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In Teams...
Most of our work is done in teams. We believe that teamwork is the most effective way of combining and leveraging the diverse knowledge of our people. In order to provide the best mix of people for a given assignment, offices frequently exchange consultants. Nearly 20 percent of our work is performed by consultants loaned by one office to another.
Business analysts and associates form the core members of all teams. These members are responsible for analysis of concrete portions of the engagement. Each team is led by an engagement manager who drives the problem solving, plans and manages the day-to-day assignments, and assumes responsibility for the quality of the final result. The overall leadership of the engagement is handled by an engagement director. This senior consultant guides, in a more general sense, the direction the team is taking and manages the relationship between McKinsey and the client. Industry experts are brought in as needed to lend specific knowledge and insight to the team. Last but certainly not least, key people from the client organization are invaluable members of every engagement team.
During any engagement, the team will pass through and repeat a series of specific phases, testing and retesting ideas until it has a solid, fact-based conclusion: formulating and testing hypotheses, gathering and analyzing information, developing and communicating recommendations, and preparing for implementation of accepted recommendations. At any point in the engagement, the team may call on the support of production team assistants, communications specialists, and research and information specialists. This group of professionals helps the teams to produce high-quality presentations, communicate in an effective manner, and access a wide array of information.
... With a Focus on Getting Results ...
Our core values signify our complete dedication to the client. Before accepting an assignment, we must believe strongly that we can provide significant benefits and impact to the client and that there are no unscalable barriers to achieving these benefits. If at any time the client decides that the expected benefits are not likely to be achieved, he or she is free to terminate the engagement. Likewise, we want to be free to withdraw from an assignment should circumstances arise which, in our judgment, make the objectives unattainable.
Common goals
We work as closely as possible with key members of the client's organization. We try to build consensus at all levels regarding the nature and importance of the problems under study, alternative ways of solving them, and the pace at which changes should be made. This approach provides natural opportunities for building understanding, acceptance, and support for recommendations.
Collaboration
We seek to solve problems together with our clients. Our efforts are collaborative, leveraging clients' knowledge of their business with our problem-solving and functional knowledge skills. Whenever appropriate, we ask that client personnel be made available to work with us as full- or part-time members of the engagement team. In our experience, important benefits result from this approach. First of all, the productivity of our consultants is multiplied and costs to the client are reduced, especially in the fact-finding phase of the engagement. Second, the commitment fostered by client personnel who take an active part enhances the likelihood of effective implementation. Finally, the training received by client personnel can be of future value, particularly when the engagement is one that might subsequently be applied to other units of the organization. For all these reasons, we have endeavored to perfect this participatory arrangement without losing our independence – one of the most important benefits we bring to a client.
Follow-through
We do not consider our work complete unless we have helped the client take the necessary, cost-effective steps to ensure real change and impact. Usually this means some level of involvement in implementing the team's recommendations. This begins when we develop a detailed plan and timetable. Beyond that, our participation varies according to need. For example, it might be limited to a part-time program monitoring the progress and results achieved by the client's personnel. Where more extensive involvement on our part is appropriate, we might coach client personnel, or help to form and assist client implementation teams. We may even pilot-test, model, or otherwise simulate new approaches, processes, and organizational arrangements.
Confidentiality
We have strict policies and practices regarding the confidentiality of our clients' private information and any individual opinions expressed on sensitive issues. We understand that our clients trust us with highly sensitive information and we respect that trust by refusing to discuss any aspect of a client engagement, including the name of the client.
... And Learning from Each Other
Anticipating our clients’ issues and opportunities so that we can generate timely, pragmatic recommendations means that our consultants must have access to the most up-to-date industry best practices. In order to ensure this, McKinsey dedicates significant resources to building and maintaining an information network that can be accessed by all members of the firm. Aside from the knowledge that consultants regularly codify onto our firm’s intranet, we also publish the McKinsey Quarterly which distills the learnings from recent engagements (taking care to preserve confidentiality); lastly we have established a think tank called the McKinsey Global Institute which conducts research on critical economic issues that are relevant to our clients worldwide. Over the years McKinsey has gained the reputation as a thought leader in business and our views are often featured in the the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, the Financial Times, as well as many non-English management journals. Locally, we have been featured in many of the top journals, including Hospodárske noviny, Ekonom, and Euro.
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