through a challenging situation." Interviewers will often push the interviewee in certain directions to verify truthfulness, as well as gain further insight into the interviewees thought process.


In 2003, ], the head of the ] office, was elected to the position of managing director.<ref name="onehundredeight">{{Cite news |last=Thurm |first=Scott |date=February 23, 2009 |title=McKinsey Partners Pick Barton to Lead Firm |work=] |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123536617936146431 |url-status=live |access-date=May 24, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135915/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123536617936146431 |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref> Davis promised a return to the company's core values after a period in which the firm had expanded rapidly, which some McKinsey consultants felt was a departure from the company's heritage.<ref name="Glater">{{Cite news |last=Glater |first=Jonathan D. |date=March 7, 2003 |title=McKinsey Selects New Leader|work=The New York Times |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2003/03/07/business/07CONS.html |url-status=live |access-date=August 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135837/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/07/business/british-manager-is-chosen-to-lead-consulting-firm.html |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref> Also in 2003, the firm established a headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region in ]. By 2004, more than 60 percent of McKinsey's revenues were generated outside the U.S.<ref name="vault" /> The company started a Social Sector Office (SSO) in 2008, which is divided into three practices: Global Public Health, Economic Development and Opportunity Creation (EDHOC) and Philanthropy. McKinsey does much of its pro-bono work through the SSO, whereas a Business Technology Office (BTO), founded in 1997, provides consulting on technology strategy.<ref name="WetFeet2009">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hb9E1BzxDBUC&pg=PA10 |title=The Wetfeet Insider Guide to McKinsey & Company |publisher=Wetfeet |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-58207-872-4 |series=Insider guide (WetFeet (Firm) |location=San Francisco, CA |access-date=2015-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160430124903/https://books.google.com/books?id=Hb9E1BzxDBUC&pg=PA10 |archive-date=2016-04-30 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Wetfeet_2002">{{Cite book |title=The Wetfeet Insider Guide to McKinsey & Company |date=August 2002 |publisher=Wetfeet |isbn=978-1-58207-260-9 |edition=Reissue |location=San Francisco, CA}}</ref><ref name="Wetfeet_2004">{{Citation |title=The Wetfeet Insider Guide to McKinsey & Company |date=2004 |url=http://spo.iitk.ac.in/preparation_old/docs/Casebooks/Wetfeet-Mckinsey_Company_insider_guides.pdf |access-date=June 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615193514/http://spo.iitk.ac.in/preparation_old/docs/Casebooks/Wetfeet-Mckinsey_Company_insider_guides.pdf |url-status=live |edition=Reissue |place=San Francisco, CA |publisher=Wetfeet |archive-date=June 15, 2020}}</ref>
The second part of the interview consists of a formal business case. This part of the interview is designed to test a candidates problem solving skills. Typically a business problem, often resembling prior work done by the interviewer, is presented to the candidate. The interviewer then asks the candidate a series of focused questions that test basic math skills, business sense, and communication/presentation skills. An example of the case portion of the interview and type of questions asked can be found here:


By 2009, the firm consisted of 400 directors (senior partners), up from 151 in 1993.<ref name="Fortune_Huey_19931101" /><ref name="twenty">{{Cite news |last=Stern |first=Stefan |date=February 23, 2009 |title=McKinsey turns to its Asia chief Barton for top job |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/d5ac5fb2-0108-11de-8f6e-000077b07658 |url-status=dead |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090328030835/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d5ac5fb2-0108-11de-8f6e-000077b07658.html |archive-date=March 28, 2009 |access-date=August 3, 2024 }}</ref> ] was elected as managing director, a role he was re-elected for in 2012 and 2015.<ref name="twenty" />
Candidates who are successful in the first round will be asked to come back for a second round of interviewing, usually taking place in the actual McKinsey office. These rounds usually consist of three interviews, typically conducted by McKinsey partners, or other senior firm members. The interviews themselves are largely similar to those of the first round, albeit slightly more informal and high-level. Candidates who succeed in their second round interviews are made an offer to join the firm.


===Recent history===
==Notable current and former employees==
{{See also|Raj Rajaratnam/Galleon Group, Anil Kumar, and Rajat Gupta insider trading cases|l1=Rajat Gupta and Anil Kumar}}
'''''See ]'''''.
Rajat Gupta along with another McKinsey executive, ], were among those convicted in a ] into ] for sharing inside information with ] hedge fund owner ].<ref name="NYT_Galleon_2009">{{Cite news |last=Lattman |first=Peter |date=March 1, 2011 |title=Ex-Goldman Director Accused of Passing Illegal Tips |work=The New York Times |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/former-goldman-director-charged-with-insider-trading/|url-status=live |access-date=August 3, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135907/https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/former-goldman-director-charged-with-insider-trading/ |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=McDonald |first=Duff |date=October 23, 2009 |title=Galleon scandal's executive conundrum |work=CNN |url=https://money.cnn.com/2009/10/22/news/companies/galleon_scandal_rules.fortune/index.htm |url-status=live |access-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427140024/https://money.cnn.com/2009/10/22/news/companies/galleon_scandal_rules.fortune/index.htm |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref> Though McKinsey was not accused of any wrongdoing, the convictions were embarrassing for the firm, since it prides itself on integrity and client confidentiality.<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 19, 2011 |title=Rajat Gupta sues US regulator over Galleon case |work=IBN Live |url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/rajat-gupta-sues-us-regulator-over-galleon-case/146446-7.html |url-status=dead |access-date=April 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110321011212/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/rajat-gupta-sues-us-regulator-over-galleon-case/146446-7.html |archive-date=March 21, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=McCool |first=Grant |date=March 14, 2011 |title=Money for inside information ended up in Bermuda, says Kumar |work=The Royal Gazette |url=http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20110314/BUSINESS02/703149977/-1/business |url-status=live |access-date=April 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427140012/http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20110314/BUSINESS02/703149977/-1/business |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=McDonald |first=Duff |date=October 23, 2009 |title=Galleon scandal's executive conundrum |work=CNN Money |url=https://money.cnn.com/2009/10/22/news/companies/galleon_scandal_rules.fortune/index.htm |url-status=live |access-date=April 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427140024/https://money.cnn.com/2009/10/22/news/companies/galleon_scandal_rules.fortune/index.htm |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref> McKinsey no longer maintains a relationship with either senior partner.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rushe |first=Dominic |date=December 6, 2009 |title=McKinsey Jettisons Troubled Star Kumar |work=The Sunday Times |url=http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/support_services/article6945946.ece |url-status=dead |access-date=May 17, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211025733/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ |archive-date=February 11, 2022}}</ref><ref name="reuters-2011-03-30">{{Cite news |last1=McCool |first1=Grant |last2=Aubin |first2=Dena |date=March 30, 2011 |title=McKinsey in uncomfortable Rajaratnam trial glare |publisher=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-galleon-rajaratnam-mckinsey-idUSTRE72T4GK20110330 |url-status=live |access-date=May 2, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308062944/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-galleon-rajaratnam-mckinsey-idUSTRE72T4GK20110330 |archive-date=March 8, 2016}}</ref>


Senior partner Anil Kumar, described as Gupta's protégé,<ref>{{Cite news |last=McCool |first=Grant |date=June 1, 2012 |title=Protege testifies against McKinsey mentor Gupta |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/goldman-gupta-idUSL1E8H1JP220120601 |url-status=live |access-date=July 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930144746/https://www.reuters.com/article/goldman-gupta-idUSL1E8H1JP220120601 |archive-date=September 30, 2021}}</ref> left the firm after the allegations in 2009, and pleaded guilty in January 2010.<ref name="computerworld">{{Cite news |last=Kouwe |first=Zachery |date=January 7, 2010 |title=Guilty Plea in Galleon Insider Trading Case |work=The New York Times |url=https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/guilty-plea-in-galleon-insider-trading-case/ |url-status=live |access-date=April 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135939/https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/guilty-plea-in-galleon-insider-trading-case/ |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Savvas |first=Antony |date=July 12, 2011 |title=McKinsey: Galleon tech insider trading is 'embarrassing' to our reputation |work=Computerworld UK |url=http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/it-business/3290894/mckinsey-galleon-tech-insider-trading-is-embarrassing-to-our-reputation/ |url-status=live |access-date=April 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140920172158/http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/it-business/3290894/mckinsey-galleon-tech-insider-trading-is-embarrassing-to-our-reputation/ |archive-date=September 20, 2014}}</ref> While he and other partners had been pitching McKinsey's consulting services to the Galleon Group, Kumar and Rajaratnam reached a private consulting agreement, violating McKinsey's policies on confidentiality.<ref name="newyorker">{{Cite magazine |last=Packer |first=George |date=June 27, 2011 |title=A Dirty Business |magazine=The New Yorker |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/06/27/110627fa_fact_packer |url-status=live |access-date=April 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140705020516/http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/06/27/110627fa_fact_packer |archive-date=July 5, 2014}}</ref> Gupta was convicted in June 2012, of four counts of ] and ], and acquitted on two counts.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Lattman |first1=Peter |last2=Ahmed |first2=Azam |date=June 15, 2012 |title=Rajat Gupta Convicted of Insider Trading |work=The New York Times |url=https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/rajat-gupta-convicted-of-insider-trading |url-status=live |access-date=March 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135852/https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/rajat-gupta-convicted-of-insider-trading |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref> In October 2011, he was arrested by the ] on charges of sharing insider information from these confidential board meetings with Rajaratnam.<ref name="wsj">{{Cite news |last1=Rothfeld |first1=Michael |last2=Susan Pulliam |date=October 25, 2011 |title=Gupta Surrenders to FBI |work=The Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204777904576653850379354850 |url-status=live |access-date=April 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135920/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204777904576653850379354850 |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref><ref name="FT_Hill_20111125">{{Cite news |last=Hill |first=Andrew |date=November 25, 2011 |title=Inside McKinsey |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/0d506e0e-1583-11e1-b9b8-00144feabdc0 |url-status=dead |access-date=August 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111128011144/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/0d506e0e-1583-11e1-b9b8-00144feabdc0.html |archive-date=November 28, 2011 }}</ref> At least twice, Gupta used a McKinsey phone to call Rajaratnam and retained other perks—an office, assistant, and $6 million retirement salary that year<ref name="Charged Questions Barred">{{Cite news |last1=Bray |first1=Chad |last2=Albergotti |first2=Reed |date=June 1, 2012 |title=Charged Questions Barred |work=The Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303640104577440451784326274 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription|access-date=August 8, 2017 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130629093228/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303640104577440451784326274.html |archive-date=June 29, 2013}}</ref>—as a senior partner emeritus.<ref name="reuters-2011-03-30" />
==Publishing and public relations==


After the scandal McKinsey instituted new policies and procedures to discourage future indiscretions from consultants,<ref name="nyt_Raghavanjan_20110114">{{Cite news |last=Raghavanjan |first=Anita |date=January 11, 2014 |title=In Scandal's Wake, McKinsey Seeks Culture Shift |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/business/self-help-at-mckinsey.html?_r=0 |url-status=live |access-date=November 21, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502093938/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/business/self-help-at-mckinsey.html?_r=0 |archive-date=May 2, 2019}}</ref> including investigating other partners' ties to Gupta.<ref>{{Cite news |date=May 3, 2011 |title=McKinsey & Company scans Rajat Gupta's staff links |work=The Times Of India |url=http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-05-03/news/29499649_1_rajat-gupta-mckinsey-galleon |url-status=dead |access-date=2012-05-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305092535/http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-05-03/news/29499649_1_rajat-gupta-mckinsey-galleon |archive-date=2016-03-05}}</ref><ref name="concede">{{Cite news |last=Edgecliff-Johnson |first=Andrew |date=July 10, 2011 |title=McKinsey concedes Galleon case 'embarrassing' |work=Financial Times |url=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/23bf19d8-aae9-11e0-b4d8-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F23bf19d8-aae9-11e0-b4d8-00144feabdc0.html&_i_referer=#axzz1qcaGgvhT |url-status=live |access-date=April 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110062935/http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/23bf19d8-aae9-11e0-b4d8-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F23bf19d8-aae9-11e0-b4d8-00144feabdc0.html&_i_referer=#axzz1qcaGgvhT |archive-date=November 10, 2012}}</ref>
A print and online publication, ] (published six times a year) offers journal-length articles on strategy, organization, marketing, and other topics of interest to senior executives. 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 Washington, DC McKinsey runs the Global Institute, which, located just steps from the White House, studies macroeconomic trends. The company's Business Technology Office also publishes McKinsey on IT, a quarterly publication aimed at CIOs and other top executives. The corporate finance practice publishes McKinsey on Finance, aimed at CFOs.


In February 2018, ] was elected as managing director. He had a three-year term that began on July 1, 2018.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Marriage |first=Madison |date=25 February 2018 |title=McKinsey names Kevin Sneader new global managing partner |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/a874cbc8-1a4a-11e8-aaca-4574d7dabfb6 |url-status=live |access-date=27 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135818/https://www.ft.com/content/a874cbc8-1a4a-11e8-aaca-4574d7dabfb6 |archive-date=27 April 2019}}</ref>
In total, it is estimated that McKinsey spends more than $50 million per year on its information gathering and internal research.


McKinsey has consulted for multiple cities, states and government organizations during the ]. During the first four months of the pandemic, McKinsey obtained in excess of $100 million in consulting work, including no-bid contracts with the ] and ].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=MacDougall |first=Ian |date=July 15, 2020 |title=How McKinsey Is Making $100 Million (and Counting) Advising on the Government's Bumbling Coronavirus Response |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-is-making-100-million-and-counting-advising-on-the-governments-bumbling-coronavirus-response |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200715165554/https://www.propublica.org/article/how-mckinsey-is-making-100-million-and-counting-advising-on-the-governments-bumbling-coronavirus-response |archive-date=2020-07-15 |access-date=2020-07-15 |website=] |language=en}}</ref> The reopening guidelines for Florida's ], produced with McKinsey's input, were criticized by local media and officials for complexity and lack of clarity.<ref name=":1" />
==Criticism==
Much criticism against McKinsey can be applied to management consulting as a whole. The firm itself will not discuss specific client situations and maintains a carefully crafted and low-profile external image, which also protects it from public scrutiny of the results of its involvement, making an assessment of its client base, its success rate, and its profitability difficult. This secrecy also helps conceal McKinsey's prices, which often far exceed $10,000 (U.S.) per day for a consulting team.


McKinsey discontinued its investment banking advisory unit in 2021, citing "personnel matters" as the reason.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Edgecliffe-Johnson |first1=Andrew |last2=Noonan |first2=Laura |last3=Morris |first3=Stephen |date=3 February 2021 |title=McKinsey fires investment bank researchers after policy breaches |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/c5082aee-6b81-4e3b-ab05-18b0e0509525 |url-status=live |access-date=4 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204010823/https://www.ft.com/content/c5082aee-6b81-4e3b-ab05-18b0e0509525 |archive-date=4 February 2021}}</ref>
Client confidentiality is maintained even among alumni of the firm, and as a result, journalists and writers have had difficulty developing fully informed accounts of mistakes McKinsey consultants may have made, such as with ], (formerly one of the firm's biggest clients) ], and ].


In 2021, McKinsey's Australian office made two acquisitions, Hypothesis, a digital product development company, and Venturetec, an innovation consulting firm.<ref>{{Cite web |title=McKinsey accelerates digital delivery capabilities in Australia |url=https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/new-at-mckinsey-blog/mckinsey-accelerates-digital-delivery-capabilities-in-australia |access-date=2023-11-14 |website=www.mckinsey.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-02-01 |title=McKinsey bolts-on Venturetec to Digital business in Australia |url=https://www.consultancy.com.au/news/2930/mckinsey-bolts-on-venturetec-to-digital-business-in-australia |access-date=2023-11-14 |website=www.consultancy.com.au |language=en}}</ref>
Much of the distrust toward McKinsey can be categorized as:
* Misguided or unimaginative analysis, such as its alleged recommendation in 1983 to ] that ]s would be a ]
* Lack of coordination among multiple engagement teams working with one client
* Lack of originality in coming up with ideas; restating the obvious with business jargon
* ], as its consultants strive under time pressure to converge on a unified set of findings and recommendations
* ] or arrogance toward executives, in particular underestimating the difficulty of implementing recommendations
* Emphasis on "current thinking" that may amount to little more than forcing the latest business theories on clients without taking a longer-term view
* Emphasis on ], often at the price of investment and long-term strategy. For example, this may have doomed the ] ] company ], which collapsed after a series of accidents, allegedly after following McKinsey's advice to reduce spending on infrastructure and return cash to shareholders instead
* Concern that it aims to become an expensive permanent presence with clients, rather than focusing on solving a clear set of problems, thereby functioning as a substitute for proper leadership and organization. This is an increasing concern in the ], where McKinsey has become involved with agencies such as the British ]


On June 1, 2022, McKinsey announced that it had acquired Caserta, a data engineering firm.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-06-02 |title=McKinsey strengthens data capabilities with Caserta acquisition |url=https://www.consulting.us/news/7699/mckinsey-strengthens-data-capabilities-with-caserta-acquisition |access-date=2022-07-06 |website=Consulting.us |language=en}}</ref>
Among other books and articles, '']'', written by '']'' journalists ] and ], presents a series of blunders and disasters alleged to have been McKinsey's consultants' fault. <!--Channel 4 film?--> Similarly, '']'' by ] and ] critically examines McKinsey's work within the context of the consulting industry.


In March 2023, McKinsey announced a layoff of 1,400 employees, in a rare job cut of the company.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Natarajan |first=Sridhar |date=28 March 2023 |title=McKinsey Starts Eliminating 1,400 Roles This Week in a Rare Round of Job Cuts |agency=Bloomberg |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-28/mckinsey-starts-cutting-1-400-jobs-this-week-in-restructuring?leadSource=uverify%20wall |access-date=29 March 2023}}</ref>
McKinsey is credited in a recent CNN article with developing a controversial car insurance company practice. In this tactic, insurance companies will fight injury claims against them if the claim involves a soft-tissue injury. This is done, the article alleges because these types of injuries are hard to verify by X-ray or other common examination methods other than surgery.


==Organization and services==
British ] ] faced criticism in the '']'' for hiring McKinsey to consult on the restructuring of the ]. A top civil servant described McKinsey as "people who come in and use ] to state the bleeding obvious."
===Structure===
], Romania]]
McKinsey & Company was originally organized as a ]<ref name="Empson2007" /> before being legally restructured as a private corporation with shares owned by its partners in 1956.<ref name="seventysix">{{Cite news |last=Bhide |first=Amar |date=March 1996 |title=Building the Professional Firm: McKinsey & Co.: 1939–1968 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ZkGHAAACAAJ |url-status=live |access-date=April 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211001072514/https://books.google.com/books?id=7ZkGHAAACAAJ |archive-date=October 1, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Ellis2013">{{Cite book |last=Charles D. Ellis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rjlZ84yVOb4C&pg=PT116 |title=What It Takes: Seven Secrets of Success from the World's Greatest Professional Firms |date=January 25, 2013 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-56049-5 |page=116 |access-date=November 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512025057/https://books.google.com/books?id=rjlZ84yVOb4C&pg=PT116 |archive-date=May 12, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> It mimics the structure of a partnership and senior employees are called "partners".<ref name="Glater" /><ref name="Empson2007">{{Cite book |last=Empson |first=Laura |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QdTu86s-XBIC&pg=PA30 |title=Managing the Modern Law Firm : New Challenges, New Perspectives: New Challenges, New Perspectives |date=January 18, 2007 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-929674-3 |page=30 |access-date=November 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624194537/https://books.google.com/books?id=QdTu86s-XBIC&pg=PA30 |archive-date=June 24, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> The company has a flat hierarchy and each member is assigned a mentor.<ref name="Rasiel_McKinseyWay_1999" />{{RP|65, 142}} Since the 1960s, McKinsey's managing director has been elected by a vote of senior directors to work up to three, three-year terms or until reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60.<ref name="Gong2013">{{Cite book |last=Yeming Gong |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GVFBAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA278 |title=Global Operations Strategy: Fundamentals and Practice |date=July 1, 2013 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-3-642-36708-3 |page=278 |access-date=November 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425040543/https://books.google.com/books?id=GVFBAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA278 |archive-date=April 25, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> The firm is also managed by a series of committees that each has its own area of responsibility.<ref name="GreinerOlson2004" />{{RP|22}}<ref name="Observer_Caulkin_19970629">{{Cite news |last=Caulkin |first=Dimon |date=June 29, 1997 |title=Management: The Firm that means McJobs for the Boys |work=The Observer |series=Business Page}}</ref>{{rp|6}}


By 2013, McKinsey was described as having a decentralized structure, whereby different offices operate similarly, but independently.<ref name="MacDonald_Firm_20130910">{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Duff |title=The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and its Secret Influence on American Business |date=September 10, 2013 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1439190975}}</ref><ref name="OShea_Dangerous_1997">{{Cite book |last1=O'Shea |first1=James |title=Dangerous Company |last2=Madigan |first2=Charles |date=1997 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-8129-2634-7}}</ref> The company's budgeting is centralized, but individual consultants are given a large degree of autonomy.<ref name="guardianlo" /> As a global firm McKinsey does not have a traditional "headquarters"; the managing partner chooses his or her home office.<ref name="McKinsey-fact-sheet">{{Cite web |last=McKinsey & Company |title=McKinsey Fact Sheet |url=https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/about%20us/media%20center/mckinseymediafactsheet_31-may-2023.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604195727/https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/About%20Us/Media%20Center/McKinseymediafactsheet_11-Dec-2019.ashx |archive-date=June 4, 2021 |access-date=July 8, 2023}}</ref>
==Offices==
===North America===
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==== List of global managing partners ====
===Europe, Middle East, & Africa===
# ] (1926–1935), Chicago office
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# Guy Crockett (1939–1950)
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# ] (1950–1967), New York office
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# Gil Clee (1967–1968)
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# Chester Walton (1968–1976)
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# ] (1973–1976)
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# ] (1976–1988)
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# ] (1988–1994), New York office
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# ] (1994–2003), New York office
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# ] (2003–2009), London office
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# ] (2009–2018), London office
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# ] (2018–2021), Hong Kong office
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# ] (2021– ), San Francisco office
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===Asia & Oceania=== ===Consulting services===
McKinsey & Company provides strategy and ] services, such as providing advice on an acquisition, developing a plan to restructure a sales force, creating a new business strategy or providing advice on downsizing, according to the 2013 book, ''The Firm''.<ref name="MacDonald_Firm_20130910" /><ref name="Rasiel_McKinseyWay_1999" /> The 1999 book, ''The McKinsey Way'' said that McKinsey consultants designed and implemented studies to evaluate management decisions using data and interviews to test ].<ref name="Rasiel_McKinseyWay_1999" /> which were then presented to senior management, typically in a ] presentation and a booklet.<ref name="Rasiel_McKinseyWay_1999" />
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McKinsey & Company has traditionally charged approximately 25 percent more than competing firms.<ref name="WetFeet2009" /> Its invoices traditionally contain only a single line.
===Latin America===
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A typical McKinsey engagement (called a "study") can last between two and twelve months and involves three to six McKinsey consultants.<ref name="WetFeet2009" /> An engagement is usually managed by a generalist that covers the region the client's headquarters are located in and specialists that have either an industry or functional expertise.<ref name="Fortune_Huey_19931101" /> Unlike some competing consulting firms, McKinsey does not hold a policy against working for multiple competing companies (although individual consultants are barred from doing so).
== External links ==
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===Recruiting===
]
McKinsey & Company was the first management consultancy to hire recent graduates instead of experienced business managers, when it started doing so in 1953.<ref name="SundayTimes_Birchall_20060608" />
]
]
]


