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Our best ideas, quick and curated | November 20, 2020
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image of a fish
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Down on the fish farm
If you’ve ever wondered what McKinsey consultants do all day, you’re not alone. Basically, we solve problems, like how to improve education, address climate change, or design new products. We recently wrote this interactive story to show kids (and adults!) an example of an interesting problem we recently helped solve.
It all started in a beautiful coastal region of Latin America, where aquaculture farms raise fish. Unlike farmed land animals, farmed fish are more difficult to monitor because they exist in larger numbers and grow at varied rates depending on their environment. Local farmers found fish tracking to be especially troublesome when deciding how much fish food to buy. A regional fish-food provider—McKinsey’s soon-to-be client—noticed this challenge. The food company wanted to be a better business partner to fish farmers by better estimating the necessary amount of food each aquafarm needed in a more customized way. Cue McKinsey.
While McKinsey is filled with all kinds of experts, from scientists to economists to writers, every expert has their own specialization. This ensures that each unique project is staffed with consultants that are best suited to the area of work. For this particular fish-farming engagement, a McKinsey team assembled experts in agriculture, business operations, sustainability, analytics, and more.
McKinsey consultants pooled their expertise to build an analytics model that could measure factors that influence fish eating habits like size, weight, and water temperature. This model would allow the client, the fish-food company, to do more than just sell food: the company could now provide accurate and customized estimates for how much food each aquafarm should purchase. After the model’s implementation, fish farmers saved money and eliminated waste, and McKinsey’s client saw increased revenues. Check out how the work—and the fish—flowed here.
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— Edited by Caroline Dudlak
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