Customer Reviews

The McKinsey Way

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

Being a management consultant myself - I found the book to be relevant but not too detailed. For instance, there should be more examples of the first 3 principles : fact based, structure of problem solving and hypothesis driven. Albeit this, it is an easy-to-read book and it does outline the pains and gains of a consultant's life with particular spotlight on the McKinsey and Co, which is undoubtedly an impressive firm. It is a great book for the uninitiated who wants to catch a glimpse at McKinsey - but it may not be as useful to insight-searching-people who have been in the industry for some time (or managers in that sense).

I read this book this afternoon (big print, wide spacing).

The author describes the 80-20 pattern often found in work & life (a phenomenon already familiar to most by which 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients, 80% of your time is spent on 20% of your to-do list, etc.)

The author demonstrates this chestnut with a book that is 20% useful and fresh and 80% no-brainer advice and shameless McKinsey advertising (we are CONSTANTLY reminded of how smart and ethical all those McKinsey consultants are; all consulting anecdotes have happy endings - unless the client screwed up; real quotes: "As any good McKinsey associate would, this young man applied himself tirelessly and diligently to his task", or "Hank knew his area of the bank inside and out and was probably as smart as any member of the McKinsey team"... high praise indeed.) McKinsey's approving editors have all the subtly of China's Xinhua propaganda agency. Trouble is: many of us know people at McKinsey...

Still, the 'waterfall' chart is among the 20% that make this book worth perusing (but not buying).

This effort was a great disappointment. I picked it up hoping to find a succinct, high-value description of the Firm's proprietary approach to share with colleagues; instead I found an overwrought, verbose set of cliches, factoids, and frameworks that, at best, only superfically discuss the McKinsey way. (How important is it to know that one McKinseyite considered it vitally important to carry Coca-Cola with him on every engagement?) Rasiel packs no more than three pages of the actual "McKinsey way" into 187 pages. Light on substance and heavy on trite, generic general advice, it is difficult to believe that someone who actually worked for the Firm could deliver such a dubious effort. (Perhaps this book gives insight into why the author lasted the minimum two years at McKinsey.) To be fair, the book does offer some insight into the way the Firm works (e.g., the Rule of Threes, engagement work planning, interviewing, etc.). If you are looking for a comprehensive, informed treatment in this area, I recommend "Client-Centered Consulting."

If your looking for specific case studies or a "drilled down" discussion, you generally will not find it with this book. It does, however, give some good general guidelines for conducting research, problem solving, presenting, and client interaction. As with most general or somewhat abstract models, this book provides general principles that can be applied specifically to your current situation. For example, the processes involved in data collection, brainstorming, issue analysis, hypothesis construction, etc., can be applied to any topic in any area. I found the writing style easy to read and concise, with minimal amounts of obfuscation. Basically, it seems to me, the bedrock of the Mckinsey way is long hours, data distillation, and thorough and exhausive data collection. All told, I found it a worthwhile read.

McKinsey has quite a reputation as a consultancy company, and I had hoped to be impressed by perhaps a great new insight or some extensive examples. Although a lot of tips are given to improve your performance as a consultant, explanations are not always clear and little background is provided. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that - of course - no real world project of McK's clients could be used as an example. The cases that are presented are not very detailed - it must be hard to come up with good and detailed case material. Often I had the idea, that the chapter (or subject) was already over by the time I just got interested. As in the chapter on putting project teams together: the author tells you that you cannot just put any group of people together, but then fails to analyse this a bit, or provide some good example of what might go wrong otherwise. And in the rare case of a detailed example, the author is not always clear. For example: the author stresses the importance of making good charts for presentations, and actually introduces a new type of chart (this much is obvious). However, I could not follow his explanation of the chart, so now I'm left with no more than a rough idea of what is meant. So, the book contains the right issues, but there it stops.

If I could have given it a zero, I would have. I've worked for McKinsey for the past twelve years, and I was stunned at the lack of insight in this book. Even the few observations the author got right are out of date, as the Firm has changed quite a bit in the past few years and this author left McKinsey quite a while ago. I can't imagine how he ever sold this one to a publisher. Vaporware.

McKinsey & Company is a world-famous strategic consulting company, also known as "The Firm". Ethan Rasiel worked at McKinsey & Co. for several years and provides a quick, clear introduction into management consulting firm's problem solving methods. "I wrote this book with the goal of communicating new and useful skills to everyone who wants to be more efficient and effective in business. ... In addition, this book will give any executive woho works with management consultants, whether McKinsey or elsewhere, some insight into how these strange beings think."

The book is split up into five parts. In Part I, Ethan Rasiel explains the McKinsey-way of thinking about business problems. The author explains that the solution of the problem needs to be fact-based (facts are friendly), rigidly structured (MECE = mutually exclusive), and hypothesis-driven (solve the problem at the first meeting - the initial hypothesis). In addition, the author explains how McKinsey-ites approach business problems and apply the McKinsey problem-solving process to maximum effect. There is also a short introduction into a number of rules which McKinsey-consultants use for problem-solving purposes: the 80/20-rule, find the key drivers, the elevator test - sell in 30 seconds, make a chart every day, look at the big picture, say "I don't know", and don't accept "I have no idea".