According to a 1997 article in ''The Observer'', McKinsey recruited recent graduates and "imbue them with a religious conviction" in the firm, then cull through them with its "]" policy.<ref name="Observer_Caulkin_19970629" /> The "up or out" policy, which was established in 1951, meant that consultants that were not being promoted within the firm were asked to leave.<ref name="McKenna2006" />{{rp|208}}<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hill |first=Andrew |title=Inside McKinsey |work=Financial Times |url=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/0d506e0e-1583-11e1-b9b8-00144feabdc0.html#axzz34Hf2CyZl |url-status=live |access-date=2012-05-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903163835/http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/0d506e0e-1583-11e1-b9b8-00144feabdc0.html#axzz34Hf2CyZl |archive-date=2014-09-03 |quote=Every two or three years, McKinsey determines whether its consultants will make progress to the next level in the firm. If not, it pushes them out}}</ref> By 1997, about one-fifth of McKinsey's consultants departed under the up or out policy each year.<ref name="Observer_Caulkin_19970629" /><ref name="guardianlo">{{Cite news |last=Doward |first=Jamie |date=March 23, 2002 |title=The firm that built the house of Enron |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2002/mar/24/enron.theobserver |url-status=live |access-date=September 10, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509082840/https://www.theguardian.com/business/2002/mar/24/enron.theobserver |archive-date=May 9, 2019}}</ref> McKinsey's practice of hiring recent graduates and the "up-or-out" philosophy were originally based on Marvin Bower's experiences at the law firm ] in the 1930s, as well as the "]" used at the law firm ].<ref name="McKenna2006" />{{rp|206}}
]

]
In recent years, it has consistently been recognized by Vault as the most prestigious consulting firm employer in the world.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2021 Most Prestigious Consulting Firms |url=https://www.vault.com/best-companies-to-work-for/consulting/best-consulting-firms-prestige |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210402142733/https://www.vault.com/best-companies-to-work-for/consulting/best-consulting-firms-prestige |archive-date=2021-04-02 |access-date=2021-03-04 |website=]}}</ref>
]
In 2018, 800,000 candidates applied for 8,000 jobs.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Ryder |first=Brett |date=November 21, 2019 |title=Rethinking McKinsey: Disrupting the management priesthood |url=https://www.economist.com/business/2019/11/21/rethinking-mckinsey |url-status=live |magazine=] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325034814/https://www.economist.com/business/2019/11/21/rethinking-mckinsey |archive-date=March 25, 2020 |access-date=April 4, 2020}}</ref>
]

]
While many recruits have MBAs, by 2009, less than half of the firm's recruits were business majors;<ref name="WetFeet2009" />{{RP|7}} by 1999, recruits had advanced degrees in science, medicine, engineering or law.<ref name="Rasiel_McKinseyWay_1999">{{Cite book |last=Rasiel |first=Ethan |title=The McKinsey Way |date=1999 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=978-0-07-053448-3}}</ref><ref name="SchaeperSchaeper2004">{{Cite book |last1=Thomas J. Schaeper |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AlM1V90kHQsC&pg=PA299 |title=Rhodes Scholars, Oxford, and the Creation of an American Elite |last2=Kathleen Schaeper |publisher=Berghahn Books |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-57181-683-2 |pages=299– |access-date=2015-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426110935/https://books.google.com/books?id=AlM1V90kHQsC&pg=PA299 |archive-date=2016-04-26 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="yorker">{{Cite magazine |last=Lemann |first=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Lemann |date=October 10, 1999 |title=The World of Business: The Kids in the Conference Room |magazine=The New Yorker |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/10/18/the-kids-in-the-conference-room |url-status=live |access-date=June 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140720173126/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1999/10/18/1999_10_18_209_TNY_LIBRY_000019363 |archive-date=July 20, 2014}}</ref>
]

]
===Culture===
]
A November 1, 1993, profile story in ] said that McKinsey & Company was "the most well-known, most secretive, most high-priced, most prestigious, most consistently successful, most envied, most trusted, most disliked management consulting firm on earth".<ref name="Fortune_Huey_19931101" /> In the article, McKinsey was cited as claiming that its consultants were not motivated by money,<ref name="Fortune_Huey_19931101" /> and that partners talked to each other with "a sense of personal affection and admiration".<ref name="Fortune_Huey_19931101" /> The article described a culture clash that occurred in the early 1990s, leading to the departure of 151 out of the 254 ICG staff members.<ref name="Fortune_Huey_19931101" />

In their 1997 book ''Dangerous Company: Management Consultants and the Businesses They Save and Ruin'', authors James O'Shea and Charles Madigan said that McKinsey's culture had often been compared to ], because of the influence, loyalty and zeal of its members.<ref name="OShea_Dangerous_1997" /><ref name="Times_OShea_19970907">{{Cite news |last1=O'Shea |first1=James |last2=Madigan |first2=Charles |date=September 7, 1997 |title=The Firm's Grip |work=The Sunday Times}}</ref> The firm has a policy against discussing specific client situations.<ref name="OShea_Dangerous_1997" /> A September 1997 '']'' story said that McKinsey's internal culture was "collegiate and ruthlessly competitive" and has been described as arrogant.<ref name="Observer_Caulkin_19970629" /> Ethan Rasiel's 1999 book entitled ''The McKinsey Way'', described a culture at McKinsey's whereby members were not supposed to "sell" their services.<ref name="Rasiel_McKinseyWay_1999" /><ref name="theguardian_Laville_20050614">{{Cite news |last1=Laville |first1=Sandra |last2=Pratley |first2=Nils |date=June 14, 2005 |title=Brothers who sit at Blair's right hand |work=The Guardian}}</ref>

''The Sunday Times'' wrote that McKinsey was a pioneer in the industry—the "first firm to hire MBA graduates from the top business schools to staff its projects, rather than relying on older industry personnel." They were still trying to keep a "very low profile public image" in 2005.<ref name="SundayTimes_Birchall_20060608">{{Cite news |last=Birchall |first=Martin |date=June 8, 2006 |title=Consultancy pioneer is still setting the pace |page=7 |work=The Sunday Times |quote=It was also the first firm to hire MBA graduates from the top business schools to staff its projects, rather than relying on older industry personnel.}}</ref> That year, an article in '']'' said that McKinsey "hours are long, expectations high and failure not acceptable".<ref name="theguardian_Laville_20050614" /> According to an October 2009 ] article, the firm had a "button-down culture" focused on "playing by the rules".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Eder |first=Steve |date=October 19, 2009 |title=McKinsey shocked by insider-trading allegations |publisher=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mckinsey-insider-trading-analysis-sb-idUSTRE59I5Y520091019 |url-status=live |access-date=December 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303195453/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mckinsey-insider-trading-analysis-sb-idUSTRE59I5Y520091019 |archive-date=March 3, 2016}}</ref> In his 2013 book, ''The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business'', Duff McDonald described how McKinsey's consultants were expected to become a part of the community and recruit clients from church, charitable foundations, board positions and other community involvements.<ref name="MacDonald_Firm_20130910" /> McDonald wrote that McKinsey calls itself "The Firm" and its employees "members".<ref name="MacDonald_Firm_20130910" /><ref name="Fortune_Huey_19931101" /> '']'' summarized ''The Firm''{{'}}s description of McKinsey as a "fading empire, where hubris and changing times have diminished the firm's statures."<ref name="BW_Rodenhauser_20130826">{{Cite news |last=Rodenhauser |first=Tom |date=August 26, 2013 |title=The McKinsey Mystique |work=BusinessWeek |url=http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-26/the-mckinsey-mystique |url-status=dead |access-date=June 20, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150110160724/http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-26/the-mckinsey-mystique |archive-date=January 10, 2015}}</ref>

In his February 2020 in-depth article in '']'', Daniel Markovits argues that McKinsey promotes "intellect and elite credentials" and "Meritocrats" over "directly relevant experience".<ref name="theatlantic_Markovits_20200203">{{Cite magazine |last=Markovits |first=Daniel |date=February 3, 2020 |title=How McKinsey Destroyed the Middle Class |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/how-mckinsey-destroyed-middle-class/605878/ |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |magazine=The Atlantic |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200618191633/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/how-mckinsey-destroyed-middle-class/605878/ |archive-date=June 18, 2020 |access-date=June 16, 2020}}</ref>

==Influence==
{{Main|List of former employees of McKinsey & Company}}
Many of McKinsey's alumni become CEOs of major corporations or hold important government positions.<ref name="SundayTimes_Birchall_20060608" /> In doing so, they influence the other organizations with McKinsey's values and culture.<ref name="OShea_Dangerous_1997" /><ref name="SundayTimes_Birchall_20060608" /><ref name="Times_OShea_19970907" /> McKinsey's alumni have been appointed as CEOs or high-level executives.<ref name="Times_OShea_19970907" /><ref name="usatodaylo">{{Cite news |last=Kim |first=James |date=May 19, 1993 |title=McKinsey: CEO factory. Money |pages=1B |work=USA Today}}</ref>

In his 2010 publication, '']'', business journalist ] traced the roots of a profound change in corporate management to "four mavericks" in the 1960s—Fred Gluck at McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group's Bruce Henderson, Bill Bain at Bain & Company, and Harvard Business School professor, Michael Porter.<ref name="Kiechel2010">{{Cite book |last=Kiechel |first=Walter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uFO1bi3pY2AC&pg=PT55 |title=The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World |date=2010 |publisher=Harvard Business Press |isbn=978-1-4221-5731-2 |page=347 |oclc=259247279 |access-date=June 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805211636/https://books.google.com/books?id=uFO1bi3pY2AC&pg=PT55 |archive-date=August 5, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> Kiechel recounted how they "revolutionized the way we think about business, changed the very soul of the corporation, and transformed the way we work," according to the Harvard Business Press synopsis.<ref name="FT_2010" />

McKinsey has been either directly involved in, or closely associated with, a number of notable scandals,<ref name="independent.co.uk" /> involving Enron in 2001,<ref name="independent.co.uk" /><ref name="theguardian.com" /> Galleon in 2009,<ref name="NYT_Galleon_2009" /> ] in 2015,<ref name="FT_Valeant" /> Saudi Arabia in 2018,<ref name="nytimes-2018-10-20" /> China in 2018,<ref name="nytimes-2018-12-15" /> ICE in 2019,<ref name=":0" /> an internal conflict of interest in 2019<ref name="nyt_conflictofinterest" /> and Purdue Pharma in 2019,<ref name="NYT_Forsythe_2019" /> among others. By 2019, major news outlets, including '']'' and ''],'' had raised concerns about McKinsey's business practices.<ref name="NYT_MacDougall_20191214">{{Cite news |last=MacDougall |first=Ian |date=December 14, 2019 |title=How McKinsey Makes Its Own Rules |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/14/sunday-review/mckinsey-ice-buttigieg.html |url-status=live |access-date=June 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605195214/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/14/sunday-review/mckinsey-ice-buttigieg.html |archive-date=June 5, 2020 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

===Research and publishing===
McKinsey & Company consultants regularly publish books, research and articles about business and management.<ref name="Rasiel_McKinseyWay_1999" />{{RP|51}}<ref name="MicklethwaitWooldridge1997" />{{RP|55}} The firm spends $50–$100 million a year on research.<ref name="MicklethwaitWooldridge1997" />{{RP|54}} McKinsey was one of the first organizations to fund management research, when it founded the Foundation for Management Research in 1955.<ref name="Edersheim2010">{{Cite book |last=Elizabeth Haas Edersheim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lBHPV2ZVKC4C&pg=PT28 |title=McKinsey's Marvin Bower: Vision, Leadership, and the Creation of Management Consulting |date=13 December 2010 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-04014-0 |access-date=16 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821004047/http://books.google.com/books?id=lBHPV2ZVKC4C&pg=PT28 |archive-date=21 August 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> The firm began publishing a business magazine, '']'', in 1964.<ref name="Nieto-Rodriguez2012">{{Cite book |last=Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C8P4bM2XLzoC |title=The Focused Organization: Less Is More in Portfolio Management and Project Delivery |date=May 1, 2012 |publisher=Gower Publishing, Ltd. |isbn=978-1-4094-2566-3 |page=55 |access-date=December 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805184815/https://books.google.com/books?id=C8P4bM2XLzoC |archive-date=August 5, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> It funds the McKinsey Global Institute, which studies global economic trends and was founded in 1990.<ref name="vault" /> It also launched the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility in 2020 to fund research focused on advancing inclusive growth & racial equity globally.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Introducing the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility {{!}} McKinsey & Company |url=https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/new-at-mckinsey-blog/introducing-the-mckinsey-institute-for-black-economic-mobility |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210811214247/https://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/new-at-mckinsey-blog/introducing-the-mckinsey-institute-for-black-economic-mobility |archive-date=2021-08-11 |access-date=2021-06-24 |website=] |language=en}}</ref> Many consultants are contributors to the ].<ref name="Times_OShea_19970907" /> McKinsey consultants published only two books from 1960 to 1980, then more than 50 from 1980 to 1996.<ref name="MicklethwaitWooldridge1997" />{{RP|55}} McKinsey's publications and research give the firm a "quasi-academic" image.<ref name="MicklethwaitWooldridge1997">{{Cite book |last1=Micklethwait |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lh1mPgAACAAJ |title=The Witch Doctors: What the Management Gurus are Saying, why it Matters and how to Make Sense of it |last2=Wooldridge |first2=Adrian |publisher=Mandarin |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-7493-2670-8 |access-date=2015-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160520100835/https://books.google.com/books?id=Lh1mPgAACAAJ |archive-date=2016-05-20 |url-status=live}}</ref>

A McKinsey book, '']'', was published in 1982.<ref name="guest">{{Cite book |last=Guest |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NdDt1MaJ42YC&pg=PA359 |title=Organizational Studies: Modes of management |date=January 1, 2001 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-21554-1 |pages=347–362 |access-date=November 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512055107/https://books.google.com/books?id=NdDt1MaJ42YC&pg=PA359 |archive-date=May 12, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> It featured eight characteristics of successful businesses based on an analysis of 43 top performing companies.<ref name="MicklethwaitWooldridge1997" />{{RP|87–89}}<ref name="guest" />{{RP|348}} It marked the beginning of McKinsey's shift from accounting to "softer" aspects of management, like skills and culture.<ref name="guest" />{{RP|359}} According to David Guest from ], ''In Search of Excellence'' became popular among business managers because it was easy to read, well-marketed and some of its core messages were valid. However, it was disliked by academics because of flaws in its methodology. Additionally, a 1984 analysis by ''BusinessWeek'' found that many of those companies identified as "excellent" in the book no longer met the criteria only two years later.<ref name="guest" />

A 1997 article and a book it published in 2001 on "The War for Talent"<ref name="bookcrit">{{Cite news |last=McDonald |first=Duff |date=November 5, 2013 |title=McKinsey's Dirty War: Bogus 'War for Talent' Was Self-Serving (and Failed) Even a stacked deck couldn't produce winners |work=The Observer |url=http://observer.com/2013/11/mckinseys-dirty-war-bogus-war-for-talent-was-self-serving-and-failed/ |url-status=live |access-date=July 3, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427140002/https://observer.com/2013/11/mckinseys-dirty-war-bogus-war-for-talent-was-self-serving-and-failed/ |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref>
prompted academics and the business community to start focusing more on talent management.<ref name="PerkinsArvinen-Muondo2013">{{Cite book |last1=Stephen Perkins |url=https://archive.org/details/organizationalbe0000perk |title=Organizational Behaviour: People, Process, Work and Human Resource Management |last2=Raisa Arvinen-Muondo |date=3 January 2013 |publisher=Kogan Page Publishers |isbn=978-0-7494-6361-8 |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{RP|163}} The authors found that the best-performing companies were "obsessed" with acquiring and managing the best talent.<ref name="newyorkerlo">{{Cite magazine |last=Gladwell |first=Malcolm |author-link=Malcolm Gladwell |date=22 July 2002 |title=The Talent Myth. Are smart people overrated? |url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/07/22/020722fa_fact |url-status=live |magazine=The New Yorker |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101104011956/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/07/22/020722fa_fact |archive-date=4 November 2010 |access-date=2 September 2011}}</ref> They advocated that companies rank employees by their performance and promote "stars", while targeting under-performers for improvement or layoffs.<ref name="newyorkerlo" /><ref name="seventythree">{{Cite news |last=McDonald |first=Buff |date=July 26, 2009 |title=The Answer Men |work=New York Magazine |url=http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/topic/58091/ |url-status=live |access-date=April 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427140017/http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/topic/58091/ |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref> After the book was published, ], a company which followed many of its principles, was involved in a ].<ref name="newyorkerlo" /> In May 2001, a Stanford professor wrote a paper critical of the "War on Talent" arguing that it prioritized individuals at the expense of the larger organization.<ref name="bookcrit" />

McKinsey consultants published ''Creative Destruction'' in 2001.<ref name="MacDonald_Firm_20130910" />{{RP|247}} The book suggested that CEOs need to be willing to change or rebuild a company, rather than protect what they have created.<ref name="alphaiuolh">{{Cite news |last=Foster |first=Richard |title=Manager's Journal: The Welch Legacy: Creative Destruction |work=]}}</ref> It found that out of the first ] list from 1957, only 74 were still in business by 1998.<ref name="alphaiuolh" /><ref name="theeconomist_20010522">{{Cite news |last1=Zook |first1=Chris |last2=James Allen |date=May 22, 2001 |title=Core curriculum |newspaper=The Economist |url=http://www.economist.com/node/630473 |url-status=live |access-date=December 3, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180116140315/http://www.economist.com/node/630473 |archive-date=January 16, 2018}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' said it "makes a cogent argument that in times of rampant, uncertain change&nbsp;... established companies are handcuffed by success."<ref name="Andrews">{{Cite news |last=Andrews |first=Fred |date=April 22, 2001 |title=BOOK VALUE; Even the Best Boats Need Rocking |page=7 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/business/book-value-even-the-best-boats-need-rocking.html |url-status=live | url-access=limited |access-date=August 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427140019/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/business/book-value-even-the-best-boats-need-rocking.html |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref> In 2009, McKinsey consultants published ''The Alchemy of Growth'', which established three "horizons" for growth: core enhancements, new growth platforms and options.<ref name="McGrathMacMillan2009">{{Cite book |last1=McGrath |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-N01KDot54C |title=Discovery-Driven Growth: A Breakthrough Process to Reduce Risk and Seize Opportunity |last2=Ian MacMillan |date=March 16, 2009 |publisher=Harvard Business Review Press |isbn=978-1-4221-2949-4 |page=198 |access-date=November 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805205817/https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-N01KDot54C |archive-date=August 5, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In February 2011, McKinsey surveyed 1,300 US private-sector employers on their expected response to the ] (ACA).<ref name="dahfahldnl">{{Cite news |last1=Shubharn Singhal |last2=Jeris Stueland |last3=Drew Ungerman |date=June 2011 |title=How US health care reform will affect employee benefits |publisher=McKinsey Quarterly |url=http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/How_US_health_care_reform_will_affect_employee_benefits_2813 |url-status=live |access-date=October 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130405160824/http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/How_US_health_care_reform_will_affect_employee_benefits_2813 |archive-date=April 5, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=June 7, 2011 |title=1 in 3 Employers Will Drop Health Benefits After ObamaCare Kicks In, Survey Finds |publisher=Fox News |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/1-in-3-employers-will-drop-health-benefits-after-obamacare-kicks-in-survey-finds/ |url-status=live |access-date=October 24, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151105000219/http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/06/07/1-in-3-employers-will-drop-health-benefits-after-obamacare-fully-kicks-in/#ixzz2ALXc6tWM |archive-date=November 5, 2015}}</ref> Thirty percent of respondents said they anticipated they would probably or definitely stop offering ] after the ACA went into effect in 2014.<ref name="sixteen">{{Cite news |date=June 7, 2011 |title=Many US Employers to Drop Health Benefits: McKinsey |publisher=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-benefits-idUSTRE7564VR20110607 |url-status=live |access-date=October 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308053754/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-benefits-idUSTRE7564VR20110607 |archive-date=March 8, 2016}}</ref><ref name="abc">{{Cite news |last=Farnham |first=Alan |date=June 9, 2011 |title=Health Care Survey: Employers May Cut Plans After 2014 |publisher=ABC News |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Business/health-care-survey-finds-employers-stop-providing-plans/story?id=13801527#.UImuQIWWcYs |url-status=live |access-date=October 24, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135852/https://abcnews.go.com/Business/health-care-survey-finds-employers-stop-providing-plans/story?id=13801527#.UImuQIWWcYs |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref> These results, published in June 2011 in the ''McKinsey Quarterly'',<ref name="dahfahldnl" /> became "a useful tool for critics of the ACA and a deep annoyance for defenders of the law" according to an article in ].<ref name="ten">{{Cite news |last=Pickert |first=Kate |date=June 20, 2011 |title=McKinsey Comes Clean About Its Controversial Insurance Study |work=TIME Magazine |url=https://swampland.time.com/2011/06/20/mckinsey-comes-clean-about-its-controversial-insurance-study/ |url-status=live |access-date=October 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135919/http://swampland.time.com/2011/06/20/mckinsey-comes-clean-about-its-controversial-insurance-study/ |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref> Supporters of healthcare reform argued the survey far surpassed estimates by the ] and insisted that McKinsey disclose the survey's methodology.<ref name="two">{{Cite news |last=Freudenheim |first=Milt |date=June 20, 2011 |title=Health Law in a Swirl of Forecasts |work=The New York Times |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/business/21insure.html |url-status=live |access-date=August 3, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903035606/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/business/21insure.html |archive-date=September 3, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="nineteen">{{Cite news |last=Pecquet |first=Julian |date=May 16, 2011 |title=Baucus demands methodology behind healthcare reform study |work=The Hill |url=https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/94122-baucus-demands-methodology-behind-healthcare-reform-study/ |url-status=live |access-date=October 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317032909/http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/politics-elections/166889-baucus-demands-answers-on-consultants-controversial-healthcare-reform-study- |archive-date=March 17, 2014}}</ref><ref name="twentyone">{{Cite news |last=Rovner |first=Julie |date=June 17, 2011 |title=McKinsey Health Insurance Survey Raises Ruckus, Questions |publisher=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/06/17/137254316/mckinsey-health-insurance-survey-raises-ruckus-questions |url-status=live |access-date=October 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150423114302/http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/06/17/137254316/mckinsey-health-insurance-survey-raises-ruckus-questions |archive-date=April 23, 2015}}</ref> Two weeks after publishing the survey results,<ref name="ten" /> McKinsey released the contents of the survey including the questionnaire and 206 pages of survey data.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Schwab |first=Dwight |date=July 28, 2011 |title=After lengthy debt-ceiling crisis, Obamacare looms}}</ref> In its accompanying statement,<ref name="seventeen">{{Cite news |date=June 20, 2011 |title=Details regarding the survey methodology |publisher=McKinsey |url=http://www.mckinsey.com/features/us_employer_healthcare_survey |url-status=dead |access-date=October 24, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151226022900/http://www.mckinsey.com/features/us_employer_healthcare_survey |archive-date=December 26, 2015}}</ref> McKinsey said it was intended to capture the attitude of employers at a certain point in time, not make a prediction.<ref name="twentytwo">{{Cite news |last=Baker |first=Sam |date=June 20, 2011 |title=McKinsey stands by healthcare survey |work=The Hill}}</ref><ref name="twentysix">{{Cite news |last=Cevallos |first=Marissa |date=June 20, 2011 |title=McKinsey Releases Insurance-Survey Data; More Controversy Ensues |work=] |url=https://www.latimes.com/health/la-xpm-2011-jun-20-la-heb-mckinsey-survey-healthcare-20110620-story.html |url-status=live |access-date=December 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317034942/http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/20/news/la-heb-mckinsey-survey-healthcare-20110620 |archive-date=March 17, 2014}}</ref>

