The McKinsey Way - Ethan M. Rasiel

Using the Techniques of the World’s Top Strategic Consultants to Help You and Your Business

The McKinsey Way is a book by Ethan M. Rasiel

Ethan, a former consultant at McKinsey, explains how things work at McKinsey and try to explain how we can integrate some of the principles of the world’s most successful strategic consulting firm and integrate them into our daily lives and businesses.

Although the book is divided into five parts, only the first four seemed relevant to me, and they explain how McKinsey-ites think about business problems and how they work at solving them.

Parts One to Three are an essential part of the book, while the fourth one is about how to survive in a tough corporate job from the PoV of a consultant.

Part One: McKinsey Way of thinking about business problems

1.    Building the solution

Solutions need to be fact-based, with a rigid structure and Hypothesis-driven

• Facts are the basic building blocks
• MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collective Exhaustive) solutions
• Initial Hypothesis – start addressing the problem at hand with an initial hypothesis which may not be the best solution but will give an initial start

                                                             i.     Define Hypothesis

                                                          ii.     Generate Hypothesis

                                                        iii.     Test hypothesis

2.    Developing an Approach

• Problem is not always the Problem - The Problem might be more profound than what might appear on the surface
• Don’t reinvent the wheel (Part 1) – Try to find people who’ve faced similar problems in the past to get a start
• Every Problem is unique
• Don’t make the facts fit your solution
• Solution should fit the client
• Sometimes you have to let the solution come to you -  Don’t get stuck with the same Problem instead give enough time to come up with novel solutions
• Some problems you just can’t solve…. Solve them anyway – Some problems might not have any right solution but having a solution is better than no solution

3.    Pareto principle and other rules

• 80/20 rule is applicable everywhere just find it
• Don’t boil the ocean – Don’t overdo things beyond what’s necessary
• Find key drivers
• Elevator test (Pitch)
• Pluck the low hanging fruits – small wins would give a morale boost both to the team as well as the client
• Make a chart everyday – Write or sketch the everyday progress
• Hit Singles – Try to make continuous progress in small increments rather than try to be a superstar
• Look at the big picture – Once in a while take a step back to see if you’re going in the right direction
• Just say, “I don’t know” - Be honest when you don’t know something
• Don’t Accept “I have no Idea” – When trying to find a solution for something and interviewing someone regarding that don’t accept no idea for an answer try to squeeze whatever information you can get by making the other party feel comfortable

Part Two: McKinsey Way of working to solve a business problem

4.    Selling a study

• How to sell without selling 
• Be careful what you promise: Structuring an engagement

5.    Assembling a team

• Getting the right mix – find people with the right set of skills required for the project
• A little team bonding goes a long way - team bonding doesn’t mean team lunches or outings instead it means concern and care for each other and rapport
• Maintain the team’s morale

6.    Managing Hierarchy

• Make your boss look good – keep your boss happy and updated with the status, sometimes they might not give you enough credit for your work in front of their bosses, but that’d still keep you in their good books
• Aggressive strategy to manage hierarchy – if you’re someone who can take the risk, you can try and establish your place

7.    Doing Research

• Don’t reinvent the wheel (Part 2) – Ask someone who knows
• Specific research tips – Start with company’s annual reports first (especially chairman’s remarks), look for outliers, look for best practices

8.    Conducting Interviews (client interviews)

• Be Prepared – write an interview guide

                                                             i.     What questions need answers

                                                          ii.     What do we need from this interview?

• When conducting interviews, listen and guide
• Seven steps for successful interviewing

                                                             i.     Have interviewee’s boss set up the meeting

                                                          ii.     Interview in pairs

                                                        iii.     Listen, don’t lead

                                                        iv.     Paraphrase…. Paraphrase

                                                          v.     Use an indirect approach

                                                        vi.     Don’t ask too much

                                                      vii.     Adopt Colombo tactic

• Don’t intimidate the interviewee
• Difficult interviews – train for meetings where the interviewee is uncooperative
• Always write a thank you note

9.    Brainstorming

•  Proper prior preparation – read all the facts and details of the case before the session
• In a white room (leave all preconceptions behind)

                                                             i.     There are no bad ideas

                                                          ii.     There are no dumb questions

                                                        iii.     Be prepared to kill your ideas

                                                        iv.     Know when to say when

                                                          v.     Get it down on paper

• Some brainstorming exercises

                                                             i.     The post-it exercise

                                                          ii.     The flip chart exercise

                                                        iii.     Bellyaches upfront (ask the client to discuss all the negative aspects of the proposed solution first, then ask to discuss the positive aspects)

Part Three: McKinsey Way of Selling Solutions

10.  Making Presentations

• Be Structured
• Remember that there are diminishing marginal returns to effort
• Prewire everything

11. Display Data with charts

• Keep it simple – One message per chart
• Use waterfall chart to show flow

12.  Managing Internal communication

• Keep the information flowing – keep the team up-to-date on the progress
• Three keys to an effective message

                                                             i.     Brevity

                                                          ii.     Thoroughness

                                                        iii.     Structure

• Always maintain confidentiality

13. Working with clients

• Keep the client team on your side – Don’t give the client team surprises instead take them into confidence while developing the solutions
• How to deal with liability client team members – Identify the trouble makers in the client organization and try to calm them
•  Engage the client in the process
• Get buy-in throughout the organization
• Be rigorous about the implementation

Part Four: Surviving at McKinsey

14. Find your mentor – need not necessarily be the one assigned by the organization

15. Surviving on the road

16. Taking three thigs wherever you go

• Clothing
• Tools
• Personal care
• Organizing
• Diversions

For those who want to read the book in pdf format for free, please find the link below https://www.mobt3ath.com/uplode/book/book-21316.pdf