Book Summary: McKinsey's Marvin Bower

1.     Meaning in life comes from two sources (a) applying one’s skills to challenging tasks, physical or mental, and (b) interacting with others leading to love and/or respect.

• Do not make money the focus of your life
• Have a vision for where you want to be in 10 years and, importantly, know why being in that place will make you feel good

2.     Put the client’s interests first and separate yourself from the job

• Serve clients exceptionally well over an extended period
• Take your job, not yourself, seriously
• Adhere to strict ethics / integrity (and being willing to turn down assignments that violate them)
• Do not make financial objectives part of primary business goals; instead, focus first and foremost on how to serve clients more effectively
• Manage expenses carefully, acting as if it is your own money you are spending (not the firm’s or the client’s)

3.     Be consistent yet open-minded

• Learn continually
• Avoid hasty decisions
• Be willing to try new things

4.     Shared, fact-based problem solving approach

• Center problem solving on the facts from the front line
• Encourage the flow of information from the front-line to management; listen respectfully to people from all walks of life
• Consider industry trends, competitive position, economic factors, political factors, social factors; “The success of any enterprise requires that it be kept effectively responsive to its environment”
• Diagnose before choosing problems to solve; “The most frequent cause of failures in business is not people who answered the right questions incorrectly, but people who answered the wrong questions correctly."
• Recognize that few problems can be solved within a single department
• Blend men and women on every team
• Develop alternative solutions (MECE = mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive)
• Build support for recommendations, especially controversial ones, before pitching to senior decision makers
• Pressure test the viability of recommendations under various scenarios
• Perfect interview guides

5.     View problems and decisions in the context of the whole and in terms of the immediate actions to be taken (action orientation)

• Ask: How does any problem fit into the big picture?
• Ask: How will decisions be factored into action plans?
• Ensure client ownership of recommendations to ensure adoption
• Determine procedures for carrying out decisions
• Break required action into simple parts, putting first things first
• Set a completion time or date and work backwards to get starting dates and proper timing.
• See that every individual understands what he/she is to do and why and that he/she is capable of doing it. Establish reasonable criteria for satisfactory performance.
• Follow up to eliminate difficulties and see that the decision is carried out.

6.     Communicate the values of the company over and over again to ensure that people in the firm will understand them, embrace them, and translate them into action

• Never pass up the opportunity to share stories of values in action and to celebrate success
• Take swift and decisive action when values are violated.
• Have an obligation to dissent/be candid (with colleagues and clients)
• Use the following language (a) clients not customers (b) firm not company or business (c) profession not an industry (d) colleagues or members not employees (e) values not rules
• Work to eliminate hierarchy and to promote one-firmness; interact on a first-name basis; No “bosses”
• Write out principles and guides (not “policies” in order to leave room for judgement in exceptional circumstances)
• Exercise humility; a true leader does not call himself/herself a leader
• Walk the walk
• Be persuasive (when you have conviction)
• Admit when you don’t know something or when you make a mistake
• Give back to your (local) community
• Avoid office politics including but not limited to: sucking up to superiors; undermining peers; & bullying subordinates; basically, treat others with respect & dignity

7.     Invest in the firm’s longevity, brand, and reputation

• Avoid advertising
• Work for CEOs of prestigious clients on their top strategic problems (and being willing to turn down assignments when not the case)
• Invest in thought leadership via (a) articles on organizational and financial issues target customers are currently struggling with, (b) speeches, (c) socializing with prospects
• Separate people with support & dignity (whether they resign or are terminated) with the expectation that a lifelong relationship will follow
• Charge value-based fees rather than cost-based fees and ensure clients feel the fees are reasonable
• Have an “unauffallig” dress code – to be a unnoticeable as possible when interacting with clients (i.e. to blend in); it is also a sign of respect and parity
• Apply globally consistent visual design and structure to reports
• Partner with other elite brands (ex: Columbia Lecture Series; HBR article award)
• Launched the McKinsey Foundation for Management Research
• On succession: The old CEO ought to go away, and if the new CEO has a question, he can call him or have lunch with him
• Be adaptable to a changing world (so remain trained, educated, and alert)

8.     Regenerate leadership

• People are a company’s most important asset
• Hire people who are good enough to succeed you
• Attract, hire, train, and acculturate top students with strong analytical skills, common sense, curiosity, and imagination from elite colleges who will become the future leaders of the firm (rather than experienced experts); invest heavily in training; have the senior leaders do the teaching (at least for the initial sessions)
• Enforce highly distributed firm ownership (no individual with > 5%)
• Re-elect the firm’s managing director every 3 years; limit the number of terms one person could hold the office
• Develop leaders by (a) providing opportunities with the real weight of supervisory or executive responsibility (b) coaching by immediate supervisors (c) immersion in the atmosphere of a well-run business
• Leadership is not control
• Encourage different roles/styles: jet engine to provide momentum (Marvin Bower); flaps to slow things down (Everett Smith); gyroscope to prevent crashes (Alex Smith); navigator to provide vision (Gil);control tower to provide conscience (Zip Reilley)
• Provide instant feedback
• Provide your best personnel to other offices as they are established or need strengthening
• Establish an up-or-out policy that is a true meritocracy using a standard evaluation and feedback system
• Help people feel good about themselves by providing recognition and acknowledgement of others’ ideas and successes; dedicate at least 30 minutes each month to writing notes to 5 to 10 junior people
• Decide which leadership style to apply given the readiness (skill & will) level of an employee on a particular task/project
• Practice delegation