Since 1990, McKinsey has been publishing '']'', a textbook on valuation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, 6th Edition |url=http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118873734.html |access-date=2015-08-05 |publisher=]}}</ref>

In 2022, McKinsey senior partners Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra authored the book ''CEO Excellence'', which was published by ].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-15 |title=A satisfying handbook for future moguls |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carolyn-dewar/ceo-excellence/ |access-date=2022-11-02 |website=Kirkus Reviews |language=en}}</ref>

====Environmental consulting====
] curves attempt to compare the financial costs of different options for reducing pollution in a region and are used in emissions trading, policy discussions and incentive programs.<ref>{{Citation |last=Kesicki |first=Fabian |title=Marginal abatement cost curves for policy making |date=November 2011 |url=http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucft347/Kesicki_MACC.pdf |access-date=December 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123134905/http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucft347/Kesicki_MACC.pdf |url-status=live |publisher=University College London Energy Institute |archive-date=November 23, 2018}}</ref> McKinsey & Company released its first marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve for greenhouse gas emissions in February 2007, which was updated to version two in January 2009.<ref>{{Citation |title=Greenhouse gas abatement cost curves |url=http://www.mckinsey.com/client_service/sustainability/latest_thinking/greenhouse_gas_abatement_cost_curves |work=Sustainability and Resource Productivity |access-date=December 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222092641/http://www.mckinsey.com/client_service/sustainability/latest_thinking/greenhouse_gas_abatement_cost_curves |url-status=dead |publisher=McKinsey & Company |archive-date=December 22, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Jerker Rosander, Per-Anders Enkvist |title=A cost curve for greenhouse gas reduction |date=February 2007 |url=http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Sustainability/A_cost_curve_for_greenhouse_gas_reduction |access-date=December 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160120210653/http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/sustainability/a_cost_curve_for_greenhouse_gas_reduction |url-status=live |publisher=McKinsey & Company |name-list-style=amp |archive-date=January 20, 2016 |last2=Tomas Nauclér}}</ref> McKinsey & Company's MAC curve has become the most widely used<ref name="five">{{Citation |last1=Ekins |first1=Paul |authorlink=Paul Ekins |first2=Fabian |last2=Kesicki |first3=Andrew Z.P. |last3=Smith |title=Marginal Abatement Cost Curves: A call for caution |date=April 2011 |url=http://www.whoseolympics.org/bartlett/energy/news/documents/ei-news-290611-macc.pdf |access-date=December 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306004119/http://whoseolympics.org/bartlett/energy/news/documents/ei-news-290611-macc.pdf |url-status=dead |publisher=] Energy Institute |quote=the most well known and widely used of which have been compiled by McKinsey and Company |archive-date=March 6, 2016}}</ref> and is the basis for McKinsey's consulting on climate change and sustainability.<ref name="theeconomist_20091124">{{Cite news |date=November 24, 2009 |title=Green redemption |newspaper=The Economist |url=http://www.economist.com/node/14952792 |url-status=live |access-date=December 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160811104003/http://www.economist.com/node/14952792 |archive-date=August 11, 2016 |quote=McKinsey has become known as a climate-change consultant, thanks to its greenhouse gas "cost abatement curve". This clever little chart shows the relative opportunity costs of different abatement activities. McKinsey's curve and expertise on climate change have opened the doors and pockets of ministries and industries around the globe.}}</ref>

McKinsey's curve predicts negative cost abatement strategies, which has been controversial among economists.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Frank Ackerman |title=Use of McKinsey abatement cost curves for climate economics modeling |date=January 25, 2011 |url=http://www.sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-workingpaperus-1102.pdf |access-date=December 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809121945/https://www.sei-international.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/Climate/sei-workingpaperus-1102.pdf |url-status=live |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |name-list-style=amp |archive-date=August 9, 2017 |last2=Ramon Bueno}}</ref> The ] said in ''The Energy Journal'' that McKinsey's cost-curve was popular among policymakers, because it suggests they can take "bold action towards improving energy efficiency without imposing costs on society."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Huntington |first=Hillard |year=2011 |title=The Policy Implications of Energy-Efficiency Cost Curves |journal=The Energy Journal |volume=32 |issue=1 |doi=10.5547/ISSN0195-6574-EJ-Vol32-SI1 |issn=0195-6574}}</ref>

In a 2010 report, the Rainforest Foundation UK said McKinsey's cost curve methodology was misleading for policy decisions regarding the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program. The report argued that McKinsey's calculations exclude certain implementation and governance costs, which makes it favor industrial uses of forests while discouraging subsistence projects.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Dyer |first1=Nathaniel |title=McREDD How McKinsey 'cost-curves' are distorting REDD |date=2010 |url=http://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/McREDD |access-date=December 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401230953/https://www.rainforestfoundationuk.org/McREDD |url-status=dead |publisher=The Rainforest Foundation |archive-date=April 1, 2019 |last2=Counsell |first2=Simon}}</ref> Greenpeace said the curve has allowed Indonesia and Guyana to win financial incentives from the ] by creating inflated estimates of current deforestation so they could demonstrate reductions in comparison.<ref name="Bloomberg_Morales_20110407">{{Cite news |last=Morales |first=Alex |date=April 7, 2011 |title=McKinsey Work Lets Congo, Guyana Get Aid, Cut Trees, Greenpeace Says |publisher=Bloomberg L.P. |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-06/mckinsey-work-lets-congo-guyana-get-aid-cut-trees-greenpeace-says.html |url-status=live |access-date=December 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227104116/http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-06/mckinsey-work-lets-congo-guyana-get-aid-cut-trees-greenpeace-says.html |archive-date=February 27, 2014}}</ref><ref name="reuters_Wynn_20110407" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Hari |first=Johann |date=July 7, 2011 |title=Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program (REDD) |work=The Huffington Post}}</ref> McKinsey said they had made it clear in the cost-curve publications that cost curves do not translate "mechanically" into policy implications and that policymakers should consider "many other factors" before introducing new laws.<ref name="Bloomberg_Morales_20110407" /><ref name="reuters_Wynn_20110407">{{Cite news |last=Wynn |first=Gerard |date=April 7, 2011 |title=McKinsey defends its climate costs slide rule |publisher=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-costs-idUSTRE7365KX20110407 |url-status=live |access-date=December 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151223074823/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-costs-idUSTRE7365KX20110407 |archive-date=December 23, 2015}}</ref>

In April 2022, in the report "Global Energy Perspective" the company predicted that fossil fuels use will peak between 2023–2025 and in 2050 fossil fuels will account for 43% of energy consumption. Emissions will peak in all scenarios before 2030.<ref>{{cite web |title=Global Energy Perspective 2022 |url=https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/oil-and-gas/our-insights/global-energy-perspective-2022 |website=McKinsey & Company |access-date=28 November 2024}}</ref> However, the report of September 2024, said that fossil fuel consumption is expected to plateau between 2025 and 2035, and they will continue to play a major role accounting for 40%-60% of energy supply by 2050. Emissions will peak in 2025-2035. The report mention "a more challenging geopolitical landscape", rising electricity demand, especially from ], some technical problems that are complicating the transition. The low cost of renewables can make them less profitable, so regulation can be required for adoption.<ref>{{cite web |title=Global Energy Perspective 2024 |url=https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/energy-and-materials/our-insights/global-energy-perspective |website=McKinsey & Company |access-date=28 November 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Fossil fuels will continue to lead energy mix amid slow EV growth and clean energy |url=https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/renewable/fossil-fuels-will-continue-to-lead-energy-mix-amid-slow-ev-growth-and-clean-energy-challenges-mckinsey/113584033 |access-date=28 November 2024 |agency=The Economic Times |publisher=McKinsey |date=23 September 2024}}</ref> The company also created a new report "Global Materials Perspective". It says that the energy transition require intensive mining of many materials, so even as the mining of coal will be reduced, the overall emissions from the mining and metal industry will decline only from 15% to 13% by 2035.<ref>{{cite web |title=Global Materials Perspective |url=https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/energy-and-materials/our-insights/global-materials-perspective |website=McKinsey & Company |access-date=28 November 2024}}</ref>

===Significant consulting projects===
McKinsey & Company's founder, James O. McKinsey, introduced the concept of budget planning as a management framework in his fifth book ''Budgetary Control'' in 1922.<ref name="CurnowReuvid2005">{{Cite book |last1=Barry Curnow |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ctLTOJPZQIYC |title=International Guide to Management Consultancy: Evolution Practice and Structure |last2=Jonathan Reuvid |date=December 3, 2005 |publisher=Kogan Page Publishers |isbn=978-0-7494-4699-4 |page=25 |access-date=December 16, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805194239/https://books.google.com/books?id=ctLTOJPZQIYC |archive-date=August 5, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|25}}<ref name="padjildk">{{Citation |last1=Flesher |first1=Dale |title=McKinsey, James O. (1889–1937) |date=1996 |url=https://archive.org/details/histaccounting00chat/page/n9/mode/2up |encyclopedia=History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=184–186 |publisher=Garland Publishing |jstor=40698463 |last2=Flesher |first2=Tonya |url-access=registration |via=]}}</ref>{{rp|422}} The firm's first client was the treasurer of ], who, along with other early McKinsey clients, had read ''Budgetary Control''. In 1931 McKinsey created a methodology for analyzing a company called the General Survey Outline (GSO), which was established based on ideas introduced in the 1924 book ''Business Administration''. It was also known as the Banker's Survey, because McKinsey's clients who used it in the 1930s were predominantly banks.<ref name="MacDonald_Firm_20130910" />{{RP|22}} After the ] gave certain rights to employees to organize into unions in 1935, McKinsey started consulting corporations on employee relations. Later in the 1950s, the work of a McKinsey consultant on compensation was influential in "skyrocketing executive pay".<ref name="MacDonald_Firm_20130910" /> It also helped many companies such as ], ] and ] expand into Europe.<ref name="MacDonald_Firm_20130910" />

In the 1940s, McKinsey helped many corporations convert into wartime production for World War II.<ref name="MacDonald_Firm_20130910" /> It also helped organize NASA into an organization that relies heavily on contractors in 1958.<ref name="McKenna2000">{{Cite book |last=Christopher D. McKenna |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9SJKYmkfvt8C |title=The World's Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-139-45553-4 |access-date=2015-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805181351/https://books.google.com/books?id=9SJKYmkfvt8C |archive-date=2020-08-05 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{RP|105}} McKinsey created a report in 1953 for ] that was used to guide government appointments.<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 12, 1953 |title=The McKinsey Report |url=http://pdc-connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/54170571/mckinsey-report |access-date=July 3, 2014}}</ref> In 1973, McKinsey & Company led a project for a consortium of grocery chains represented by the U.S. Supermarket Ad Hoc Committee on a Uniform Grocery Product Code to create the barcode.<ref name="Enterprise1999">{{Cite journal |last=IDG Enterprise |date=31 May 1999 |title=Computerworld |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KQMeZfQuVxoC&pg=PT42 |url-status=live |journal=Computerworld: The Newsweekly of Information Systems Management |publisher=IDG Enterprise |page=42 |issn=0010-4841 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160520033731/https://books.google.com/books?id=KQMeZfQuVxoC&pg=PT42 |archive-date=20 May 2016 |access-date=15 November 2015}}</ref><ref name="AyersOdegaard2007">{{Cite book |last1=James B. Ayers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FLTnul2yoKQC |title=Retail Supply Chain Management |last2=Mary Ann Odegaard |date=26 November 2007 |publisher=Taylor &Francis |isbn=978-1-4200-1375-7 |page=269 |access-date=15 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805194010/https://books.google.com/books?id=FLTnul2yoKQC |archive-date=5 August 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> According to the book ''"Business Research Methods"'', the barcode became commonplace after a study by McKinsey persuaded ] to adopt it.<ref name="CooperSchindler2013">{{Cite book |last1=Donald Cooper |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZ0cAAAAQBAJ |title=Business Research Methods: 12th Edition |last2=Pamela Schindler |date=February 1, 2013 |publisher=McGraw-Hill Higher Education |isbn=978-0-07-777443-1 |access-date=November 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617002306/https://books.google.com/books?id=AZ0cAAAAQBAJ |archive-date=June 17, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In the 1970s and 1980s, McKinsey helped European companies change their organizational structure to ] (Multidivisional Form), which organizes the company into semi-autonomous divisions that function around a product, industry or customer, rather than a function or expertise.<ref name="KippingEngwall2002">{{Cite book |last1=Matthias Kipping |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ba_LE10UhagC |title=Management Consulting : Emergence and Dynamics of a Knowledge Industry: Emergence and Dynamics of a Knowledge Industry |last2=Lars Engwall |date=June 20, 2002 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-158812-9 |page=191 |access-date=November 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805194555/https://books.google.com/books?id=ba_LE10UhagC |archive-date=August 5, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{RP|208}}<ref name="Schröter2005">{{Cite book |last=Harm G. Schröter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LpYWwI1yy9MC |title=Americanization of the European Economy: A compact survey of American economic influence in Europe since the 1800s |date=December 5, 2005 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4020-2934-9 |page=110 |access-date=November 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805184944/https://books.google.com/books?id=LpYWwI1yy9MC |archive-date=August 5, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{RP|110}}

In the 1980s, AT&T reduced investments in cell towers due to McKinsey's prediction that there would only be 900,000 cell phone subscribers by 2000. According to ''The Firm'' this was "laughably off the mark" from the 109 million cellular subscribers by 2000. At the time cell phones were bulky and expensive. The firm helped the Dutch government facilitate a turnaround for ], the world's largest steel company as of 2013, through a $1 billion bankruptcy bailout. It also implemented a turnaround for the city of ], which had problems with unemployment and crime. McKinsey created the corporate structure for ], when it was still a small company known as ]. McKinsey was hired by ] to do a large-scale re-organization to help it compete with Japanese auto-makers. The book ''The Firm'' said it was an "unmitigated disaster" because McKinsey focused on corporate structure, whereas GM needed to compete with Japanese automakers through manufacturing process improvement. A McKinsey consultant said GM did not follow their advice.<ref name="MacDonald_Firm_20130910" />

A 2002 article in ''BusinessWeek'' said that a series of bankruptcies of McKinsey clients, such as ], ], and ], in the 1990s raised questions as to whether McKinsey was responsible or had a lapse in judgement.<ref name="BusinessWeek_Byrne_20020708" /> McKinsey recommended that Swissair avoid high operating costs in its home country by developing partnerships with airlines based in other regions. In order to attract partners, Swissair acquired more than $1 billion in shares of other airlines, many of which were failing. This led to huge losses and even bankruptcy for Swissair.<ref name="theeconomist_20010719">{{Cite news |date=July 19, 2001 |title=A scary Swiss meltdown |newspaper=The Economist |url=http://www.economist.com/node/705265 |url-status=live |access-date=September 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180115131720/http://www.economist.com/node/705265 |archive-date=January 15, 2018}}</ref>

As part of a lawsuit against ], 13,000 McKinsey documents were released, showing that McKinsey recommended that Allstate reduce payouts to insurance claimants by offering low settlements, delaying processing to wear out claimants through attrition, and fighting customers that protest in court. Allstate's profits doubled over ten years after adopting McKinsey's strategy, but it also led to lawsuits alleging they were cheating claimants out of legitimate insurance claims.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Dietz |first1=David |last2=Darrell Preston |date=August 3, 2007 |title=Home Insurers' Secret Tactics Cheat Fire Victims, Hike Profits |publisher=Bloomberg L.P. |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&amp;refer=home&amp;sid=aIOpZROwhvNI |url-status=live |access-date=September 2, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805123745/http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&refer=home&sid=aIOpZROwhvNI |archive-date=August 5, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Griffin |first1=Drew |last2=Kathleen Johnston |date=February 9, 2007 |title=Auto insurers play hardball in minor-crash claims |publisher=CNN |url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/09/insurance.hardball/index.html?_s=PM:US |url-status=live |access-date=September 2, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010200437/http://articles.cnn.com/2007-02-09/us/insurance.hardball_1_accident-victims-auto-insurers-allstate?_s=PM:US |archive-date=October 10, 2012}}</ref>

==Controversies==
The firm has been associated with a number of notable scandals, including the collapse of Enron in 2001,<ref name="independent.co.uk">{{Cite news |last=Chu |first=Ben |date=7 February 2014 |title=McKinsey: How does it always get away with it? |work=] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/mckinsey-how-does-it-always-get-away-with-it-9113484.html |url-status=live |access-date=30 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415144540/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/mckinsey-how-does-it-always-get-away-with-it-9113484.html |archive-date=15 April 2019}}</ref> the ],<ref name="independent.co.uk" /> and facilitating ] in South Africa.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Bogdanich |first1=Walt |last2=Forsythe |first2=Michael |date=2018-06-26 |title=How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/world/africa/mckinsey-south-africa-eskom.html |access-date=2022-04-29 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> It has also drawn controversy for involvement with ],<ref name="NYTimes20201127">{{Cite news |last1=Bogdanich |first1=Walt |last2=Forsythe |first2=Michael |date=2020-11-27 |title=McKinsey Proposed Paying Pharmacy Companies Rebates for OxyContin Overdoses |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/business/mckinsey-purdue-oxycontin-opioids.html |url-status=live |access-date=2020-11-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127235629/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/business/mckinsey-purdue-oxycontin-opioids.html |archive-date=2020-11-27 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> ],<ref name=":0" /> and ].<ref name="nytimes-2018-12-15" /><ref name="nytimes-2018-10-20" /> Michael Forsythe and ], reporters for ''The New York Times'', wrote a book entitled '']'' about the controversially unethical work history of the company.<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich, Michael Forsythe |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780385546232 |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=www.publishersweekly.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Adams |first=Tim |date=2022-10-31 |title=When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm – review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/31/when-mckinsey-comes-to-town-the-hidden-influence-of-the-worlds-most-powerful-consulting-firm-review |access-date=2024-02-18 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

===Enron===
{{Main|Enron scandal}}
Enron was the creation of ], a McKinsey consultant of 21 years, who was jailed after Enron reportedly used McKinsey on 20 different projects,<ref name="theguardian.com" /> and McKinsey consultants had "used Enron as their sandbox."<ref name="theguardian.com">{{Cite web |date=23 March 2002 |title=The firm that built the house of Enron |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2002/mar/24/enron.theobserver |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509082840/https://www.theguardian.com/business/2002/mar/24/enron.theobserver |archive-date=9 May 2019 |access-date=12 December 2016 |website=The Guardian}}</ref>

