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CASE ANALYSIS

McKinsey & Company :


Management Knowledge and Learning
Background
• James O. McKinsey founded McKinsey in 1926,.
• 75 years later, the firm has grown into a global
partnership serving three of the world's five
largest companies and two-thirds of the Fortune
1000.
• "management engineers" --rescuing sick
companies to helping healthy companies thrive
and grow.
who they are..
• the trusted advisor and counselor
to many of the most influential
businesses and institutions in the
world.
• problem solvers with a passion for
excellence.
• don’t regard individuals based on
their title, but their competence
and leadership.
• come from all over the world, with
rich experience and all kinds of
backgrounds and areas of
expertise.
Q 1:
How was this little firm of ‘accounting and
engineering advisors’ able to grow into
the world’s most prestigious consulting
firm 50 years later ?
What was the unique source of
competitive advantage developed by
James O. Mckinsey and later Marvin
Bower ?
• The company had experienced expansion into a
global market and many changes in
management and structure.
• Recruited experienced executives and
professional consultants .
• The company was staffed by professionals with
different levels of authority ,and the consultants
worked within a matrix arrangement with a
professional core.
• All McKinsey managers participating in the
development of the strategic plan and cascading
the goals and objectives throughout the firm the
positive impact of management by objectives
• Decentralizing the centers –15 centers
[“practice leadership” ]
James O. Marvin Bower

• Recruited experienced • Focused on issue of


executives and trained importance to top-level
them on an integrated management
approached he coined as • ‘People development is
the General Survey company's primary
Outline purpose’--professionals
• Undeviating sequence of trained and motivated to
analysis -goals, strategy, do outstanding work
policies, organization, • Client benefits must be
facilities, procedures & more important than
personnel those of the firm.
• Freestyle of training
--synthesize data &
independent thinking
Q2:
How effective was Ron Daniel in
leading Mckinsey to respond to
challenges identified in the
commission on firm Aims and
goals?
What contribution did Fred Gluck
make to the required changes?
• Daniel appoints one of firm’s partners to
be the full-time director of training.
• Improve consultants’ skills and expertise.
• Created industry-based clientele sectors in
different functions, and cut some
geographic offices that remained the
primary organizational entity.
• Leverage the firm’s functional expertise,
especially for strategy and organization
sectors.
Fred Gluck’s contributions
1.Centers of Competence
--created 15 Centers of Competence, which can
help consultants and to ensure the renewal of
the intellectual resources for the firm.
2.Knowledge Infrastructure
--knowledge management project
• build a common database of knowledge accumulated from clients
work and developed in the practice area
• hire a full time coordinator.
• create a career path for deep functional specialists
3.Create a Client Impact Committee
Q3:
Judging by the evidence in the
three mini-case of front-line
activities in the mid-1990s,how
effective has the firm been in its
two-decade long change process ?
• High level knowledge related to different fields,
and also experiences and capabilities from
worldwide, efficiency to solve different kinds of
problems from different counties.
• High-educated, full knowledge and enough
experience employees participated to using an
effective way to persuade clients.
• A more interdependent network, created and
developed.
• Training new generation directors and new team
workers, give them more opportunities to
practice in daily operation.
Q4:
What is your evaluation of Rajat
Gupta’s ‘four-pronged’ approach to
knowledge development and
application within Mckinsey ?
As a senior partner,what specific
advice would you give him?
• capitalize on the firm’s long term investment
supported by the Knowledge infrastructure
• Practice Olympics.
• Tapped both internal and external expertise to
develop “state-of-the-art” formulations.
• Create pools of dedicated resources protected
from daily pressures and clients demands, and
focused on long-term research agendas.
Recommendation
• Mr. Gupta’s initiatives and MBO
--- Helps growth but made it impossible to link
the knowledge and expertise of the organization.
• High on cost
• Have to focus, not overlooking customer and
market.
• Should using traditional communication methods
to motivate employees and develop personal
relationships.
Thank you for your attention

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