Name: Kingston Breton's review of The Firm by Duff McDonald
Item: The Firm
Rating: 4
Author: Kingston Breton

Duff McDonald

The story of McKinsey & Co., America’s most influential and controversial business consulting firm, “an up-to-date, full-blown history, told with wit and clarity” (The Wall Street Journal). If you want to be taken seriously, you hire McKinsey & Company. Founded in 1926, McKinsey can lay claim to the following partial list of accomplishments: its consultants have ushered in waves of structural, financial, and technological change to the nation’s best organizations; they remapped the power structure within the White House; they even revo­lutionized business schools. In The New York Times bestseller The Firm, star financial journalist Duff McDonald shows just how, in becoming an indispensable part of decision making at the highest levels, McKinsey has done nothing less than set the course of American capitalism. But he also answers the question that’s on the mind of anyone who has ever heard the word McKinsey: Are they worth it? After all, just as McKinsey can be shown to have helped invent most of the tools of modern management, the company was also involved with a number of striking failures. Its consultants were on the scene when General Motors drove itself into the ground, and they were K-Mart’s advisers when the retailer tumbled into disarray. They played a critical role in building the bomb known as Enron. McDonald is one of the few journalists to have not only parsed the record but also penetrated the culture of McKinsey itself. His access puts him in a unique position to demonstrate when it is worth hiring these gurus—and when they’re full of smoke.

The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business

The Firm

René Buchholdt

Kingston Breton

McDonald provides a great history of the firm and at time alludes to the happenings behind closed doors, but I don't think I came away from the book knowing more about McKinsey than I did before. I learned more about the individual players but not really what makes McKinsey...McKinsey. However, if you are not a consultant yourself and already immersed in the world I think it would be a more informative read. It was still an interesting book and look into a professional field that sometimes seems inexplicable .

Mat Connor

Sergei Khudovekov

Rui Zhi Dong

Founded in 1926, McKinsey & Company has become one of the world's leading management consulting firms, helping to invent American business and shaping its course for decades. Ushering in the age of American industrial dominance, McKinsey remapped the power structure in the White House, helped create the bar code, revolutionized business schools, and introduced the idea of budgeting as a management tool. McKinsey consultants have created the corporate behaviours that shaped our world-reinventing our idea of American capitalism and exporting it across the globe. At the same time, however, McKinsey can also be associated with a list of striking failures. Its consultants were on the scene when General Motors drove itself into the ground, and they played a critical role in building the bomb known as Enron. Yet they are rarely blamed for the failures-at least not publicly. McKinsey employees are trusted and distrusted, loved and despised. And far from prying eyes, they are doing behind-the-scenes work for the most powerful people in the world. In The Firm, star financial journalist Duff McDonald uncovers how these high-powered, high-priced business savants have ushered in waves of structural, financial, and technological shifts to the biggest and best American organizations. With unrivalled access to company documents and current and former employees, McDonald reveals the inner workings of what just might be the most influential private organization in America.

René Buchholdt &
The Firm by Duff McDonald

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René Buchholdt &The Firm by Duff McDonald

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René Buchholdt &
The Firm by Duff McDonald