Prior to the Enron scandal, McKinsey helped it shift from an oil and gas production company into an electric commodities trader, which led to significant growth in profits and revenues.<ref name="guardianlo" /> According to ''The Independent'', there was "no suggestion that McKinsey was complicit in the subsequent scandal, critics say the arrogance of Enron's leaders is emblematic of the McKinsey culture."<ref name="theindlo">{{Cite news |last=Griffiths |first=Katherine |date=June 27, 2005 |title=The Real Power Behind No 10; McKinsey is a Highly Secretive Consultancy Firm |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-real-power-behind-no-10-754912.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080425071616/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-real-power-behind-no-10-754912.html |archive-date=2008-04-25}}</ref> The government did not investigate McKinsey, who said they did not provide advice on Enron's accounting.<ref name="wsj" /> The ''Wall Street Journal'' questioned McKinsey's "liability" and its "close relationship with Enron",<ref name="wsjtwosohn">{{Cite news |last1=Hwang |first1=Suein |last2=Rachel Emma Silverman |date=January 17, 2002 |title=McKinsey's Close Relationship With Enron Raises Question of Consultancy's Liability |work=The Wall Street Journal |url=http://faculty.msb.edu/bodurthj/teaching/ENRON/McKinsey%27s%20Close%20Relationship%20With%20Enron%20Raises%20Question%20of%20Consultancy%27s%20Liability.htm |url-status=dead |access-date=December 2, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180918063322/http://faculty.msb.edu/bodurthj/teaching/ENRON/McKinsey%27s%20Close%20Relationship%20With%20Enron%20Raises%20Question%20of%20Consultancy%27s%20Liability.htm |archive-date=September 18, 2018}}</ref> and a 2002 ''BusinessWeek'' article suggested that they had ignored warning signs.<ref name="BusinessWeek_Byrne_20020708" />

In his July 2002 in-depth ''BusinessWeek'' article on the aftermath of the Enron scandal, John Bryne wrote that McKinsey had been a "key architect of the strategic thinking that made Enron a Wall Street darling. In books, articles, and essays, its partners regularly stamped their imprimatur on many of Enron's strategies and practices, helping to position the energy giant as a corporate innovator worthy of emulation. The firm may not be the subject of any investigations, but its close involvement with Enron raises the question of whether McKinsey, like some other professional firms, ignored warning flags in order to keep an important account."<ref name="BusinessWeek_Byrne_20020708">{{Cite news |last=Byrne |first=John A. |date=July 8, 2002 |title=Inside McKinsey |work=BusinessWeek |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2002-07-07/inside-mckinsey|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription |access-date=August 3, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020802095538/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_27/b3790001.htm |archive-date=August 2, 2002}}</ref> ''BusinessWeek'' described how McKinsey's culture had changed, as the "number of partners grew from 427 to 891" making it a "less personal place".<ref name="BusinessWeek_Byrne_20020708" /> According to the article, "some current and former McKinsey consultants" said that McKinsey had lost their "ingrained values" that used to guide the firm. Citing the example of the dot-com bubble, McKinsey had begun to have "less prestigious companies" as clients and had allowed "its focus on building agenda-shaping relationships with top management at leading companies to slip."<ref name="BusinessWeek_Byrne_20020708" /> As well, "there was a noticeable tilt toward bringing in revenue at the expense of developing knowledge."<ref name="BusinessWeek_Byrne_20020708" /> McKinsey denied this.<ref name="BusinessWeek_Byrne_20020708" />

McKinsey denied giving Enron advice on financing issues or having suspicions that Enron was using improper accounting methods.<ref name="theguardian.com" />

===2008 financial crisis===
{{main|Financial crisis of 2007–2008}}
McKinsey is said to have played a significant role in the 2008 financial crisis by promoting the securitization of mortgage assets and encouraged the banks to fund their balance sheets with debt, driving up risk, which "poisoned the global financial system and precipitated the 2008 credit meltdown".<ref name="independent.co.uk" /> Furthermore, McKinsey advised ] Insurance to purposely give low offers to claimants. ] revealed that the strategy was to make claims "so expensive and so time-consuming that lawyers would start refusing to help clients."<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 December 2011 |title=Insurance Industry Reaps Massive Profits From Delay |url=http://www.huffpostbrasil.com/entry/insurance-claim-delays-industry-profits-allstate-mckinsey-company_n_1139102 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181114010813/https://www.huffpostbrasil.com/entry/insurance-claim-delays-industry-profits-allstate-mckinsey-company_n_1139102 |archive-date=14 November 2018 |access-date=4 February 2018}}</ref> Next to this, 2016 McKinsey partner Navdeep Arora was convicted for illegally depleting ] of over $500,000 over a period of 8 years, in collaboration with a State Farm employee.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Janssen |first=Kim |date=January 5, 2016 |title=McKinsey and State Farm consultants bilked $900,000, feds say |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-mckinsey-indictment-0106-biz-20160105-story.html |url-status=live |access-date=June 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401191741/https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-mckinsey-indictment-0106-biz-20160105-story.html |archive-date=April 1, 2019}}</ref>

===Valeant===
], a Canadian pharmaceutical company investigated by the ] in 2015, has been accused of improper accounting, and that it used predatory price hikes to boost growth.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gandel |first=Stephen |date=March 20, 2016 |title=What Caused Valeant's Epic 90% Plunge |url=http://fortune.com/2016/03/20/valeant-timeline-scandal/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135902/http://fortune.com/2016/03/20/valeant-timeline-scandal/ |archive-date=April 27, 2019 |access-date=February 4, 2018 |website=] |agency=]}}</ref> The '']'' states that "Valeant's downfall is not exactly McKinsey's fault but its fingerprints are everywhere."<ref name="FT_Valeant">{{Cite news |last=Gapper |first=John |date=23 March 2016 |title=McKinsey's fingerprints are all over Valeant |work=] |url=https://www.ft.com/content/0bb37fd2-ef63-11e5-aff5-19b4e253664a |url-status=live |access-date=27 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135812/https://www.ft.com/content/0bb37fd2-ef63-11e5-aff5-19b4e253664a |archive-date=27 April 2019}}</ref> Three out of six senior executives were recent ex-McKinsey employees, as well as the chair of the 'talent and compensation' committee.<ref name="FT_Valeant" /> MIO Partners was a private investor of Valeant and McKinsey consulted Valeant on drug prices and acquisitions.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Forsythe |first1=Michael |last2=Bogdanich |first2=Walt |last3=Hickey |first3=Bridget |date=2019-02-19 |title=As McKinsey Sells Advice, Its Hedge Fund May Have a Stake in the Outcome |language=en-US |work=] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/business/mckinsey-hedge-fund.html |access-date=2022-11-22 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

===Role in opioid epidemic===
{{further|Opioid epidemic in the United States}}
McKinsey advised opioid makers on how to "turbocharge" sales of ], proposed strategies to counter the emotional messages from mothers with teenagers who overdosed on OxyContin, and helped opioid makers circumvent regulation.<ref name="NYT_Forsythe_2019">{{Cite news |last1=Forsythe |first1=Michael |last2=Bogdanich |first2=Walt |date=2019-02-01 |title=McKinsey Advised Purdue Pharma How to 'Turbocharge' Opioid Sales, Lawsuit Says |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/business/purdue-pharma-mckinsey-oxycontin-opiods.html |url-status=live |access-date=2019-12-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204021701/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/01/business/purdue-pharma-mckinsey-oxycontin-opiods.html |archive-date=2019-12-04 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The firm also advised ] to offer pharmacies rebates based on the number of overdoses and addictions they caused.<ref name="NYTimes20201127" /> In 2019, McKinsey projected that over 2,400 CVS customers would have an overdose or become reliant on opioids.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Axios |date=2020-11-28 |title=New York Times: McKinsey advised Purdue Pharma on plan to "turbocharge" opioid sales |url=https://www.axios.com/2020/11/28/mckinsey-purdue-opioid-overdoses-oxycontin |access-date=2022-11-30 |website=Axios |language=en}}</ref> McKinsey estimated that a rebate of $14,810 per "event" would mean that Purdue would have to pay CVS $36.8 million that year.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Bogdanich |first1=Walt |last2=Forsythe |first2=Michael |date=2020-11-27 |title=McKinsey Proposed Paying Pharmacy Companies Rebates for OxyContin Overdoses |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/business/mckinsey-purdue-oxycontin-opioids.html |access-date=2022-11-30 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In February 2021, McKinsey reached agreements with attorneys general in 49 states, five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia. Across the settlements, the firm agreed to pay nearly $600 million to settle investigations into its role in promoting sales of OxyContin.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last1=Forsythe |first1=Michael |last2=Bogdanich |first2=Walt |date=4 February 2021 |title=McKinsey Settles for Nearly $600 Million Over Role in Opioid Crisis |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/business/mckinsey-opioids-settlement.html |url-access=limited |access-date=4 February 2021 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211228/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/business/mckinsey-opioids-settlement.html |archive-date=2021-12-28}}{{cbignore}}</ref> McKinsey has since apologized for its advice to opioid makers.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Hamby |first1=Chris |last2=Forsythe |first2=Michael |date=2022-06-29 |title=Behind the Scenes, McKinsey Guided Companies at the Center of the Opioid Crisis |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/29/business/mckinsey-opioid-crisis-opana.html |access-date=2022-10-22 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Records show that McKinsey worked for Purdue Pharma and other opioid makers in a 15-year period, from 2004 to 2019.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Hamby |first1=Chris |last2=Bogdanich |first2=Walt |last3=Forsythe |first3=Michael |last4=Valentino-DeVries |first4=Jennifer |date=2022-04-13 |title=McKinsey Opened a Door in Its Firewall Between Pharma Clients and Regulators |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/business/mckinsey-purdue-fda-records.html |access-date=2022-11-09 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> During 2018 and 2019, McKinsey collected at least $400 million consulting pharmaceutical companies. McKinsey advised Mallinckrodt, the largest manufacturer of generic opioids, as well as ] for which McKinsey consulted on marketing ].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Hamby |first1=Chris |last2=Forsythe |first2=Michael |date=2022-06-29 |title=Behind the Scenes, McKinsey Guided Companies at the Center of the Opioid Crisis |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/29/business/mckinsey-opioid-crisis-opana.html |access-date=2022-11-09 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> McKinsey's consultation grew Endo into a leading generics manufacturer. McKinsey recommended targeted and influenced doctors who treat back pain in elderly and long-term care patients.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bogdanich |first=Walt |date=2019-07-25 |title=McKinsey Advised Johnson & Johnson on Increasing Opioid Sales |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/business/mckinsey-johnson-and-johnson-opioids.html |access-date=2022-11-09 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In February 2021, McKinsey paid $600 million to settle investigations into its role in promoting sales of OxyContin and fueling the greater ].<ref name=":2" />

In April 2022, the ''New York Times'' reported that McKinsey had frequently allowed partners and other consultants to work for both government clients, such as the ], and pharmaceutical clients, such as Purdue.<ref name="nyt0422">{{Cite news |last1=Hamby |first1=Chris |last2=Bogdanich |first2=Walt |last3=Forsythe |first3=Michael |last4=Valentino-DeVries |first4=Jennifer |date=13 April 2022 |title=McKinsey Opened a Door in Its Firewall Between Pharma Clients and Regulators |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/business/mckinsey-purdue-fda-records.html |access-date=13 April 2022}}</ref> These actions violated McKinsey's own internal ethical guidelines.<ref name=nyt0422/>

In December 2023, ''Reuters'' reported that McKinsey had agreed to pay an additional $78 million to settle claims with health insurers McKinsey's consulting helped to fuel "an epidemic of opioid addiction through its work for drug companies."<ref name="12292023Reuters">{{cite web |last1=Raymond |first1=Nate |title=McKinsey to pay $78 million in US opioid settlement with health plans |url=https://www.reuters.com/legal/mckinsey-pay-78-million-us-opioid-settlement-with-health-plans-2023-12-30/ |website=Reuters.com |access-date=December 30, 2023 |date=December 29, 2023}}</ref> Reuters reported the settlement would be the last in a series and that McKinsey "admitted to no wrongdoing."<ref name="12292023Reuters"/>

In 2024, the company became the subject of a criminal investigation by the ] into its role in advising opioid manufacturers how to boost sales. A grand jury was convened to determine charges to be brought against the firm.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gladstone |first=Alexander |title=Exclusive {{!}} McKinsey Under Criminal Investigation Over Opioid-Related Consulting |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/mckinsey-faces-criminal-probe-over-opioid-related-consulting-a3f816d4 |access-date=2024-04-25 |work=WSJ |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=FoBaPa24>{{cite news |last1=Foley |first1=Stephen |last2=Barnes |first2=Oliver |last3=Palmer |first3=Stefania |title=McKinsey Faces US Criminal Investigation over Opioid Industry Work|location=London |url=https://www.ft.com/content/d88492df-238d-4ff1-b8a4-1b4c9b117c6c |work=] |date=April 24, 2024}}</ref> It is also under investigation for ] during the period that concerns were mounting about their activities.<ref name=FoBaPa24/> The firm settled the investigation in December 2024, for a sum of $650 million and with conditions that it cannot market controlled substances for a period of five years.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-13 |title=McKinsey & Company agrees to pay $650M for helping Purdue Pharma boost opioid sales, |url=https://apnews.com/article/mckinsey-justice-department-criminal-penalty-opioids-crisis-d47d1bc1c4e14288927c2aea2369b789 |access-date=2024-12-13 |website=AP News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Gladstone |first=Alexander |date=2024-12-13 |title=McKinsey to Pay $650 Million to Settle Federal Opioid Claims |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/mckinsey-to-pay-650-million-to-settle-federal-opioid-claims-56f79e36?mod=hp_lead_pos6 |access-date=2024-12-13 |work=Wall Street Journal |language=en-US |issn=0099-9660}}</ref> This agreement was filed in federal court in Abingdon, Virginia, with aims to resolve criminal charges which were brought up as part of the latest corporate prosecution concerning the marketing of addictive painkillers. <ref>{{Cite news |date=December 14, 2024 |title=Consulting firm McKinsey to pay $650 million to resolve US opioid charges |url=https://www.reuters.com/legal/consulting-firm-mckinsey-pay-650-mln-resolve-us-opioid-probe-2024-12-13/}}</ref>

===Rikers Island jail complex===
New York City paid McKinsey $27.5 million between 2014 and 2017 to reduce prison assaults in ]; but the violence grew and the city abandoned many of the firm's recommendations.

The consultancy's alleged failings included not soliciting the views of inmates or clinic staff; using the encrypted messaging app ] that deletes messages, allegedly to avoid transparency; initiatives involving the expanded use of Tasers, shotguns and K9 patrol dogs; replacing troublesome inmates with more accommodating ones in the test area, which skewed the data in favor of the project; the use of ineffective data-analytics software; and spreadsheet errors that inflated the baseline rate of violence, against which the project was measured.<ref name="propublica_MacDougall_20191210">{{Cite news |last=MacDougall |first=Ian |date=December 10, 2019 |title=New York City Paid McKinsey Millions to Stem Jail Violence. Instead, Violence Soared. |work=ProPublica |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/new-york-city-paid-mckinsey-millions-to-stem-jail-violence-instead-violence-soared |url-status=live |access-date=December 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212003829/https://www.propublica.org/article/new-york-city-paid-mckinsey-millions-to-stem-jail-violence-instead-violence-soared |archive-date=December 12, 2019}}</ref>

McKinsey advised New York City's Rikers Island jail complex and tested an anti-violence strategy named "Restart" which occurred in Rikers housing units.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hannon |first=Elliot |date=2019-12-10 |title=McKinsey Was Paid Millions to Reduce Violence at Rikers. So It Reportedly Gamed the Numbers to Look Like It Did. |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/12/new-york-city-paid-mckinsey-millions-reduce-violence-rikers-island-jail-complex.html |access-date=2022-11-22 |website=Slate Magazine |language=en}}</ref> Jail administrators reported that the strategy resulted in violent crimes dropping more than 70% inside the Rikers housing units.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New York City Paid McKinsey & Company Millions for Failed Program to Reduce Jail Violence {{!}} Prison Legal News |url=https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2020/apr/1/new-york-city-paid-mckinsey-company-millions-failed-program-reduce-jail-violence/ |access-date=2022-11-30 |website=]}}</ref> Later, it was found that McKinsey consultants and jail officials rigged the program by grouping compliant inmates into the housing units, and that violent crimes including "slashings and stabbings" increased over 1000% from 2011 to 2016.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lovely |first=Garrison |date=2023-09-05 |title=Confessions of a McKinsey Whistleblower |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/society/mckinsey-whistleblower-confessions/ |access-date=2024-01-30 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=MacDougall |first=Ian |date=10 December 2019 |title=New York City Paid McKinsey Millions to Stem Jail Violence. Instead, Violence Soared. |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/new-york-city-paid-mckinsey-millions-to-stem-jail-violence-instead-violence-soared |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=] |language=en}}</ref>

===Fine for insider trading by investment affiliate===
In February 2019, ''The New York Times'' ran a series of articles about McKinsey<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Bogdanich |first1=Walt |author-link=Walt Bogdanich |last2=Forsythe |first2=Michael |date=19 February 2019 |title=How We've Reported on the Secrets and Power of McKinsey & Company |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/reader-center/mckinsey-hedge-fund-reporting-investigation.html |url-status=live |access-date=20 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220002756/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/reader-center/mckinsey-hedge-fund-reporting-investigation.html |archive-date=20 February 2019}}</ref> and the in-house hedge fund it operates – McKinsey Investment Office, or MIO Partners. The articles claimed that there was "potential for undisclosed conflicts of interest between the fund's investments and the advice the firm sells to clients", since the hedge fund could benefit from the inside knowledge obtained through management consulting services.<ref name="nyt_conflictofinterest">{{Cite news |last1=Forsythe |first1=Michael |last2=Bogdanich |first2=Walt |author-link2=Walt Bogdanich |last3=Hickey |first3=Bridget |date=19 February 2019 |title=As McKinsey Sells Advice, Its Hedge Fund May Have a Stake in the Outcome |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/business/mckinsey-hedge-fund.html |url-status=live |access-date=20 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220000042/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/business/mckinsey-hedge-fund.html |archive-date=20 February 2019}}</ref>

The firm responded that "MIO and McKinsey employ separate staffs. MIO staff have no nonpublic knowledge of McKinsey clients. For the vast majority of assets under management, decisions about specific investments are made by third-party managers".<ref name="nyt_conflictofinterest" />

In 2019, McKinsey paid the Justice Department $15 million from fees earned to settle allegations relating to failure to disclose potential conflict in three bankruptcy cases that the firm had advised.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Michaels |first=Dave |date=19 November 2021 |title=McKinsey Paying $18 Million to Settle SEC Investigation Over Insider-Trading Controls |language=en-US |work=] |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/mckinsey-paying-18-million-to-settle-sec-investigation-over-insider-trading-controls-11637346383 |access-date=2022-11-22}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Shazar |first=Jon |date=19 February 2019 |title=New McKinsey Conflict-Of-Interest Scandal Emerges Just In Time |language=en-us |work=Dealbreaker |url=https://dealbreaker.com/2019/02/mckinsey-hedge-fund |url-status=live |access-date=2020-01-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211025731/https://dealbreaker.com/2019/02/mckinsey-hedge-fund |archive-date=2022-02-11}}</ref> In 2021, MIO Partners, an affiliate of McKinsey & Co. that invests almost $31 billion of money on behalf of its employees, was fined $18 million by the US regulator, ]. The SEC said some of the same people making investment decisions for MIO Partners were McKinsey & Co. employees who had visibility into confidential information for companies for which McKinsey was consulting.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Alpert |first=Lukas |date=November 19, 2021 |title=McKinsey investment arm hit with $18 million fine for trading in companies about which it had inside info from its consulting business |work=MarketWatch |url=https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mckinsey-investment-arm-hit-with-18m-fine-for-trading-in-companies-about-which-it-had-inside-info-from-its-consulting-business-11637351996 |url-status=live |access-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121133336/https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mckinsey-investment-arm-hit-with-18m-fine-for-trading-in-companies-about-which-it-had-inside-info-from-its-consulting-business-11637351996 |archive-date=January 21, 2022}}</ref> The SEC claimed that MIO Partners had advanced knowledge of upcoming mergers, bankruptcy, and financial results announcements for companies that the firm was consulting.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Alpert |first=Lukas I. |title=McKinsey investment arm hit with $18 million fine for trading in companies about which it had inside info from its consulting business |url=https://www.marketwatch.com/story/mckinsey-investment-arm-hit-with-18m-fine-for-trading-in-companies-about-which-it-had-inside-info-from-its-consulting-business-11637351996 |access-date=2022-11-22 |website=MarketWatch |language=EN-US}}</ref>

===Accusations of conflicts of interest in US bankruptcies===
In January 2022, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan revived a lawsuit against McKinsey & Co. filed by retired turnaround specialist Jay Alix, accusing the consulting firm of concealing potential conflicts when seeking permission from bankruptcy courts to perform lucrative work on corporate restructurings.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Stempel |first=Jonathan |date=January 19, 2022 |title=Racketeering lawsuit against McKinsey revived by U.S. appeals court |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/racketeering-lawsuit-against-mckinsey-revived-by-us-appeals-court-2022-01-19/ |url-status=live |access-date=January 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121134114/https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/racketeering-lawsuit-against-mckinsey-revived-by-us-appeals-court-2022-01-19/ |archive-date=January 21, 2022}}</ref>

