McKINSEY AND COMPANY CASE STUDY

McKinsey and company was founded by James O McKinsey in 1926 in Chicago. A variety of

reasons have enabled the company sail forward. It includes factors such as early deep

commitment to consultation business, high sense of professionalism and their divergent

knowledge management that has helped the company retain its employee as well as train their

new employees. The unique sense of competitive advantage developed by both McKinsey and

Bower was the “one-fire” concept put in place by Bower. The system put in place a centralized

shared belief system that enabled the company build a formidable inside capacity. This helped

the company avoid fragmentation of offices and services thus become a source of competitive

advantage over other firms. The effectiveness of Ron Daniel after he became the company

Managing Director in 1976 after the commission on firm aims and goals published its findings in

1971 was strong. His response such as appointing the firms productive directors to be the head of

internal training led to changes based on structural industrial changes that benefited the company

more. Fred Gluck made contributions to the required changes by creating company infrastructure

that gave them a sustainable competitive advantage. He brought systems such as a data system
that transformed knowledge throughout the company. The two decade long change process has

been effective because the company has developed system networking and has become a top

consulting firm. Rajat Gupta's "four-pronged" approach to knowledge development and

application within McKinsey has been effective because it has enhanced knowledge management

and retention. The specific advice would be to incorporate the approach with technology such as

computer database system to enhance the circulation of knowledge in the company.

References

Farmer, R. (2002). McKinsey & Company. In Management Consultancy (pp. 181-184). Palgrave
Macmillan UK.
Bartlett, C. A. (2006). Mckinsey & Company: Managing knowledge and learning. Harvard
Business School.

O'Shea, J. E., & Madigan, C. (1997). Dangerous company: The consulting powerhouses and the
businesses they save and ruin. Times Books.