Pride comes before a fall
Tom Peters is as mad as hell.
The famous author (In Search of Excellence amongst others) and overall business guru recently issued a broad ranging attack on his old company, McKinsey & Co, in the Financial Times. He is ‘angry, disgusted and sickened’ by what McKinsey has become. Citing its involvement and fine of $600m fine for its role in the deadly US Opioid crisis. For good measure within the same article Peters advocates shutting down all ‘Business Schools’ for turning out the wrong type of leaders (good on numbers but hopeless on people and culture) and thinks the Milton Friedman doctrine of ‘maximising shareholder value’ is the root cause for the ills of many a company.
As is often the case within todays world, events have moved swiftly.
Yesterday, (24th February 2021) The Financial Times ran a full page story entitled “Is McKinsey losing its mystique” and questioned whether Kevin Sneader, the man picked as global managing partner in 2018, should have a second three year term.
24 hours later, the answer came lightening fast. No. Sneader is a dead duck.
The opioid litigation was not an isolated incident, coming hot on the heals about disquieting headlines about its work from South Africa to Saudi Arabia.
The consistent theme of the criticism is that the company has ditched its values and sense of purpose and it just focused on making as much money as possible. Profit before people and whatever it takes to achieve this. Shades of how the banks were behaving in the lead up to the Financial Armageddon of 2008.
Just like the Banks, the company culture (or lack of it) allied to greedy narcissistic leadership is the root cause of the problem.
This is at the heart of Tom Peter’s rant about his former alma mater. How McKinsey behaves today is not how McKinsey behaved when he worked there. He argues that it needs to get back it’s ‘moral responsibility of enterprise’.
Which is also why he is so animated about those who attend Business Schools, saying that McKinsey is full of high IQ MBA’s addicted to spread sheets who as I also argue in my book #thebusinesscaseforlove can read the numbers but struggle to read the room. Great at PowerPoints. Hopeless at people.
I have to say that I am delighted by the events at McKinsey. As I was at the ousting of Bill Michael at KPMG. As it shows there is no hiding place for dinosaur behaviour and it seems that those who run ‘Professional Services Companies’ maybe some of the last bastions of this approach.
Hopefully whoever becomes the next global leader will be out of denial and take McKinsey back to its roots. Back to a time when and from what I can understand it did have a moral compass and a sense of purpose which meant something rather than just empty words on their website. When it did have the mindset of creating memorable employee experiences which lead to memorable customer experiences. Actually living and believing what is written below.
Our purpose
To help create positive, enduring change in the world.
Our mission
To help our clients make distinctive, lasting, and substantial improvements in their performance and to build a great firm that attracts, develops, excites, and retains exceptional people.
Note that this does not say ‘make as much money from your clients as possible and for yourself...no matter how you do this’.
Pride comes before a fall.
The question is how much further has McKinsey’s reputation to fall.
For those who are interested, my book #thebusinesscaseforlove is now available both as an e-book and a hardback. In it I write about ’best in class’ company and leadership behaviours which I believe are relevant to the challenges of today.
It can be downloaded via #amazon #PalgraveMacmillan and #SpringerNature
?A sample is available on Amazon and a sample of each chapter is available through Palgrave and Springer.
The hardback is now available through Amazon, Palgrave Macmillan Springer Nature and now The Bookshop, supporting local bookstores.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Business-Case-Love-Companies-Bragged/dp/3030364259
https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9783030364250
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-36426-7
? Global Transformational CEO ? Managing Director ? Turnaround & Restructuring Expert ? Driving Sustainable Growth & Operational Excellence
4 年Interesting read Marc and to some extent, I do agree with your overall approach. Perhaps a good example of a large corporate losing its way - pretty common over the years? It will need someone very brave to make the changes necessary within your article, and a very supportive set of shareholders/stakeholders to support a significant change in values, morality and purpose - reflecting what the modern business world needs post-Covid
John Koch thank you for taking the time to comment and for the link. Actually I was quoting Tom Peter’s view about Milton Friedman although my own view is not far off! Just by focussing on the number (profit) often leads to bad behaviours whereas the companies who are largely winning today go the other way around. Clear about what they stand for and what makes them different and working hard on both the employee and customer experience. Get that right and that leads to sustainable growth and of course profit. This is what I write about in #thebusinesscaseforlove
Strategic Account Manager | Red Team Leader | Sales Professional
4 年I agree with the overall point of your article, its a very good point! But I don't agree with a statement you made in your article blaming Milton Friedman somehow. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-09-18/milton-friedman-was-right-about-shareholder-capitalism