In July 2023, former Prima Wawona CEO Dan Gerawan filed a lawsuit alleging that the investment firm Paine Schwartz used Prima Wawona, then America's largest stone fruit producer, to create financial gain for McKinsey<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Gligich |first=Daniel |date=2023-12-21 |title=Creditors object to plan to liquidate Valley peach giant Prima Wawona |url=https://sjvsun.com/ag/creditors-object-to-plan-to-liquidate-valley-peach-giant-prima-wawona/ |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=The San Joaquin Valley Sun |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite news |last=James |first=Rod |title=Paine Schwartz Faces Lawsuit From Ex-CEO of Bankrupt Prima Wawona |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/paine-schwartz-faces-lawsuit-from-ex-ceo-of-bankrupt-prima-wawona-bf8a529c |access-date=2024-04-18 |work=WSJ |language=en-US}}</ref> and that many of the Paine Schwartz employees were former McKinsey employees.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gligich |first=Daniel |date=2023-07-28 |title=Suit: Paine Schwartz, McKinsey tanked Prima Wawona, America's largest stonefruit producer |url=https://sjvsun.com/ag/suit-paine-schwartz-mckinsey-tanked-prima-wawona-americas-largest-stonefruit-producer/ |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=The San Joaquin Valley Sun |language=en-US}}</ref> The lawsuit alleges that in late 2020, Paine Schwartz hired McKinsey as consultants, without board approval, to make massive changes in Prima Wawona's operations. Thereafter, the company's performance deteriorated quickly, according to the suit.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-12-19 |title=MVK Objection to Disclosure Statement |url=https://cases.stretto.com/public/x283/12496/PLEADINGS/1249612192380000000145.pdf |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=cases.stretto.com}}</ref> ] downgraded the company's outlook from "stable" to "negative."<ref>{{Cite web |title=MVK Intermediate Holdings, LLC |url=https://www.moodys.com/credit-ratings/MVK-Intermediate-Holdings-LLC-credit-rating-830953566 |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=moodys.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-01 |title=Wawona downgraded to Caa1 by Moody's on weak liquidity |url=https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/wawona-downgraded-to-caa1-by-moody-s-on-weak-liquidity-67889023 |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=spglobal.com}}</ref> In October 2023, Prima Wawona filed for bankruptcy.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Linden |first=Tim |date=2023-10-27 |title=View From the West: Bankruptcy could cause major California stone fruit upheaval |url=https://theproducenews.com/stone-fruit/view-west-bankruptcy-could-cause-major-california-stone-fruit-upheaval |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=theproducenews.com}}</ref> McKinsey was the company's largest creditor, owed $8 million.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Major Stone Fruit Grower Prima Wawona Files Bankruptcy |url=https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bankruptcy-law/major-stone-fruit-grower-prima-wawona-files-bankruptcy |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=news.bloomberglaw.com |language=en}}</ref> The company was in default on $679 million in debt.<ref name=":5" /> Efforts to sell the company in bankruptcy failed. In January 2024, the company announced that it would liquidate, lay off all 5,400 employees, and sell off more than 13,000 acres of farmland.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gligich |first=Daniel |date=2024-01-11 |title=Bankrupt peach giant Prima Wawona undergoes liquidation, preps layoffs |url=https://sjvsun.com/ag/bankrupt-peach-giant-prima-wawona-undergoes-liquidation-preps-layoffs/ |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=The San Joaquin Valley Sun |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-27 |title=Prima Wawona farmland yields 28 potential buyers for 13,000 acres. See who's interested |url=https://ca.news.yahoo.com/prima-wawona-farmland-yields-28-153915637.html |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=Yahoo News |language=en-CA}}</ref>

===Controversial clients and association with authoritarian regimes===
====Role in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)====
McKinsey stopped working for ] after it was disclosed that the firm had done more than $20 million in consulting work for the agency. McKinsey ] Kevin Sneader said the contract, not widely known within the company until ''The New York Times'' reported it, had "rightly raised" concerns.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Forsythe |first1=Michael |last2=Bogdanich |first2=Walt |author-link2=Walt Bogdanich |date=July 9, 2018 |title=McKinsey Ends Work With ICE Amid Furor Over Immigration Policy |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/09/business/mckinsey-ends-ice-contract.html |url-status=live |access-date=17 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218054258/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/09/business/mckinsey-ends-ice-contract.html |archive-date=18 December 2018}}</ref> In 2019, ''The New York Times'' and ProPublica reported on newly uncovered documents which showed that McKinsey, as part of its work with ICE, proposed cuts in spending on food and medical care for migrants.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=MacDougall |first=Ian |date=2019-12-03 |title=How McKinsey Helped the Trump Administration Carry Out Its Immigration Policies |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/us/mckinsey-ICE-immigration.html |url-status=live |access-date=2019-12-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191203235802/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/us/mckinsey-ICE-immigration.html |archive-date=2019-12-03 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> McKinsey also advocated for an acceleration of the deportation process, causing concerns among ICE staff that the due process rights of the migrants would be violated.<ref name=":0" /> Previously, McKinsey managing partner, Kevin Sneader, had claimed that McKinsey had done no work for ICE in terms of developing and implementing immigration policy; the uncovered documents showed that to be false.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="MacDougall">{{Cite news |last=MacDougall |first=Ian |date=16 December 2019 |title=McKinsey Called Our Story About Its ICE Contract False. It's Not. |work=ProPublica |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/mckinsey-called-our-story-about-its-ice-contract-false-its-not |url-status=live |access-date=7 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200107081532/https://www.propublica.org/article/mckinsey-called-our-story-about-its-ice-contract-false-its-not |archive-date=7 January 2020}}</ref>

====Role in Saudi clampdown on dissidents====
In October 2018, in the wake of the ], a Saudi dissident and journalist, ''The New York Times'' reported that McKinsey had identified the most prominent ] on Twitter and that the Saudi government subsequently repressed the dissidents and their families. One of the dissidents, Khalid al-Alkami, was arrested. Another dissident identified by McKinsey; ] in Canada, had two brothers imprisoned by the Saudi authorities, and his cell phone hacked. McKinsey issued a statement, saying "We are horrified by the possibility, however remote, that could have been misused. We have seen no evidence to suggest that it was misused, but we are urgently investigating how and with whom the document was shared."<ref name="nytimes-2018-10-20">{{Cite news |last1=Benner |first1=Katie |last2=Mazzetti |first2=Mark |last3=Hubbard |first3=Ben |last4=Isaac |first4=Mike |date=October 20, 2018 |title=Saudis' Image Makers: A Troll Army and a Twitter Insider |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/20/us/politics/saudi-image-campaign-twitter.html |url-status=live |access-date=June 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191115201738/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/20/us/politics/saudi-image-campaign-twitter.html |archive-date=November 15, 2019}}</ref> In December 2018, ''The New York Times'' reported that "the kingdom is a such a vital client for the firm—the source of nearly 600 projects from 2011 to 2016 alone—that McKinsey chose to participate in a major Saudi investment conference in October 2018 even after the killing and dismemberment of a ''Washington Post'' columnist by Saudi agents."<ref name="nytimes-2018-12-15">{{Cite news |last1=Bogdanich |first1=Walt |author-link=Walt Bogdanich |last2=Forsythe |first2=Michael |date=December 15, 2018 |title=How McKinsey Has Helped Raise the Stature of Authoritarian Governments |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/world/asia/mckinsey-china-russia.html |url-status=live |access-date=June 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224051518/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/world/asia/mckinsey-china-russia.html |archive-date=December 24, 2019}}</ref>

On February 12, 2019, the European Parliament ] group presented a motion for a resolution on the situation on women's rights defenders in Saudi Arabia denouncing the involvement of foreign public relations companies in representing Saudi Arabia and handling its public image, particularly McKinsey & Company.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Motion for a resolution on the situation on women's rights defenders in Saudi Arabia (2019/2564(RSP)) Point 18 |url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/B-8-2019-0113_EN.html?redirect |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401131836/http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/B-8-2019-0113_EN.html?redirect |archive-date=1 April 2019 |access-date=11 April 2019 |website=European Parliament}}</ref>

==== Saudi Arabian influence disclosure ====
In February 2024, McKinsey was questioned in court about possible violations of ]. The company, along with three other consulting firms, was accused of refusing to provide information about their work for Saudi Arabia's ] and failing to disclose themselves as agents of the Saudi government.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kirchgaessner |first=Stephanie |date=2024-02-06 |title=Top US consultancies face scrutiny over role in Saudi Arabia's sports push |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/06/consultancies-saudi-arabia-sports-us-senate-disclosure-subpoena |access-date=2024-04-22 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Representatives of the firms warned that their staff could face jail if they complied with the subpoenas, breaking strict rules imposed by Saudi Arabia on what information consulting firms can share with the US government.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Varanasi |first=Lakshmi |title=US lawmakers question the loyalties of McKinsey and other big American consulting firms over their work in Saudi Arabia |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-bcg-teneo-klein-consulting-firms-saudi-ties-us-congress-2024-2 |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-07 |title=Executives testify staff could face prison if they reveal Saudi work |url=https://www.nbcsports.com/golf/news/executives-testify-staff-could-face-prison-if-they-reveal-saudi-work |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=NBC Sports |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=McKinsey and BCG warn staff face jail if they reveal Saudi work |url=https://www.ft.com/content/7009a1a9-8e07-4113-a47d-ee4724d3d427 |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=www.ft.com}}</ref>

====Support of authoritarian regimes====
McKinsey's business and policy support for ]s came under scrutiny in December 2018, in the wake of a lavish company retreat in China held adjacent to ] where thousands of ] were being ].<ref name="nytimes-2018-12-15" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Premack |first=Rachel |date=December 15, 2018 |title=McKinsey held a lavish corporate retreat in Kashgar miles from where the Chinese government is imprisoning thousands of ethnic Uighurs |work=Business Insider |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-china-uighur-corporate-retreat-china2018-12 |url-status=live |access-date=17 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216130331/https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-china-uighur-corporate-retreat-china2018-12 |archive-date=16 December 2018}}</ref> In December 2021, ] reported McKinsey's connection to a manufacturing facility owned by ], a drone maker sanctioned by the ] for alleged complicity in aiding the ].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=De Luce |first1=Dan |last2=Salam |first2=Yasmine |date=December 17, 2021 |title=McKinsey worked with Chinese government despite assurances to senator, document indicates |work=] |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/mckinsey-worked-chinese-government-assurances-us-senator-document-indi-rcna9053 |url-status=live |access-date=December 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211217072559/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/mckinsey-worked-chinese-government-assurances-us-senator-document-indi-rcna9053 |archive-date=December 17, 2021}}</ref> In the preceding few years, McKinsey's clients included ]'s absolute monarchy,<ref name="nytimes-2018-10-20" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Holman |first=Jordyn |date=October 23, 2018 |title=Elizabeth Warren Asks McKinsey to Provide Information on Work for Saudis |publisher=Bloomberg |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-24/warren-asks-mckinsey-to-provide-information-on-work-for-saudis |url-status=live |access-date=17 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218054316/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-24/warren-asks-mckinsey-to-provide-information-on-work-for-saudis |archive-date=2018-12-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Kolhatkar |first=Sheelah |date=November 1, 2018 |title=McKinsey's Work for Saudi Arabia Highlights its History of Unsavory Entanglements |magazine=The New Yorker |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/mckinseys-work-for-saudi-arabia-highlights-its-history-of-unsavory-entanglements |url-status=live |access-date=17 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218011055/https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/mckinseys-work-for-saudi-arabia-highlights-its-history-of-unsavory-entanglements |archive-date=18 December 2018}}</ref> Turkey's autocratic leader ], ousted former president of Ukraine ], and several Chinese and Russian companies under sanctions.<ref name="nytimes-2018-12-15" />

====China====
In 2015, McKinsey's think tank, the Urban China Initiative, advised the ] on its ] and its ] policy. As part of a project for China's ], McKinsey's think tank advised the Chinese government to "deepen co-operation between business and the military and push foreign companies out of sensitive industries," according to a 2024 '']'' report''.''<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Foley |first1=Stephen |last2=Yu |first2=Sun |date=February 23, 2024 |title=McKinsey-led think-tank advised China on policy that fed US tensions |url=https://www.ft.com/content/15a3e8d9-6c57-422a-8eb8-35a3c24a50e3 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2024-02-23 |website=]}}</ref> In response, US legislators ] and ] stated that McKinsey had undermined US security and called for it to be banned from securing US federal government contracts.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Sevastopulo |first1=Demetri |last2=Foley |first2=Stephen |date=February 26, 2024 |title=Call to ban McKinsey from US government contracts for China work |url=https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-services/call-to-ban-mckinsey-from-us-government-contracts-for-china-work-20240226-p5f7v3 |access-date=February 26, 2024 |work=]}}</ref> In October 2024, several US lawmakers called on the ] to investigate whether McKinsey misrepresented its work with Chinese government entities, including ].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tang |first=Didi |date=2024-10-18 |title=GOP lawmakers seek investigation of consulting firm over its work in China |url=https://apnews.com/article/china-mckinsey-congress-eafb65cebb066121e29a915fcbdf8df7 |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=] |language=en}}</ref> On Octubre 18, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives ] reported that "McKinsey Equipped America's Foremost Adversary and Misrepresented Work for the Chinese Military Under Oath."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-10-18 |title=McKinsey Equipped America's Foremost Adversary and Misrepresented Work for the Chinese Military Under Oath {{!}} Select Committee on the CCP |url=https://selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/media/investigations/mckinsey-equipped-americas-foremost-adversary-and-misrepresented-work-chinese |access-date=2024-10-20 |website=selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov |language=en}}</ref>

====Work with Russian arms manufacturers====
McKinsey is reported to have provided consulting services for the Russian state-owned enterprise ], which is responsible for manufacturing missile engines used during ].<ref name="CNBCRussia">{{Cite web |date=21 May 2022 |title=McKinsey & Co. worked with Russian weapons maker even as it advised Pentagon |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/21/mckinsey-co-worked-with-russian-weapons-maker-as-it-advised-pentagon.html |access-date=2023-01-06 |website=]}}</ref> According to January 2023 reporting from ], McKinsey consultants would provide consulting services to ] and Rostec while in Germany on behalf of the ].<ref name="DieZeit">{{Cite news |title=Diener zweier Herren |newspaper=Die Zeit |date=2 January 2023 |url=https://www.zeit.de/2023/01/mckinsey-beratungsunternehmen-bundesverteidigungsministerium-russland |access-date=2023-01-06 |last1=Malcher |first1=Ingo }}</ref><ref name="HuffPostRussia">{{Cite web |date=3 January 2023 |title=McKinsey au cœur d'une polémique en Allemagne, après la France |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/international/article/mckinsey-au-c-ur-d-une-polemique-en-allemagne-apres-la-france_212256.html |access-date=2023-01-06}}</ref> According to US Senator ] McKinsey has displayed a "pattern of behavior" that raised "grave concerns about conflicts of interest."<ref name=CNBCRussia/> McKinsey has also done work for ], ], Gazprom, and ], which are all closely tied to the Kremlin.<ref name=CNBCRussia/>

===Government corruption scandals===
====South African corruption scandal====
The ] (no relation to Rajat Gupta) had strategically placed corrupted individuals in various South African government, utilities and infrastructure sectors. It is alleged that McKinsey was complicit in this corruption by using the Guptas to obtain consulting contracts from certain state-owned enterprises, including ] and ].<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Bogdanich |first1=Walt |author-link=Walt Bogdanich |last2=Forsythe |first2=Michael |date=June 26, 2018 |title=How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/world/africa/mckinsey-south-africa-eskom.html?action=click&module=Trending&pgtype=Article&region=Footer&contentCollection=Trending |url-status=live |access-date=June 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135901/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/26/world/africa/mckinsey-south-africa-eskom.html?action=click&module=Trending&pgtype=Article&region=Footer&contentCollection=Trending |archive-date=April 27, 2019}}</ref> Working with Trillian Capital Partners (a consultancy which was owned by a Gupta associate),<ref name="theconomist_20171012">{{Cite news |date=12 October 2017 |title=Why McKinsey is under attack in South Africa |newspaper=] |url=https://www.economist.com/news/business/21730191-consulting-firm-worked-trillian-capital-owned-gupta-family-associate-why-mckinsey |url-status=live |access-date=13 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180215104526/https://www.economist.com/news/business/21730191-consulting-firm-worked-trillian-capital-owned-gupta-family-associate-why-mckinsey |archive-date=15 February 2018}}</ref> they provided services to the value of R1 billion ($75 million) annually. Trillian was paid a commission for facilitating the business for McKinsey.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2017-07-11 |title=South Africans urge US law-enforcers to bring Gupta and friends down with McKinsey - BizNews.com |language=en-US |work=BizNews.com |url=https://www.biznews.com/global-investing/2017/07/11/mckinsey-guptaleaks-south-africans/ |url-status=live |access-date=2017-07-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427140010/https://www.biznews.com/global-investing/2017/07/11/mckinsey-guptaleaks-south-africans |archive-date=2019-04-27}}</ref> McKinsey hired law firm ] to carry out an internal investigation over the allegations. McKinsey's then Managing Partner, Dominic Barton, issued a statement following an internal investigation, in which the firm "admitted that it found violations of its professional standards but denied any acts of bribery, corruption, and payments to Trillian."<ref name="Independent Online">{{Cite news |title=Corruption Watch hits out at McKinsey |work=] |url=https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/corruption-watch-hits-out-at-mckinsey-11601986/ |url-status=live |access-date=2017-10-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427135909/https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/corruption-watch-hits-out-at-mckinsey-11601986 |archive-date=2019-04-27}}</ref>

], a South African non-governmental organization, filed a complaint about the controversial contract to the ], alleging that there was a criminal conspiracy between McKinsey, Trillian and Eskom in contravention of US and South African law.<ref>{{Cite news |title=McKinsey & Company not off the hook |url=https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/mckinsey-and-company-not-off-the-hook-15942722 |url-status=live |access-date=2018-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180711070642/https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/mckinsey-and-company-not-off-the-hook-15942722 |archive-date=2018-07-11}}</ref> It was revealed in January 2018 that criminal complaints were filed against McKinsey & Company by the South African ]. South African prosecutors confirmed that they would enforce the seizing of assets from McKinsey.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cotterill |first=Joseph |date=17 January 2018 |title=McKinsey and KPMG accused of criminal breaches in South Africa |work=] |url=https://www.ft.com/content/da62b02a-fb94-11e7-a492-2c9be7f3120a |url-status=live |access-date=31 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427140020/https://www.ft.com/content/da62b02a-fb94-11e7-a492-2c9be7f3120a |archive-date=27 April 2019}}</ref>

South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority concluded in early 2018 that the payments to McKinsey and its local business partner, Trillian, were illegal, involving crimes such as fraud, theft, corruption and money laundering. McKinsey had subsequently been in discussion with Eskom and the National Prosecuting Authority's Asset Forfeiture Unit to agree on a transparent, legally appropriate process for returning the ] 1 billion (US$74M) it had been paid – it was confirmed on 6 July 2018 that this had been concluded.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Pityana commends McKinsey for "paying back the money" – BUSA |url=http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politics/pityana-commends-mckinsey-for-paying-back-the-mone |url-status=live |access-date=2018-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180711152021/http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politics/pityana-commends-mckinsey-for-paying-back-the-mone |archive-date=2018-07-11}}</ref> Eskom confirmed it received R99.5M in interest from McKinsey on July 23, 2018. The interest payment covers the two years since McKinsey was paid almost R 1bn in 2016.<ref>{{Cite news |title=McKinsey pays back interest arising from Eskom contract |url=https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/companies/2018-09-06-mckinsey-pays-back-interest-arising-from-eskom-contract/ |url-status=live |access-date=2018-09-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180906161641/https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/companies/2018-09-06-mckinsey-pays-back-interest-arising-from-eskom-contract/ |archive-date=2018-09-06}}</ref>

Information relating to allegedly corrupt practices by McKinsey at Transnet in 2011 and 2012 came to light in late July 2018. The weekly '']'' newspaper reported that a "...new forensic treasury report shows how controversial former Transnet and Eskom chief financial officer Anoj Singh enjoyed overseas trips at the expense of international consulting firm McKinsey, which scored multi-billion rand contracts at the state owned entities." The "...report reiterates treasury's recommendations that Singh's conduct with regards to McKinsey should be referred to the elite crime-fighting unit, the Hawks, for investigations under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca). Under Precca, Singh would be investigated for allegations of corruption as payment for the overseas trips alone would constitute a form of gratification, which is illegal."<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Jika |first1=Thanduxolo |last2=Skiti |first2=Sabelo |date=July 29, 2018 |title=From Dubai to Russia ― how former Eskom and Transnet CFO Anoj Singh was bought |work=] |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2018-07-29-from-dubai-to-russia-how-the-former-eskom-and-transnet-cfo-was-bought |url-status=live |access-date=June 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401220905/https://mg.co.za/article/2018-07-29-from-dubai-to-russia-how-the-former-eskom-and-transnet-cfo-was-bought |archive-date=April 1, 2019}}</ref> The Sunday '']'' reported that the forensic report in turn reported that "multinational advisory firm McKinsey paid for Singh to go on lavish international trips to Dubai, Russia, Germany and the UK, after which their contract with Transnet was massively extended."<ref>{{Cite news |title=Treasury drops looting bomb |url=https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/treasury-drops-looting-bomb-20180729-4 |url-status=live |access-date=2018-07-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729080627/https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/treasury-drops-looting-bomb-20180729-4 |archive-date=2018-07-29}}</ref> McKinsey issued a statement that the allegations were incorrect. McKinsey stated that "based on an extensive review encompassing interviews, email records and expense documents, our understanding is that McKinsey did not pay for Mr. Singh's airfare and hotel lodgings in connection with the CFO Forum and the meetings that took place around the CFO Forum in London and elsewhere in 2012 and 2013."<ref>{{Cite news |last=van Zyl |first=Gareth |date=August 3, 2018 |title=Right of Reply: McKinsey denies it paid for Anoj Singh's lavish London junket |work=BizNews.com |url=https://www.biznews.com/undictated/2018/08/03/right-reply-mckinsey-anoj-singh-cfo-junket |url-status=live |access-date=June 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428164448/https://www.biznews.com/undictated/2018/08/03/right-reply-mckinsey-anoj-singh-cfo-junket |archive-date=April 28, 2019}}</ref> On 11 October 2019, the United States Treasury department announced that it had imposed wide-ranging financial sanctions on three Gupta brothers, Ajay, Atul and Rajesh (aka Tony) and their business associate Salim Essa under the United States ].<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 11, 2019 |title=Guptas join a cast of international villains ensnared by US sanction law |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-10-11-guptas-join-a-cast-of-international-villains-ensnared-by-us-sanction-law/ |url-status=live |access-date=October 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015130421/https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-10-11-guptas-join-a-cast-of-international-villains-ensnared-by-us-sanction-law/ |archive-date=October 15, 2019}}</ref>

'']'' reported in November 2019, that McKinsey's scandals, such as the 2016 South Africa scandal and the allegations of conflict of interest tied to its $12.7bn investment affiliate, McKinsey Investment Office (MIO), are relatively recent in terms of its long history.<ref name="economist_20191121">{{Cite news |date=November 21, 2019 |title=Rethinking McKinsey |newspaper=] |url=https://www.economist.com/business/2019/11/21/rethinking-mckinsey |url-status=live |access-date=November 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127053756/https://www.economist.com/business/2019/11/21/rethinking-mckinsey |archive-date=November 27, 2019 |issn=0013-0613}}</ref> The article said that McKinsey's legal challenges facing McKinsey's new global managing partner, Kevin Sneader, may be related to the company's fast-paced growth with an increase of 2,200 partners compared to 2009. During that same time period, the number of employees increased to 30,000 worldwide from 17,000.<ref name="economist_20191121" />