In Part II, the author introduces the McKinsey-way of working to solve business problems. The author explains the selling process at McKinsey (the Firm does not sell, it markets), how to structure an engagement, and assembling of a team. Then the author comes to the most important part of the book, doing research, conducting interviews (the author insists on reading Chapter 8 - Conducting Interviews - "If you read no other chapter of the book from start to finish, read this one."), and brainstorming.

In Part III, the author, and the McKinsey-way of selling solutions. This part discusses the way McKinsey makes presentations, which is one of the strongest parts of McKinsey according to the author, displays data with charts (read Gene Zelazny (1985), 'Say it with Charts'), and the way to work with clients.

In Part IV, Rasiel gives some lessons how "McKinsey-ites" have learned for coping with the stresses of life at the Firm, and in Part V, the author recounts the lessons he learned at McKinsey and shares memories of various ex-McKinsey-ites. Both Part IV and V are 'a waste of paper' in comparison to the first three parts, but gives a little insight into what goes on behind the scenes at McKinsey & Co.

Yes, I can understand that some readers are disappointed by this book as it gives just an introduction into management consultancy (and McKinsey & Co). The author introduces the various problem-solving methods and tools, but does not discuss them in great detail. The author has responded to these criticisms by publishing The McKinsey Mind in 2002, which addresses this issue somewhat. However, for more details on the problem-solving methods and tools you will still have to read some other literature. I recommend you purchase The McKinsey Way if you want an introduction into management consultancy, and The McKinsey Mind if you want an introduction into problem-solving methods and tools.

Like the firm itself, the draw of this book is the McKinsey name, and the perception that they *must* know something special. Content-wise you could do better with the user manual for your HP 12C calculator. If the book serves any useful purpose it's to strip a little more of the paint off the McKinsey facade. Read it, but check it out from the library because there's nothing in it you will want to reference later.

This book has some wonderful ideas and concepts.One should read the book if he/she wants to know about any of the following:

*Elevator Test

*Waterfall Model

*How to make a successful presentation?

*Do you want a McKinsey Life,Approach?

*McKinsey recruiting style(more personal experience in this book,if you want a better one try vault.com)

*How to maintain sanity while travelling on business assignments?

*How to organise yourself better in the 24 hrs of a day?

*What is the importance of simplicity in presentations?

*How to handle people in a team if you are a team leader/working for a client/if you are part of a team?(Mind it concepts discusssed range from arm-twisting,politics,factionalism,corporate kicks and jabs,carrot and stick theory etc etc.)

*Mentoring and its usefulness.

*How to survive at McKinsey if you plan to be in there and kicking after the first couple of years?

****This book is not about management consultancy and Ethan Rasiel is not trying to teach it in this book.He talks about the way things are at McKinsey and how somebody can adapt to it/use those principles in his working life.*******

########This book is about life in the topmost management consultancy firm of the world and is the ultimate insider to an employee's life in it#########

The McKinsey Way by Ethan M. Rasiel is a very easy-to-read, somewhat informative, but ultimately uninsightful book. I think persons interested in the consulting industry would benefit the most from this book. Nevertheless, as a business book in a general sense, most of the material is rather fundamental. In other words, if you purchase this book, I would caution against doing so with lofty expectations.

MECE
When the folks at McKinsey examine a problem their client is having, they develop a Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive list of issues to bring clarity to the problem under their analysis. The MECE list is to be concise, intelligible, and generally contain no more than three items.


ELEVATOR TEST
As a general rule, whether you're finding conclusions for a client or generating proposals for a new project, you want to employ the elevator test. The elevator test is simply the ability of being so prepared and thoroughly researched that you can explain yourself and your position comprehensively in thirty seconds. I think in business there is a lot of truth to this elevator test.


TEAMS
I think the author appropriately emphasizes the importance of team bonding with dinners, movies, ballgames, and so forth. I think the reason why McKinsey functions so effectively as an organization is that its teams function exceptionally well, and that is perhaps a result of the numerous bonding opportunities on the company's dollar.


CONDUCTING INTERVIEWS
I actually found the section on how to conduct interviews to be fairly useful. If you are a researcher, perhaps even a journalist, and a portion of your job involves conducting interviews, I do not think you would waste your time reading this section in the book. However, read it closely.


WHY THREE STARS?
I believe many of the ideas presented for the reader's applications, as typical with consultants, are idealistic. That is, the methods and procedures covered in the book are not always feasible or pratical for an organization to implement. Furthermore, the book did not provide the insights I was perhaps looking about the company. I think, one perhaps would hope, the author had a lot more information he could have provided his readers. I think the author actually hints at the above point. Furthermore, I think some advice is actually harmful, particularly on achieving work and life balance with taking work from the office to the home with you.


CONCLUSION
If you are a consultant, considering becoming a consultant, or plan to hire a consultant I think you might find this book to be of some value to have a concept of the processes involved in the consulting business. However, if you are looking for insights into McKinsey or ideas to improve your business, I am not confident that The McKinsey Way will be adequate.