Rebecca

Engagement Manager

I was an entrepreneur before I joined McKinsey. I started a company that specialized in putting broadcast video on the Internet, ran it for several years and sold it to a broadcast technology manufacturer. I had met the head of the Hi Tech Practice at McKinsey, and one day we went for lunch and he said, “Maybe you want to come to McKinsey.” At that point, I thought, “Well, I could go to business school or I could go to McKinsey.” But I learn a lot better by doing, so that’s how I wound up here.

Working with incredibly talented people

I was surprised by the huge impact it had on me to be working with such an incredibly talented group of smart people. I had always been around people I was thrilled to be working with, but there’s something about my colleagues at McKinsey—you walk in a room and you think, “Wow! I am sitting at a table with an astrophysicist from Stanford.” It brings everything to another level of challenge—not only keeping up with my own expectations, but keeping up with the expectations of people like that. How invigorating that was actually surprised me.

You find passionate people in media companies. They love television or socially minded media—they have a passion for the very thing they’ve wanted to be in since they were born. And that can be very inspiring. That’s what it’s like at McKinsey—you find people who love solving problems. And I’ve discovered that I also love solving problems, and being surrounded by people who are so adept at it. To be able to couple that with some of my other passions, like media—and use those skills to help my clients with their passions—it’s just phenomenal.

McKinsey provides skills entrepreneurs need

I remember that during my first year as an associate I would sort of hit myself on the forehead and think, “If only I had known this, when I was an independent entrepreneur.” When I ran my own company, I had to deal with a very rapidly changing market environment and really big changes in technology. It was pretty overwhelming. I think if I had more of the McKinsey sort of structure and confidence to break down problems and understand what I needed to do in the past, I would have been much more successful.

Finding an unexpected passion for operations

Something that was totally out of my expectations was my training in manufacturing and lean operations. I did a month-long training on lean manufacturing techniques—that’s essentially the Toyota engineering process—and as part of it I was literally dropped into a factory that makes couplings for tractors, where a McKinsey partner and I had a week to fix a bottleneck in part of their production line. That was such a different kind of experience—it was extraordinary! And now I’m affiliated with our Operations Practice.

Finding time to write

I still like to write and do it when I can. I’ve written some screenplays and had various freelancing journalist moments. I actually just wound up writing an article for McKinsey about using lean production techniques to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of creative activities.