In 2020, McKinsey representatives giving testimony to the ] placed blame for the firm's involvement in the corruption scandal on former McKinsey partner, Vikas Sagar.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bezuidenhout |first=Jessica |date=2020-12-19 |title=Daily Maverick 168: The Days of Zondo – now starring a cast you couldn't make up |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-12-19-the-days-of-zondo-now-starring-a-cast-you-couldnt-make-up/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201219204638/https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-12-19-the-days-of-zondo-now-starring-a-cast-you-couldnt-make-up/ |archive-date=2020-12-19 |access-date=2020-12-20 |website=] |language=en}}</ref> During 2021 McKinsey & Co. agreed to repay R 870 million (US$63M) in fees to South African state logistics company Transnet SOC Ltd., seeking to distance itself from contracts linked to corruption allegations.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sguazzin |first=Antony |date=May 21, 2021 |title=McKinsey to Repay $63 Million to South Africa's Transnet |work=Bloomberg |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-25/mckinsey-to-repay-63-million-to-south-africa-s-transnet#:~:text=McKinsey%20%26%20Co.%20will%20repay%20870,in%20a%20joint%20statement%20Tuesday. |url-status=live |access-date=January 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122143542/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-25/mckinsey-to-repay-63-million-to-south-africa-s-transnet#:~:text=McKinsey%20%26%20Co.%20will%20repay%20870,in%20a%20joint%20statement%20Tuesday. |archive-date=January 22, 2022}}</ref> In April 2022 the Zondo Commission recommended that key Eskom executives be criminally investigated for improperly awarding consulting contracts to McKinsey & Company.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bezuidenhout |first=Jessica |date=2022-04-29 |title=DAYS OF ZONDO, PART FOUR: No dodging the State Capture hangover for McKinsey and Trillian |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-04-29-no-dodging-the-state-capture-hangover-for-mckinsey-and-trillian/ |access-date=2022-04-29 |website=] |language=en}}</ref>

South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority announced on Friday, 30 September 2022 that it had criminally charged both McKinsey South Africa and former McKinsey partner, Vikas Sagar, with fraud, corruption and theft related to a contract to advise Transnet on buying new locomotives.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cronje |first=Jan |date=2022-09-30 |title=NPA charges McKinsey SA with fraud over Transnet locomotive debacle |url=https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/npa-charges-mckinsey-sa-with-fraud-over-transnet-locomotive-debacle-20220930 |access-date=2022-10-04 |website=News24 |language=en}}</ref>

In 2024, McKinsey was ordered to pay a $122 million criminal penalty (and enter into a three-year ]) to settle an investigation by the Justice Department and South Africa's ] for violations of the ] (FCPA); 50% of the penalty will be paid to South Africa (roughly R1.1 billion). McKinsey paid bribes to government officials in South Africa between 2012 and 2016.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-12-05 |title=Office of Public Affairs {{!}} McKinsey & Company Africa to Pay Over $122M in Connection with Bribery of South African Government Officials {{!}} United States Department of Justice |url=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/mckinsey-company-africa-pay-over-122m-connection-bribery-south-african-government-officials |access-date=2024-12-14 |website=www.justice.gov |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Moodley |first=Neesa |date=2024-12-06 |title=State Capture — McKinsey to pay R1.1-billion to SA for its former partner’s role in state capture |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-12-06-mckinseys-r1-1-billion-settlement-a-strategic-victory-for-south-africas-fight-against-corruption/ |access-date=2024-12-14 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}}</ref>

====French presidential corruption scandal====
In December 2022, it was reported that the ] had raided the headquarters of President ]'s ] and McKinsey's Paris office.<ref name="LeDevoir">{{Cite web |date=14 December 2022 |title=La justice française fait des perquisitions aux sièges de McKinsey et du parti de Macron |url=https://www.ledevoir.com/monde/europe/774595/la-justice-francaise-perquisitionne-les-sieges-de-mckinsey-et-du-parti-de-macron |access-date=2023-01-06}}</ref> The raids were related to probes into false election campaign accounting, as well as possible favouritism and conspiracy.<ref name="France24">{{Cite web |date=14 December 2022 |title=French prosecutors search Macron's party offices |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20221214-french-prosecutors-search-macron-s-party-offices |access-date=2023-01-06}}</ref> The probe had been widened in October 2022 from an initial focus on McKinsey's taxes to include alleged underreporting of campaign consulting costs and allegations of favoritism.<ref name="GuardianFrance">{{Cite web |date=24 November 2022 |title=French McKinsey investigation widened to cover election campaigns |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/24/french-mckinsey-investigation-widened-to-cover-election-campaigns |access-date=2023-01-06 |website=]}}</ref><ref name="BloombergFrance">{{Cite web |date=14 December 2022 |title=Macron Party's HQ, McKinsey Raided in Campaign Funding Probe |url=https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/macron-party-s-hq-mckinsey-raided-in-campaign-funding-probe-1.1859195 |access-date=2023-01-06}}</ref> Even though the company had a turn over of €329 million,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Chrisafis |first=Angelique |date=2022-04-06 |title=Tax fraud inquiry into consultancy firms launched as French election looms |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/06/tax-inquiry-into-consultancy-firms-launched-as-french-election-looms |access-date=2024-02-26 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> they did not pay any corporation taxes in France in a decade, according to the ].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-04-01 |title=McKinsey affair 'galvanises' Macron's opponents – but gives them a 'weak weapon' |url=https://www.france24.com/en/france/20220401-mckinsey-affair-galvanises-macron-s-opponents-%E2%80%93-but-gives-them-a-weak-weapon |access-date=2024-02-26 |website=France 24 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=31 March 2022 |title=Macron Goes on Defensive Over Use of McKinsey and Other Consultants |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/world/europe/macron-france-consultants-mckinsey-campaign.html |access-date=26 February 2024 |website=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Paris |first=Adam Sage |date=2024-02-26 |title=Macron spends €2.4 billion on private consultants |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/macron-private-consultants-kpxtgcp2d |access-date=2024-02-26 |work=The Times |language=en |issn=0140-0460}}</ref> McKinsey consultants are alleged to have worked as unpaid volunteers on Macron's ] and ], in violation of French law.<ref name=GuardianFrance/> The firm is subsequently alleged to have benefitted from special access and favorable government treatment, including the awarding of lucrative government contracts.<ref name=France24/> The French media has dubbed the scandal 'McKinsey Affair'<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 April 2022 |title='McKinsey Affair': Prosecutors probe French state's use of private consultancy firms |url=https://www.france24.com/en/france/20220406-mckinsey-affair-prosecutors-probe-french-state-s-use-of-private-consultancy-firms |access-date=2023-01-06}}</ref> or 'McKinseygate'.<ref name=France24/> McKinsey is facing possible charges for corruption and tax fraud as a result of the investigation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Macron faced with corruption charges over McKinsey contracts |website=] |date=8 December 2022 |url=https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/europe/958808/macron-faced-with-corruption-charges-over-mckinsey-contracts |access-date=2023-01-06}}</ref> In July 2023, the case was still pending.<ref>{{Cite web |title=McKinsey chief plans second term after years of crises |url=https://www.ft.com/content/19c48dbb-c93c-41e3-b9e2-025f6790e9d3 |access-date=2024-02-28 |website=www.ft.com}}</ref>

====Canadian government consulting scandal====

A January 2023 investigative report by ] revealed that ]'s government had spent at least $117.4 million <!---updated to latest reported number as of 2023-03-24---> on McKinsey consulting since coming to power, compared to $2.2 million spent by the prior government.<ref name="GmInternalAudits">{{Cite news |last=Curry |first=Bill |date=24 March 2023 |title=Internal audits of McKinsey contracts raise fairness, transparency concerns |language=en-CA |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-internal-audits-of-mckinsey-contracts-raise-fairness-transparency/ |access-date=24 March 2023}}</ref><ref name="NP_DidNotFollowRules">{{Cite news |title=Departments didn't consistently follow rules with McKinsey contracts, says Treasury Board |language=en-CA |work=] |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/departments-didnt-consistently-follow-rules-with-mckinsey-contracts-treasury-board}}</ref><ref name="RadioCanada1">{{Cite web |date=4 January 2023 |title=Influence de la firme McKinsey : l'opposition à Ottawa veut une enquête |url=https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1945915/mckinsey-influence-canada-trudeau-immigration-conseils |access-date=2023-01-10}}</ref><ref name="CBC1">{{Cite web |title=The value of one consulting firm's federal contracts has skyrocketed under the Trudeau government |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mckinsey-immigration-consulting-contracts-trudeau-1.6703626 |access-date=2023-01-10 |website=]}}</ref><ref name="CBC2">{{Cite web |title=Poilievre calls for parliamentary probe of Liberals' relationship with McKinsey consulting firm |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mckinsey-contracts-poilievre-questions-1.6709036 |access-date=2023-01-10 |website=]}}</ref> All of those contracts were sole-source, according to documents obtained by Radio-Canada.<ref name = RadioCanada1/> Further investigative reporting identified at least $84 million in McKinsey consulting expenses between March 2021 and November 2022 alone.<ref name="Star1">{{Cite web |date=10 January 2023 |title=Conservative leader calls for probe into federal contracts awarded to McKinsey |url=https://www.thestar.com/politics/2023/01/10/conservative-leader-calls-for-probe-into-federal-contracts-awarded-to-mckinsey.html |access-date=2023-01-10 |website=]}}</ref><ref name="NatPo1">{{Cite web |title=Conservative leader calls for probe into federal contracts awarded to McKinsey |url=https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/conservative-leader-calls-for-probe-into-federal-contracts-awarded-to-mckinsey |access-date=2023-01-10}}</ref>

According to anonymous sources with major roles at ] (IRCC), McKinsey is reported to have a particularly large and growing influence over Canadian immigration policy.<ref name=RadioCanada1/><ref name = CBC1/> Policy is reported to have been decided on without input from public servants, and with minimal consideration for the public interest.<ref name = CBC1/> Canada's immigration targets have closely followed goals set in a plan by previous McKinsey head ], who outlined these plans in his 2016 report of the ] and through his work with the ].<ref name=RadioCanada1/> Both the report and the Century Initiative advocate for a steep increase in immigration to bring Canada's population to 100 million by 2100.<ref name = CBC1/> According to one of the IRCC whistleblowers, the department was informed that Barton's report was a "foundational plan" in spite of reservations expressed by the then-immigration minister, ].<ref name=RadioCanada1/>

On January 10, 2023, Canadian opposition parties, including the ], the ], and ], called for a parliamentary inquiry into federal contracts awarded to McKinsey.<ref name=NatPo1/><ref name="NatPo2">{{Cite web |title=Poilievre pushes for answers on 'what influence McKinsey' has had on Trudeau Liberals |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/poilievre-pushes-for-answers-on-what-influence-mckinsey-has-had-on-trudeau-liberals |access-date=2023-01-10}}</ref><ref name="Globe2">{{Cite news |last=Curry |first=Bill |date=10 January 2023 |title=Opposition parties planning investigation into spike in outsourcing contracts to McKinsey under Liberals |work=] |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-opposition-parties-planning-investigation-into-spike-in-outsourcing/ |access-date=2023-01-10}}</ref><ref name="RadioCanada3">{{Cite web |date=10 January 2023 |title=Influence de la firme McKinsey : l'opposition à Ottawa veut une enquête |url=https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1947173/enquete-federale-mckinsey-comite-operations-gouvernementales |access-date=2023-01-10}}</ref> The opposition is demanding that the government disclose "contracts, conversations, records of work done, meetings held, text messages, email exchanges, everything that the government has with the company since taking office".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gilmore |first=Rachel |date=January 10, 2023 |title=Poilievre says Tories will seek committee probe into McKinsey consulting contracts |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/9399494/poilievre-mckinsey-contract-committee-study/ |access-date=2023-01-11 |website=]}}</ref> McKinsey has thus far refused to answer CBC News questions regarding its role and agreements with the federal government, while the government has refused to provide copies of the company's reports.<ref name=CBC1/> In response to the controversy, McKinsey issued a statement on its website indicating that it "welcomes the opportunity" to provide information to parliament, and that it "does not make policy recommendations on immigration or any other topic".<ref name=Globe2/>

Trudeau asked fellow ] members Treasury Board President ] and Procurement Minister ] to review the contracts return a final report. On 23 March 2023, the Treasury Board announced that audits had determined that departments did not consistently follow certain administrative rules and procedures, but that there was "broad compliance with values and ethics commitments."<ref name="NP_DidNotFollowRules" /> According to the Treasury Board, while the audits raised questions about fairness, transparency and conflicts of interest, no evidence was found of political direction in awarding the contracts.<ref name="GmInternalAudits" />

=== Climate change ===

==== Climate action letter and AMC ====
In 2021, more than 1,100 McKinsey employees signed a letter calling out the firm for working with 43 of the 100 most polluting companies. According to ''The New York Times'', these 43 clients alone were responsible for more than a third of the world's carbon emissions in 2018. The letter called on the firm to disclose how much carbon its clients emit.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Beals |first=Monique |date=2021-10-27 |title=McKinsey employees angered over firm's work with world's top polluters |url=https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/578802-mckinsey-employees-angered-over-firms-work-with-worlds-top-polluters/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=The Hill |language=en-US}}</ref> McKinsey executives said they would continue to advise major carbon polluters. Several employees resigned from the firm following the letter.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Forsythe |first1=Michael |last2=Bogdanich |first2=Walt |date=2021-10-27 |title=At McKinsey, Widespread Furor Over Work With Planet's Biggest Polluters |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/27/business/mckinsey-climate-change.html |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ali |first=Shirin |date=2021-10-27 |title=Rebellion at huge company sparked by work for world's biggest polluters |url=https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/climate-change/578704-rebellion-at-huge-company-sparked-by-work-for/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=The Hill |language=en-US}}</ref>

In April 2022, McKinsey, ], ], ], and ] announced a $925 million ] of ] (CDR) from companies that are developing CDR technology over the next 9 years.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Clifford |first=Catherine |date=April 12, 2022 |title=Stripe teams up with major tech companies to commit $925 million toward carbon capture |publisher=CNBC |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/12/stripe-alphabet-meta-shopify-mckinsey-spur-carbon-capture-market.html |access-date=July 6, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Brigham |first=Katie |date=June 28, 2022 |title=Why Big Tech is pouring money into carbon removal |publisher=CNBC |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/28/why-companies-like-stripe-meta-and-alphabet-are-behind-carbon-removal.html |access-date=July 6, 2022}}</ref>

==== 2023 Africa Climate Summit ====
More than 400 civil society groups signed a letter of protest to Kenyan President ], accusing McKinsey of influencing the 2023 Africa Climate Summit.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Emiratis pledge $450m in carbon credit deal at 'toxic' Africa Climate Summit |url=https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/emiratis-carbon-credit-deal-during-africa-climate-summit-toxic |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=Middle East Eye |language=en}}</ref> The letter claimed that the agenda for the summit, as proposed by McKinsey, "reflects the interests of the US, McKinsey and the Western corporations they represent."<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2023-08-11 |title=Letter to President Ruto – Make Africa Climate Summit African |url=https://thisisafrica.me/politics-and-society/ruto-make-africa-climate-summit-african/ |access-date=2024-04-10 |language=en-US}}</ref> Leaked documents revealed that the consulting firm tried to push controversial carbon market schemes that would benefit its fossil fuel clients.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |date=2023-12-15 |title=Leaks show McKinsey pushed fossil fuel agenda at Africa climate summit |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231215-leaks-show-mckinsey-pushed-fossil-fuel-agenda-at-africa-climate-summit |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=France 24 |language=en}}</ref>

==== COP28 ====
{{Further|2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference}}
In 2023, an ] investigation revealed in multiple leaked documents that McKinsey was using its position as primary advisor to COP28 hosts, the ], to push the interest of its oil and gas clients (] and ]).<ref name=":3" /> McKinsey has been accused of putting its own interests ahead of the climate by sources involved in preparatory meetings for COP28. McKinsey's energy scenario for the COP28 presidency would allow for continued investment in fossil fuels, which would undermine the goals of the ]; an "energy transition narrative" recommends oil use to be reduced by only 50% by 2050, and that trillions of dollars should continue to be invested in high-emission assets each year to at least 2050.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Top consultancy McKinsey undermining climate change fight: whistleblowers |date=12 November 2023 |url=https://japantoday.com/category/features/environment/top-consultancy-mckinsey-undermining-climate-change-fight-whistleblowers}}</ref>

=== Diversity, equity, and inclusion ===
McKinsey & Company published several reports on business benefits of ].<ref></ref> The reports were criticized as insufficiently investigating the difference between ] and ], lacking robustness, and overgeneralizing to broad claims.<ref>{{cite SSRN | title=Diversity matters/Delivers/Wins revisited in S&P 500® firms | date=2021 | last1=Green | first1=Jeremiah | last2=Hand | first2=John R. M. |ssrn=3849562 }}</ref>{{Portal|United States|Companies}}

== Explanatory notes ==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book |last1=Bogdanich |first1=Walt |title=When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm |last2=Forsythe |first2=Michael |publisher=Doubleday |year=2022 |isbn=9780385546232 |location=New York |oclc=1345467322}}

==External links==
{{commons category-inline}}
* {{Official website}} of McKinsey & Co.
* {{official website|http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/}} of ''McKinsey Quarterly''

{{Consulting}}
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Latest revision as of 23:41, 20 December 2024

US-based worldwide management consulting firm "McKinsey" redirects here. For other uses, see McKinsey (disambiguation).

McKinsey & Company
McKinsey's New York office are in five floors of 3 World Trade Center
Company typePrivate
IndustryManagement consulting
Founded1926; 98 years ago (1926)
FounderJames O. McKinsey
HeadquartersNew York City
Area servedWorldwide
Key peopleBob Sternfels,
Global Managing Partner
RevenueSame position $15+ billion (2021)
Number of employees45,000 (2023)
Websitemckinsey.com

McKinsey & Company (informally McKinsey or McK) is an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. Founded in 1926 by James O. McKinsey, McKinsey is the oldest and largest of the "MBB" management consultancies (MBB). The firm mainly focuses on the finances and operations of their clients.

Under the direction of Marvin Bower, McKinsey expanded into Europe during the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s, McKinsey's Fred Gluck—along with Boston Consulting Group's Bruce Henderson, Bill Bain at Bain & Company, and Harvard Business School's Michael Porter—initiated a program designed to transform corporate culture. A 1975 publication by McKinsey's John L. Neuman introduced the business practice of "overhead value analysis" that contributed to a downsizing trend that eliminated many jobs in middle management. McKinsey publishes a business magazine, the McKinsey Quarterly.

McKinsey has been the subject of significant controversy and is the subject of a criminal investigation into its business practices. The company has been criticized for its role promoting OxyContin use during the opioid crisis in North America, its work with Enron, and its work for authoritarian regimes like Saudi Arabia and Russia. The criminal investigation by the US Justice Department, with a grand jury to determine charges, is into its role in the opioid crisis and obstruction of justice related to its activities in the sector.

History

Early history

James O. McKinsey (1889–1937), founder of the company

McKinsey & Company was founded in Chicago under the name James O. McKinsey & Company in 1926 by James O. McKinsey, a professor of accounting at the University of Chicago. He conceived the idea after he had witnessed inefficiencies in military suppliers while he was working for the United States Army Ordnance Department. The firm called itself an "accounting and management firm" and started out giving advice on using accounting principles as a management tool. McKinsey's first partners were AT Kearney, hired in 1929, and Marvin Bower, hired in 1933.

Marvin Bower, founder of modern-day McKinsey and its corporate culture

Bower is credited with establishing McKinsey's values and principles in 1937, based on his experience as a lawyer. The firm developed an "up or out" policy, where consultants who are not promoted are asked to leave. In 1937, Bower established a set of rules: that consultants should put the interests of clients before McKinsey's revenues, not discuss client affairs, tell the truth even if it means challenging the client's opinion, and only perform work that is both necessary and that McKinsey can do well. Bower created the firm's principle of only working with CEOs, which was later expanded to CEOs of subsidiaries and divisions. He also created McKinsey's principle of only working with clients the firm felt would follow its advice. Bower also established the firm's language.

In 1932, the company opened its second office in New York City. In 1935, McKinsey left the firm temporarily to be the chairman and CEO of client Marshall Field's.

In 1935, McKinsey merged with accounting firm Scovell, Wellington & Company, creating the New York-based McKinsey, Wellington & Co. and splitting off the accounting practice into Chicago-based Wellington & Company. A Wellington project that accounted for 55 percent of McKinsey, Wellington & Company's billings was about to expire and Kearney and Bower had disagreements about how to run the firm. Bower wanted to expand nationally and hire young business school graduates, whereas Kearney wanted to stay in Chicago and hire experienced accountants.

In 1937, James O. McKinsey died after catching pneumonia. This led to the division of McKinsey, Wellington & Company in 1939. The accounting practice returned to Scovell, Wellington & Company, while the management engineering practice was split into McKinsey & Company and McKinsey, Kearney & Company. Bower had partnered with Guy Crockett from Scovell Wellington, who invested in the new McKinsey & Company and became managing partner, while Marvin Bower is credited with founding the firm's principles and strategy as his deputy. The New York office purchased exclusive rights to the McKinsey name from the former McKinsey Chicago office which was separated with AT Kearney in 1946.

Years of growth

McKinsey & Company grew quickly in the 1940s and 1950s, especially in Europe. It had 88 staff in 1951 and more than 200 by the 1960s, including 37 in London by 1966. In the same year, McKinsey had six offices in major US cities, including San Francisco, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., as well as six abroad. These foreign offices were primarily in Europe, such as in London, Paris, and Amsterdam, as well as in Melbourne. By this time, one third of the company's revenues originated from its European offices. Guy Crockett stepped down as managing director in 1959, and Marvin Bower was elected in his place. McKinsey's profit-sharing, executive and planning committees were formed in 1951. The organization's client base expanded especially among governments, defense contractors, blue-chip companies and military organizations in the post–World War II era. McKinsey became a private corporation with shares owned exclusively by McKinsey employees in 1956.

After Bower stepped down in 1967, the firm's revenues declined. New competitors like the Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company created increased competition for McKinsey by marketing specific branded products, such as the Growth–Share Matrix, and by selling their industry expertise.

In 1971, McKinsey created the Commission on Firm Aims and Goals, which found that McKinsey had become too focused on geographic expansion and lacked adequate industry knowledge. The commission advised that McKinsey slow its growth and develop industry specialties.

In 1975, John L. Neuman, a McKinsey consultant at the time, published "Make Overhead Cuts That Last" in Harvard Business Review, in which he introduced new rules for scientific management such as "overhead valuation analysis" (OVA). OVA guided McKinsey's "path to downsizing", responding to the "mid-century corporation's excessive reliance on middle management". Neuman wrote that the "process, though swift, is not painless. Since overhead expenses are typically 70% to 85% people-related and most savings come from work-force reductions, cutting overhead does demand some wrenching decisions."

In 1976, Ron Daniel was elected managing director, serving until 1988. Daniel and Fred Gluck helped shift the firm away from its generalist approach by developing 15 specialized working groups within McKinsey called Centers of Competence and by developing practice areas called Strategy, Operations and Organization. Daniel also began McKinsey's knowledge management efforts in 1987. This led to the creation of an IT system that tracked McKinsey engagements, a process to centralize knowledge from each practice area and a resource directory of internal experts." By the end of his tenure in 1988 the firm was growing again and had opened new offices in Rome, Helsinki, São Paulo and Minneapolis.

Fred Gluck was McKinsey's managing director from 1988 to 1994. The firm's revenues doubled during his tenure. He organized McKinsey into 72 "islands of activity" that were organized under seven sectors and seven functional areas. By 1997, McKinsey had grown eightfold over its size in 1977. In 1989 the firm tried to acquire talent in IT services through a $10 million purchase of the Information Consulting Group (ICG), but a culture clash caused 151 out of the 254 ICG staff members to leave by 1993.

In 1994, Rajat Gupta became the first non-American-born partner to be elected as the firm's managing director. By the end of his tenure, McKinsey had grown from 2,900 to 7,700 staff and 58 to 84 locations. He opened new international offices in cities such as Moscow, Beijing and Bangkok. Continuing the structure developed by prior directors, Gupta also created 16 industry groups charged with understanding specific markets and instituted a three-term limit for the managing director. McKinsey created practice areas for manufacturing and business technology in the late 1990s.

McKinsey set up "accelerators" in the 1990s, where the firm accepted stock-based reimbursement to help internet startups; the company performed more than 1,000 e-commerce projects from 1998 to 2000 alone.

An October 1, 2000, article in the New York Times described the compulsory mini-courses that McKinsey—and its two largest rivals Boston Consulting and Bain—offered their "hyper-educated" young new recruits. Once completed, these newly certified management consultants would begin their work of "advising the executives of multibillion-dollar companies" on "projects" not related to their academic backgrounds"—"awyers would help packaged-foods companies develop new products, and physicists would tell Internet start-ups how to stand out from the crowd."

The burst of the dot-com bubble led to a reduction in utilization rates of McKinsey's consultants from 64 to 52 percent. Though McKinsey avoided dismissing any personnel following the decline, the decline in revenues and losses from equity-based payments as stock lost value, together with a recession in 2001, meant the company had to reduce its prices, cut expenses and reduce hiring.

In 2001, McKinsey launched several practices that focused on the public and social sector. It took on many public sector or non profit clients on a pro bono basis. By 2002, McKinsey had invested a $35.8 million budget on knowledge management, up from $8.3 million in 1999. Its revenues were 50, 20, and 30 percent from strategy, operations, and technology consulting, respectively.

In 2003, Ian Davis, the head of the London office, was elected to the position of managing director. Davis promised a return to the company's core values after a period in which the firm had expanded rapidly, which some McKinsey consultants felt was a departure from the company's heritage. Also in 2003, the firm established a headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region in Shanghai. By 2004, more than 60 percent of McKinsey's revenues were generated outside the U.S. The company started a Social Sector Office (SSO) in 2008, which is divided into three practices: Global Public Health, Economic Development and Opportunity Creation (EDHOC) and Philanthropy. McKinsey does much of its pro-bono work through the SSO, whereas a Business Technology Office (BTO), founded in 1997, provides consulting on technology strategy.

By 2009, the firm consisted of 400 directors (senior partners), up from 151 in 1993. Dominic Barton was elected as managing director, a role he was re-elected for in 2012 and 2015.

Recent history

See also: Rajat Gupta and Anil Kumar

Rajat Gupta along with another McKinsey executive, Anil Kumar, were among those convicted in a government investigation into insider trading for sharing inside information with Galleon Group hedge fund owner Raj Rajaratnam. Though McKinsey was not accused of any wrongdoing, the convictions were embarrassing for the firm, since it prides itself on integrity and client confidentiality. McKinsey no longer maintains a relationship with either senior partner.

Senior partner Anil Kumar, described as Gupta's protégé, left the firm after the allegations in 2009, and pleaded guilty in January 2010. While he and other partners had been pitching McKinsey's consulting services to the Galleon Group, Kumar and Rajaratnam reached a private consulting agreement, violating McKinsey's policies on confidentiality. Gupta was convicted in June 2012, of four counts of conspiracy and securities fraud, and acquitted on two counts. In October 2011, he was arrested by the FBI on charges of sharing insider information from these confidential board meetings with Rajaratnam. At least twice, Gupta used a McKinsey phone to call Rajaratnam and retained other perks—an office, assistant, and $6 million retirement salary that year—as a senior partner emeritus.

After the scandal McKinsey instituted new policies and procedures to discourage future indiscretions from consultants, including investigating other partners' ties to Gupta.

In February 2018, Kevin Sneader was elected as managing director. He had a three-year term that began on July 1, 2018.

McKinsey has consulted for multiple cities, states and government organizations during the 2019 coronavirus pandemic. During the first four months of the pandemic, McKinsey obtained in excess of $100 million in consulting work, including no-bid contracts with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and Air Force. The reopening guidelines for Florida's Miami-Dade County, produced with McKinsey's input, were criticized by local media and officials for complexity and lack of clarity.

McKinsey discontinued its investment banking advisory unit in 2021, citing "personnel matters" as the reason.

In 2021, McKinsey's Australian office made two acquisitions, Hypothesis, a digital product development company, and Venturetec, an innovation consulting firm.

On June 1, 2022, McKinsey announced that it had acquired Caserta, a data engineering firm.

In March 2023, McKinsey announced a layoff of 1,400 employees, in a rare job cut of the company.

Organization and services

Structure

McKinsey office in Bucharest, Romania

McKinsey & Company was originally organized as a partnership before being legally restructured as a private corporation with shares owned by its partners in 1956. It mimics the structure of a partnership and senior employees are called "partners". The company has a flat hierarchy and each member is assigned a mentor. Since the 1960s, McKinsey's managing director has been elected by a vote of senior directors to work up to three, three-year terms or until reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60. The firm is also managed by a series of committees that each has its own area of responsibility.

By 2013, McKinsey was described as having a decentralized structure, whereby different offices operate similarly, but independently. The company's budgeting is centralized, but individual consultants are given a large degree of autonomy. As a global firm McKinsey does not have a traditional "headquarters"; the managing partner chooses his or her home office.

List of global managing partners

  1. James O. McKinsey (1926–1935), Chicago office
  2. Guy Crockett (1939–1950)
  3. Marvin Bower (1950–1967), New York office
  4. Gil Clee (1967–1968)
  5. Chester Walton (1968–1976)
  6. Alonzo L. McDonald (1973–1976)
  7. Ron Daniel (1976–1988)
  8. Frederick Gluck (1988–1994), New York office
  9. Rajat Gupta (1994–2003), New York office
  10. Ian Davis (2003–2009), London office
  11. Dominic Barton (2009–2018), London office
  12. Kevin Sneader (2018–2021), Hong Kong office
  13. Bob Sternfels (2021– ), San Francisco office

Consulting services

McKinsey & Company provides strategy and management consulting services, such as providing advice on an acquisition, developing a plan to restructure a sales force, creating a new business strategy or providing advice on downsizing, according to the 2013 book, The Firm. The 1999 book, The McKinsey Way said that McKinsey consultants designed and implemented studies to evaluate management decisions using data and interviews to test hypotheses. which were then presented to senior management, typically in a PowerPoint presentation and a booklet.

McKinsey & Company has traditionally charged approximately 25 percent more than competing firms. Its invoices traditionally contain only a single line.

A typical McKinsey engagement (called a "study") can last between two and twelve months and involves three to six McKinsey consultants. An engagement is usually managed by a generalist that covers the region the client's headquarters are located in and specialists that have either an industry or functional expertise. Unlike some competing consulting firms, McKinsey does not hold a policy against working for multiple competing companies (although individual consultants are barred from doing so).

Recruiting

McKinsey & Company was the first management consultancy to hire recent graduates instead of experienced business managers, when it started doing so in 1953.

According to a 1997 article in The Observer, McKinsey recruited recent graduates and "imbue them with a religious conviction" in the firm, then cull through them with its "up-or-out" policy. The "up or out" policy, which was established in 1951, meant that consultants that were not being promoted within the firm were asked to leave. By 1997, about one-fifth of McKinsey's consultants departed under the up or out policy each year. McKinsey's practice of hiring recent graduates and the "up-or-out" philosophy were originally based on Marvin Bower's experiences at the law firm Jones Day in the 1930s, as well as the "Cravath system" used at the law firm Cravath, Swaine and Moore.

In recent years, it has consistently been recognized by Vault as the most prestigious consulting firm employer in the world. In 2018, 800,000 candidates applied for 8,000 jobs.

While many recruits have MBAs, by 2009, less than half of the firm's recruits were business majors; by 1999, recruits had advanced degrees in science, medicine, engineering or law.

Culture

A November 1, 1993, profile story in Fortune magazine said that McKinsey & Company was "the most well-known, most secretive, most high-priced, most prestigious, most consistently successful, most envied, most trusted, most disliked management consulting firm on earth". In the article, McKinsey was cited as claiming that its consultants were not motivated by money, and that partners talked to each other with "a sense of personal affection and admiration". The article described a culture clash that occurred in the early 1990s, leading to the departure of 151 out of the 254 ICG staff members.

In their 1997 book Dangerous Company: Management Consultants and the Businesses They Save and Ruin, authors James O'Shea and Charles Madigan said that McKinsey's culture had often been compared to religion, because of the influence, loyalty and zeal of its members. The firm has a policy against discussing specific client situations. A September 1997 The News Observer story said that McKinsey's internal culture was "collegiate and ruthlessly competitive" and has been described as arrogant. Ethan Rasiel's 1999 book entitled The McKinsey Way, described a culture at McKinsey's whereby members were not supposed to "sell" their services.

The Sunday Times wrote that McKinsey was a pioneer in the industry—the "first firm to hire MBA graduates from the top business schools to staff its projects, rather than relying on older industry personnel." They were still trying to keep a "very low profile public image" in 2005. That year, an article in The Guardian said that McKinsey "hours are long, expectations high and failure not acceptable". According to an October 2009 Reuters article, the firm had a "button-down culture" focused on "playing by the rules". In his 2013 book, The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business, Duff McDonald described how McKinsey's consultants were expected to become a part of the community and recruit clients from church, charitable foundations, board positions and other community involvements. McDonald wrote that McKinsey calls itself "The Firm" and its employees "members". BusinessWeek summarized The Firm's description of McKinsey as a "fading empire, where hubris and changing times have diminished the firm's statures."

In his February 2020 in-depth article in The Atlantic, Daniel Markovits argues that McKinsey promotes "intellect and elite credentials" and "Meritocrats" over "directly relevant experience".

Influence

Main article: List of former employees of McKinsey & Company

Many of McKinsey's alumni become CEOs of major corporations or hold important government positions. In doing so, they influence the other organizations with McKinsey's values and culture. McKinsey's alumni have been appointed as CEOs or high-level executives.

In his 2010 publication, The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History of the New Corporate World, business journalist Walter Kiechel traced the roots of a profound change in corporate management to "four mavericks" in the 1960s—Fred Gluck at McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group's Bruce Henderson, Bill Bain at Bain & Company, and Harvard Business School professor, Michael Porter. Kiechel recounted how they "revolutionized the way we think about business, changed the very soul of the corporation, and transformed the way we work," according to the Harvard Business Press synopsis.

McKinsey has been either directly involved in, or closely associated with, a number of notable scandals, involving Enron in 2001, Galleon in 2009, Valeant in 2015, Saudi Arabia in 2018, China in 2018, ICE in 2019, an internal conflict of interest in 2019 and Purdue Pharma in 2019, among others. By 2019, major news outlets, including The New York Times and ProPublica, had raised concerns about McKinsey's business practices.

Research and publishing

McKinsey & Company consultants regularly publish books, research and articles about business and management. The firm spends $50–$100 million a year on research. McKinsey was one of the first organizations to fund management research, when it founded the Foundation for Management Research in 1955. The firm began publishing a business magazine, The McKinsey Quarterly, in 1964. It funds the McKinsey Global Institute, which studies global economic trends and was founded in 1990. It also launched the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility in 2020 to fund research focused on advancing inclusive growth & racial equity globally. Many consultants are contributors to the Harvard Business Review. McKinsey consultants published only two books from 1960 to 1980, then more than 50 from 1980 to 1996. McKinsey's publications and research give the firm a "quasi-academic" image.

A McKinsey book, In Search of Excellence, was published in 1982. It featured eight characteristics of successful businesses based on an analysis of 43 top performing companies. It marked the beginning of McKinsey's shift from accounting to "softer" aspects of management, like skills and culture. According to David Guest from King's College, In Search of Excellence became popular among business managers because it was easy to read, well-marketed and some of its core messages were valid. However, it was disliked by academics because of flaws in its methodology. Additionally, a 1984 analysis by BusinessWeek found that many of those companies identified as "excellent" in the book no longer met the criteria only two years later.

A 1997 article and a book it published in 2001 on "The War for Talent" prompted academics and the business community to start focusing more on talent management. The authors found that the best-performing companies were "obsessed" with acquiring and managing the best talent. They advocated that companies rank employees by their performance and promote "stars", while targeting under-performers for improvement or layoffs. After the book was published, Enron, a company which followed many of its principles, was involved in a scandal that led to its bankruptcy. In May 2001, a Stanford professor wrote a paper critical of the "War on Talent" arguing that it prioritized individuals at the expense of the larger organization.

McKinsey consultants published Creative Destruction in 2001. The book suggested that CEOs need to be willing to change or rebuild a company, rather than protect what they have created. It found that out of the first S&P 500 list from 1957, only 74 were still in business by 1998. The New York Times said it "makes a cogent argument that in times of rampant, uncertain change ... established companies are handcuffed by success." In 2009, McKinsey consultants published The Alchemy of Growth, which established three "horizons" for growth: core enhancements, new growth platforms and options.

In February 2011, McKinsey surveyed 1,300 US private-sector employers on their expected response to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Thirty percent of respondents said they anticipated they would probably or definitely stop offering employer sponsored health coverage after the ACA went into effect in 2014. These results, published in June 2011 in the McKinsey Quarterly, became "a useful tool for critics of the ACA and a deep annoyance for defenders of the law" according to an article in Time magazine. Supporters of healthcare reform argued the survey far surpassed estimates by the Congressional Budget Office and insisted that McKinsey disclose the survey's methodology. Two weeks after publishing the survey results, McKinsey released the contents of the survey including the questionnaire and 206 pages of survey data. In its accompanying statement, McKinsey said it was intended to capture the attitude of employers at a certain point in time, not make a prediction.

Since 1990, McKinsey has been publishing Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, a textbook on valuation.

In 2022, McKinsey senior partners Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra authored the book CEO Excellence, which was published by Scribner.

Environmental consulting

Marginal abatement cost curves attempt to compare the financial costs of different options for reducing pollution in a region and are used in emissions trading, policy discussions and incentive programs. McKinsey & Company released its first marginal abatement cost (MAC) curve for greenhouse gas emissions in February 2007, which was updated to version two in January 2009. McKinsey & Company's MAC curve has become the most widely used and is the basis for McKinsey's consulting on climate change and sustainability.

McKinsey's curve predicts negative cost abatement strategies, which has been controversial among economists. The International Association for Energy Economics said in The Energy Journal that McKinsey's cost-curve was popular among policymakers, because it suggests they can take "bold action towards improving energy efficiency without imposing costs on society."

In a 2010 report, the Rainforest Foundation UK said McKinsey's cost curve methodology was misleading for policy decisions regarding the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) program. The report argued that McKinsey's calculations exclude certain implementation and governance costs, which makes it favor industrial uses of forests while discouraging subsistence projects. Greenpeace said the curve has allowed Indonesia and Guyana to win financial incentives from the United Nations by creating inflated estimates of current deforestation so they could demonstrate reductions in comparison. McKinsey said they had made it clear in the cost-curve publications that cost curves do not translate "mechanically" into policy implications and that policymakers should consider "many other factors" before introducing new laws.

In April 2022, in the report "Global Energy Perspective" the company predicted that fossil fuels use will peak between 2023–2025 and in 2050 fossil fuels will account for 43% of energy consumption. Emissions will peak in all scenarios before 2030. However, the report of September 2024, said that fossil fuel consumption is expected to plateau between 2025 and 2035, and they will continue to play a major role accounting for 40%-60% of energy supply by 2050. Emissions will peak in 2025-2035. The report mention "a more challenging geopolitical landscape", rising electricity demand, especially from Artificial intelligence, some technical problems that are complicating the transition. The low cost of renewables can make them less profitable, so regulation can be required for adoption. The company also created a new report "Global Materials Perspective". It says that the energy transition require intensive mining of many materials, so even as the mining of coal will be reduced, the overall emissions from the mining and metal industry will decline only from 15% to 13% by 2035.

Significant consulting projects

McKinsey & Company's founder, James O. McKinsey, introduced the concept of budget planning as a management framework in his fifth book Budgetary Control in 1922. The firm's first client was the treasurer of Armour & Company, who, along with other early McKinsey clients, had read Budgetary Control. In 1931 McKinsey created a methodology for analyzing a company called the General Survey Outline (GSO), which was established based on ideas introduced in the 1924 book Business Administration. It was also known as the Banker's Survey, because McKinsey's clients who used it in the 1930s were predominantly banks. After the Wagner Act gave certain rights to employees to organize into unions in 1935, McKinsey started consulting corporations on employee relations. Later in the 1950s, the work of a McKinsey consultant on compensation was influential in "skyrocketing executive pay". It also helped many companies such as Heinz, IBM and Hoover expand into Europe.

In the 1940s, McKinsey helped many corporations convert into wartime production for World War II. It also helped organize NASA into an organization that relies heavily on contractors in 1958. McKinsey created a report in 1953 for Dwight D. Eisenhower that was used to guide government appointments. In 1973, McKinsey & Company led a project for a consortium of grocery chains represented by the U.S. Supermarket Ad Hoc Committee on a Uniform Grocery Product Code to create the barcode. According to the book "Business Research Methods", the barcode became commonplace after a study by McKinsey persuaded Kroger to adopt it.

In the 1970s and 1980s, McKinsey helped European companies change their organizational structure to M-form (Multidivisional Form), which organizes the company into semi-autonomous divisions that function around a product, industry or customer, rather than a function or expertise.

In the 1980s, AT&T reduced investments in cell towers due to McKinsey's prediction that there would only be 900,000 cell phone subscribers by 2000. According to The Firm this was "laughably off the mark" from the 109 million cellular subscribers by 2000. At the time cell phones were bulky and expensive. The firm helped the Dutch government facilitate a turnaround for Hoogovens, the world's largest steel company as of 2013, through a $1 billion bankruptcy bailout. It also implemented a turnaround for the city of Glasgow, which had problems with unemployment and crime. McKinsey created the corporate structure for NationsBank, when it was still a small company known as North Carolina National Bank. McKinsey was hired by General Motors to do a large-scale re-organization to help it compete with Japanese auto-makers. The book The Firm said it was an "unmitigated disaster" because McKinsey focused on corporate structure, whereas GM needed to compete with Japanese automakers through manufacturing process improvement. A McKinsey consultant said GM did not follow their advice.

A 2002 article in BusinessWeek said that a series of bankruptcies of McKinsey clients, such as Swissair, Kmart, and Global Crossing, in the 1990s raised questions as to whether McKinsey was responsible or had a lapse in judgement. McKinsey recommended that Swissair avoid high operating costs in its home country by developing partnerships with airlines based in other regions. In order to attract partners, Swissair acquired more than $1 billion in shares of other airlines, many of which were failing. This led to huge losses and even bankruptcy for Swissair.

As part of a lawsuit against Allstate, 13,000 McKinsey documents were released, showing that McKinsey recommended that Allstate reduce payouts to insurance claimants by offering low settlements, delaying processing to wear out claimants through attrition, and fighting customers that protest in court. Allstate's profits doubled over ten years after adopting McKinsey's strategy, but it also led to lawsuits alleging they were cheating claimants out of legitimate insurance claims.

Controversies

The firm has been associated with a number of notable scandals, including the collapse of Enron in 2001, the 2007–2008 financial crisis, and facilitating state capture in South Africa. It has also drawn controversy for involvement with Purdue Pharma, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and authoritarian regimes. Michael Forsythe and Walt Bogdanich, reporters for The New York Times, wrote a book entitled When McKinsey Comes to Town about the controversially unethical work history of the company.

Enron

Main article: Enron scandal

Enron was the creation of Jeff Skilling, a McKinsey consultant of 21 years, who was jailed after Enron reportedly used McKinsey on 20 different projects, and McKinsey consultants had "used Enron as their sandbox."

Prior to the Enron scandal, McKinsey helped it shift from an oil and gas production company into an electric commodities trader, which led to significant growth in profits and revenues. According to The Independent, there was "no suggestion that McKinsey was complicit in the subsequent scandal, critics say the arrogance of Enron's leaders is emblematic of the McKinsey culture." The government did not investigate McKinsey, who said they did not provide advice on Enron's accounting. The Wall Street Journal questioned McKinsey's "liability" and its "close relationship with Enron", and a 2002 BusinessWeek article suggested that they had ignored warning signs.

In his July 2002 in-depth BusinessWeek article on the aftermath of the Enron scandal, John Bryne wrote that McKinsey had been a "key architect of the strategic thinking that made Enron a Wall Street darling. In books, articles, and essays, its partners regularly stamped their imprimatur on many of Enron's strategies and practices, helping to position the energy giant as a corporate innovator worthy of emulation. The firm may not be the subject of any investigations, but its close involvement with Enron raises the question of whether McKinsey, like some other professional firms, ignored warning flags in order to keep an important account." BusinessWeek described how McKinsey's culture had changed, as the "number of partners grew from 427 to 891" making it a "less personal place". According to the article, "some current and former McKinsey consultants" said that McKinsey had lost their "ingrained values" that used to guide the firm. Citing the example of the dot-com bubble, McKinsey had begun to have "less prestigious companies" as clients and had allowed "its focus on building agenda-shaping relationships with top management at leading companies to slip." As well, "there was a noticeable tilt toward bringing in revenue at the expense of developing knowledge." McKinsey denied this.

McKinsey denied giving Enron advice on financing issues or having suspicions that Enron was using improper accounting methods.

2008 financial crisis

Main article: Financial crisis of 2007–2008

McKinsey is said to have played a significant role in the 2008 financial crisis by promoting the securitization of mortgage assets and encouraged the banks to fund their balance sheets with debt, driving up risk, which "poisoned the global financial system and precipitated the 2008 credit meltdown". Furthermore, McKinsey advised Allstate Insurance to purposely give low offers to claimants. The Huffington Post revealed that the strategy was to make claims "so expensive and so time-consuming that lawyers would start refusing to help clients." Next to this, 2016 McKinsey partner Navdeep Arora was convicted for illegally depleting State Farm of over $500,000 over a period of 8 years, in collaboration with a State Farm employee.

Valeant

Valeant, a Canadian pharmaceutical company investigated by the SEC in 2015, has been accused of improper accounting, and that it used predatory price hikes to boost growth. The Financial Times states that "Valeant's downfall is not exactly McKinsey's fault but its fingerprints are everywhere." Three out of six senior executives were recent ex-McKinsey employees, as well as the chair of the 'talent and compensation' committee. MIO Partners was a private investor of Valeant and McKinsey consulted Valeant on drug prices and acquisitions.

Role in opioid epidemic

Further information: Opioid epidemic in the United States

McKinsey advised opioid makers on how to "turbocharge" sales of OxyContin, proposed strategies to counter the emotional messages from mothers with teenagers who overdosed on OxyContin, and helped opioid makers circumvent regulation. The firm also advised Purdue Pharma to offer pharmacies rebates based on the number of overdoses and addictions they caused. In 2019, McKinsey projected that over 2,400 CVS customers would have an overdose or become reliant on opioids. McKinsey estimated that a rebate of $14,810 per "event" would mean that Purdue would have to pay CVS $36.8 million that year. In February 2021, McKinsey reached agreements with attorneys general in 49 states, five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia. Across the settlements, the firm agreed to pay nearly $600 million to settle investigations into its role in promoting sales of OxyContin. McKinsey has since apologized for its advice to opioid makers.

Records show that McKinsey worked for Purdue Pharma and other opioid makers in a 15-year period, from 2004 to 2019. During 2018 and 2019, McKinsey collected at least $400 million consulting pharmaceutical companies. McKinsey advised Mallinckrodt, the largest manufacturer of generic opioids, as well as Endo International for which McKinsey consulted on marketing Opana. McKinsey's consultation grew Endo into a leading generics manufacturer. McKinsey recommended targeted and influenced doctors who treat back pain in elderly and long-term care patients.

In February 2021, McKinsey paid $600 million to settle investigations into its role in promoting sales of OxyContin and fueling the greater opioid epidemic.

In April 2022, the New York Times reported that McKinsey had frequently allowed partners and other consultants to work for both government clients, such as the FDA, and pharmaceutical clients, such as Purdue. These actions violated McKinsey's own internal ethical guidelines.

In December 2023, Reuters reported that McKinsey had agreed to pay an additional $78 million to settle claims with health insurers McKinsey's consulting helped to fuel "an epidemic of opioid addiction through its work for drug companies." Reuters reported the settlement would be the last in a series and that McKinsey "admitted to no wrongdoing."

In 2024, the company became the subject of a criminal investigation by the US Justice Department into its role in advising opioid manufacturers how to boost sales. A grand jury was convened to determine charges to be brought against the firm. It is also under investigation for obstruction of justice during the period that concerns were mounting about their activities. The firm settled the investigation in December 2024, for a sum of $650 million and with conditions that it cannot market controlled substances for a period of five years. This agreement was filed in federal court in Abingdon, Virginia, with aims to resolve criminal charges which were brought up as part of the latest corporate prosecution concerning the marketing of addictive painkillers.

Rikers Island jail complex

New York City paid McKinsey $27.5 million between 2014 and 2017 to reduce prison assaults in Rikers Island; but the violence grew and the city abandoned many of the firm's recommendations.

The consultancy's alleged failings included not soliciting the views of inmates or clinic staff; using the encrypted messaging app Wickr that deletes messages, allegedly to avoid transparency; initiatives involving the expanded use of Tasers, shotguns and K9 patrol dogs; replacing troublesome inmates with more accommodating ones in the test area, which skewed the data in favor of the project; the use of ineffective data-analytics software; and spreadsheet errors that inflated the baseline rate of violence, against which the project was measured.

McKinsey advised New York City's Rikers Island jail complex and tested an anti-violence strategy named "Restart" which occurred in Rikers housing units. Jail administrators reported that the strategy resulted in violent crimes dropping more than 70% inside the Rikers housing units. Later, it was found that McKinsey consultants and jail officials rigged the program by grouping compliant inmates into the housing units, and that violent crimes including "slashings and stabbings" increased over 1000% from 2011 to 2016.

Fine for insider trading by investment affiliate

In February 2019, The New York Times ran a series of articles about McKinsey and the in-house hedge fund it operates – McKinsey Investment Office, or MIO Partners. The articles claimed that there was "potential for undisclosed conflicts of interest between the fund's investments and the advice the firm sells to clients", since the hedge fund could benefit from the inside knowledge obtained through management consulting services.

The firm responded that "MIO and McKinsey employ separate staffs. MIO staff have no nonpublic knowledge of McKinsey clients. For the vast majority of assets under management, decisions about specific investments are made by third-party managers".

In 2019, McKinsey paid the Justice Department $15 million from fees earned to settle allegations relating to failure to disclose potential conflict in three bankruptcy cases that the firm had advised. In 2021, MIO Partners, an affiliate of McKinsey & Co. that invests almost $31 billion of money on behalf of its employees, was fined $18 million by the US regulator, SEC. The SEC said some of the same people making investment decisions for MIO Partners were McKinsey & Co. employees who had visibility into confidential information for companies for which McKinsey was consulting. The SEC claimed that MIO Partners had advanced knowledge of upcoming mergers, bankruptcy, and financial results announcements for companies that the firm was consulting.

Accusations of conflicts of interest in US bankruptcies

In January 2022, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan revived a lawsuit against McKinsey & Co. filed by retired turnaround specialist Jay Alix, accusing the consulting firm of concealing potential conflicts when seeking permission from bankruptcy courts to perform lucrative work on corporate restructurings.

In July 2023, former Prima Wawona CEO Dan Gerawan filed a lawsuit alleging that the investment firm Paine Schwartz used Prima Wawona, then America's largest stone fruit producer, to create financial gain for McKinsey and that many of the Paine Schwartz employees were former McKinsey employees. The lawsuit alleges that in late 2020, Paine Schwartz hired McKinsey as consultants, without board approval, to make massive changes in Prima Wawona's operations. Thereafter, the company's performance deteriorated quickly, according to the suit. Moody's downgraded the company's outlook from "stable" to "negative." In October 2023, Prima Wawona filed for bankruptcy. McKinsey was the company's largest creditor, owed $8 million. The company was in default on $679 million in debt. Efforts to sell the company in bankruptcy failed. In January 2024, the company announced that it would liquidate, lay off all 5,400 employees, and sell off more than 13,000 acres of farmland.

Controversial clients and association with authoritarian regimes

Role in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

McKinsey stopped working for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after it was disclosed that the firm had done more than $20 million in consulting work for the agency. McKinsey managing partner Kevin Sneader said the contract, not widely known within the company until The New York Times reported it, had "rightly raised" concerns. In 2019, The New York Times and ProPublica reported on newly uncovered documents which showed that McKinsey, as part of its work with ICE, proposed cuts in spending on food and medical care for migrants. McKinsey also advocated for an acceleration of the deportation process, causing concerns among ICE staff that the due process rights of the migrants would be violated. Previously, McKinsey managing partner, Kevin Sneader, had claimed that McKinsey had done no work for ICE in terms of developing and implementing immigration policy; the uncovered documents showed that to be false.

Role in Saudi clampdown on dissidents

In October 2018, in the wake of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and journalist, The New York Times reported that McKinsey had identified the most prominent Saudi dissidents on Twitter and that the Saudi government subsequently repressed the dissidents and their families. One of the dissidents, Khalid al-Alkami, was arrested. Another dissident identified by McKinsey; Omar Abdulaziz in Canada, had two brothers imprisoned by the Saudi authorities, and his cell phone hacked. McKinsey issued a statement, saying "We are horrified by the possibility, however remote, that could have been misused. We have seen no evidence to suggest that it was misused, but we are urgently investigating how and with whom the document was shared." In December 2018, The New York Times reported that "the kingdom is a such a vital client for the firm—the source of nearly 600 projects from 2011 to 2016 alone—that McKinsey chose to participate in a major Saudi investment conference in October 2018 even after the killing and dismemberment of a Washington Post columnist by Saudi agents."

On February 12, 2019, the European Parliament Greens/EFA group presented a motion for a resolution on the situation on women's rights defenders in Saudi Arabia denouncing the involvement of foreign public relations companies in representing Saudi Arabia and handling its public image, particularly McKinsey & Company.

Saudi Arabian influence disclosure

In February 2024, McKinsey was questioned in court about possible violations of federal disclosure rules. The company, along with three other consulting firms, was accused of refusing to provide information about their work for Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and failing to disclose themselves as agents of the Saudi government. Representatives of the firms warned that their staff could face jail if they complied with the subpoenas, breaking strict rules imposed by Saudi Arabia on what information consulting firms can share with the US government.

Support of authoritarian regimes

McKinsey's business and policy support for authoritarian regimes came under scrutiny in December 2018, in the wake of a lavish company retreat in China held adjacent to Chinese government internment camps where thousands of Uyghurs were being detained without cause. In December 2021, NBC News reported McKinsey's connection to a manufacturing facility owned by DJI, a drone maker sanctioned by the United States Department of the Treasury for alleged complicity in aiding the persecution of Uyghurs in China. In the preceding few years, McKinsey's clients included Saudi Arabia's absolute monarchy, Turkey's autocratic leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ousted former president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, and several Chinese and Russian companies under sanctions.

China

In 2015, McKinsey's think tank, the Urban China Initiative, advised the Chinese government on its 13th five-year plan and its Made in China 2025 policy. As part of a project for China's National Development and Reform Commission, McKinsey's think tank advised the Chinese government to "deepen co-operation between business and the military and push foreign companies out of sensitive industries," according to a 2024 Financial Times report. In response, US legislators Marco Rubio and Michael McCaul stated that McKinsey had undermined US security and called for it to be banned from securing US federal government contracts. In October 2024, several US lawmakers called on the United States Department of Justice to investigate whether McKinsey misrepresented its work with Chinese government entities, including state-owned enterprises. On Octubre 18, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on the CCP reported that "McKinsey Equipped America's Foremost Adversary and Misrepresented Work for the Chinese Military Under Oath."

Work with Russian arms manufacturers

McKinsey is reported to have provided consulting services for the Russian state-owned enterprise Rostec, which is responsible for manufacturing missile engines used during Russia's war on Ukraine. According to January 2023 reporting from Die Zeit, McKinsey consultants would provide consulting services to Gazprom and Rostec while in Germany on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Defence. According to US Senator Maggie Hassan McKinsey has displayed a "pattern of behavior" that raised "grave concerns about conflicts of interest." McKinsey has also done work for Sberbank, VTB bank, Gazprom, and Rosneft, which are all closely tied to the Kremlin.

Government corruption scandals

South African corruption scandal

The Gupta family (no relation to Rajat Gupta) had strategically placed corrupted individuals in various South African government, utilities and infrastructure sectors. It is alleged that McKinsey was complicit in this corruption by using the Guptas to obtain consulting contracts from certain state-owned enterprises, including Eskom and Transnet. Working with Trillian Capital Partners (a consultancy which was owned by a Gupta associate), they provided services to the value of R1 billion ($75 million) annually. Trillian was paid a commission for facilitating the business for McKinsey. McKinsey hired law firm Norton Rose Fulbright to carry out an internal investigation over the allegations. McKinsey's then Managing Partner, Dominic Barton, issued a statement following an internal investigation, in which the firm "admitted that it found violations of its professional standards but denied any acts of bribery, corruption, and payments to Trillian."

Corruption Watch, a South African non-governmental organization, filed a complaint about the controversial contract to the US Department of Justice, alleging that there was a criminal conspiracy between McKinsey, Trillian and Eskom in contravention of US and South African law. It was revealed in January 2018 that criminal complaints were filed against McKinsey & Company by the South African Companies and Intellectual Property Commission. South African prosecutors confirmed that they would enforce the seizing of assets from McKinsey.

South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority concluded in early 2018 that the payments to McKinsey and its local business partner, Trillian, were illegal, involving crimes such as fraud, theft, corruption and money laundering. McKinsey had subsequently been in discussion with Eskom and the National Prosecuting Authority's Asset Forfeiture Unit to agree on a transparent, legally appropriate process for returning the R 1 billion (US$74M) it had been paid – it was confirmed on 6 July 2018 that this had been concluded. Eskom confirmed it received R99.5M in interest from McKinsey on July 23, 2018. The interest payment covers the two years since McKinsey was paid almost R 1bn in 2016.

Information relating to allegedly corrupt practices by McKinsey at Transnet in 2011 and 2012 came to light in late July 2018. The weekly Mail & Guardian newspaper reported that a "...new forensic treasury report shows how controversial former Transnet and Eskom chief financial officer Anoj Singh enjoyed overseas trips at the expense of international consulting firm McKinsey, which scored multi-billion rand contracts at the state owned entities." The "...report reiterates treasury's recommendations that Singh's conduct with regards to McKinsey should be referred to the elite crime-fighting unit, the Hawks, for investigations under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (Precca). Under Precca, Singh would be investigated for allegations of corruption as payment for the overseas trips alone would constitute a form of gratification, which is illegal." The Sunday City Press reported that the forensic report in turn reported that "multinational advisory firm McKinsey paid for Singh to go on lavish international trips to Dubai, Russia, Germany and the UK, after which their contract with Transnet was massively extended." McKinsey issued a statement that the allegations were incorrect. McKinsey stated that "based on an extensive review encompassing interviews, email records and expense documents, our understanding is that McKinsey did not pay for Mr. Singh's airfare and hotel lodgings in connection with the CFO Forum and the meetings that took place around the CFO Forum in London and elsewhere in 2012 and 2013." On 11 October 2019, the United States Treasury department announced that it had imposed wide-ranging financial sanctions on three Gupta brothers, Ajay, Atul and Rajesh (aka Tony) and their business associate Salim Essa under the United States Magnitsky Act.

The Economist reported in November 2019, that McKinsey's scandals, such as the 2016 South Africa scandal and the allegations of conflict of interest tied to its $12.7bn investment affiliate, McKinsey Investment Office (MIO), are relatively recent in terms of its long history. The article said that McKinsey's legal challenges facing McKinsey's new global managing partner, Kevin Sneader, may be related to the company's fast-paced growth with an increase of 2,200 partners compared to 2009. During that same time period, the number of employees increased to 30,000 worldwide from 17,000.

In 2020, McKinsey representatives giving testimony to the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture placed blame for the firm's involvement in the corruption scandal on former McKinsey partner, Vikas Sagar. During 2021 McKinsey & Co. agreed to repay R 870 million (US$63M) in fees to South African state logistics company Transnet SOC Ltd., seeking to distance itself from contracts linked to corruption allegations. In April 2022 the Zondo Commission recommended that key Eskom executives be criminally investigated for improperly awarding consulting contracts to McKinsey & Company.

South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority announced on Friday, 30 September 2022 that it had criminally charged both McKinsey South Africa and former McKinsey partner, Vikas Sagar, with fraud, corruption and theft related to a contract to advise Transnet on buying new locomotives.

In 2024, McKinsey was ordered to pay a $122 million criminal penalty (and enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement) to settle an investigation by the Justice Department and South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA); 50% of the penalty will be paid to South Africa (roughly R1.1 billion). McKinsey paid bribes to government officials in South Africa between 2012 and 2016.

French presidential corruption scandal

In December 2022, it was reported that the French National Financial Prosecutors' Office had raided the headquarters of President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance party and McKinsey's Paris office. The raids were related to probes into false election campaign accounting, as well as possible favouritism and conspiracy. The probe had been widened in October 2022 from an initial focus on McKinsey's taxes to include alleged underreporting of campaign consulting costs and allegations of favoritism. Even though the company had a turn over of €329 million, they did not pay any corporation taxes in France in a decade, according to the French senate. McKinsey consultants are alleged to have worked as unpaid volunteers on Macron's 2017 and 2022 election campaigns, in violation of French law. The firm is subsequently alleged to have benefitted from special access and favorable government treatment, including the awarding of lucrative government contracts. The French media has dubbed the scandal 'McKinsey Affair' or 'McKinseygate'. McKinsey is facing possible charges for corruption and tax fraud as a result of the investigation. In July 2023, the case was still pending.

Canadian government consulting scandal

A January 2023 investigative report by CBC News revealed that Justin Trudeau's government had spent at least $117.4 million on McKinsey consulting since coming to power, compared to $2.2 million spent by the prior government. All of those contracts were sole-source, according to documents obtained by Radio-Canada. Further investigative reporting identified at least $84 million in McKinsey consulting expenses between March 2021 and November 2022 alone.

According to anonymous sources with major roles at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), McKinsey is reported to have a particularly large and growing influence over Canadian immigration policy. Policy is reported to have been decided on without input from public servants, and with minimal consideration for the public interest. Canada's immigration targets have closely followed goals set in a plan by previous McKinsey head Dominic Barton, who outlined these plans in his 2016 report of the Advisory Council on Economic Growth and through his work with the Century Initiative. Both the report and the Century Initiative advocate for a steep increase in immigration to bring Canada's population to 100 million by 2100. According to one of the IRCC whistleblowers, the department was informed that Barton's report was a "foundational plan" in spite of reservations expressed by the then-immigration minister, John McCallum.

On January 10, 2023, Canadian opposition parties, including the Conservative Party of Canada, the New Democratic Party of Canada, and Bloc Quebecois, called for a parliamentary inquiry into federal contracts awarded to McKinsey. The opposition is demanding that the government disclose "contracts, conversations, records of work done, meetings held, text messages, email exchanges, everything that the government has with the company since taking office". McKinsey has thus far refused to answer CBC News questions regarding its role and agreements with the federal government, while the government has refused to provide copies of the company's reports. In response to the controversy, McKinsey issued a statement on its website indicating that it "welcomes the opportunity" to provide information to parliament, and that it "does not make policy recommendations on immigration or any other topic".

Trudeau asked fellow Liberal Party members Treasury Board President Mona Fortier and Procurement Minister Helena Jaczek to review the contracts return a final report. On 23 March 2023, the Treasury Board announced that audits had determined that departments did not consistently follow certain administrative rules and procedures, but that there was "broad compliance with values and ethics commitments." According to the Treasury Board, while the audits raised questions about fairness, transparency and conflicts of interest, no evidence was found of political direction in awarding the contracts.

Climate change

Climate action letter and AMC

In 2021, more than 1,100 McKinsey employees signed a letter calling out the firm for working with 43 of the 100 most polluting companies. According to The New York Times, these 43 clients alone were responsible for more than a third of the world's carbon emissions in 2018. The letter called on the firm to disclose how much carbon its clients emit. McKinsey executives said they would continue to advise major carbon polluters. Several employees resigned from the firm following the letter.

In April 2022, McKinsey, Alphabet Inc., Shopify, Meta Platforms, and Stripe, Inc. announced a $925 million advance market commitment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from companies that are developing CDR technology over the next 9 years.

2023 Africa Climate Summit

More than 400 civil society groups signed a letter of protest to Kenyan President William Ruto, accusing McKinsey of influencing the 2023 Africa Climate Summit. The letter claimed that the agenda for the summit, as proposed by McKinsey, "reflects the interests of the US, McKinsey and the Western corporations they represent." Leaked documents revealed that the consulting firm tried to push controversial carbon market schemes that would benefit its fossil fuel clients.

COP28

Further information: 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference

In 2023, an AFP investigation revealed in multiple leaked documents that McKinsey was using its position as primary advisor to COP28 hosts, the United Arab Emirates, to push the interest of its oil and gas clients (ExxonMobil and Aramco). McKinsey has been accused of putting its own interests ahead of the climate by sources involved in preparatory meetings for COP28. McKinsey's energy scenario for the COP28 presidency would allow for continued investment in fossil fuels, which would undermine the goals of the Paris Agreement; an "energy transition narrative" recommends oil use to be reduced by only 50% by 2050, and that trillions of dollars should continue to be invested in high-emission assets each year to at least 2050.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion

McKinsey & Company published several reports on business benefits of Diversity, equity, and inclusion. The reports were criticized as insufficiently investigating the difference between correlation and causality, lacking robustness, and overgeneralizing to broad claims.

Explanatory notes

  1. Some sources say he was hired in 1930, instead of 1929.
  2. Some sources say he was hired in 1932, while others say that they first met in 1932, but he was not hired until 1933.

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Further reading

  • Bogdanich, Walt; Forsythe, Michael (2022). When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 9780385546232. OCLC 1345467322.

External links

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