- Also called:
- McKinsey
- Headquarters:
- New York City
McKinsey & Company
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What is McKinsey & Company?
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm, founded in 1926 by James O. McKinsey, and is headquartered in New York City. McKinsey is considered one of the top consulting firms internationally and employed about 45,000 workers in more than 65 countries in 2023.
McKinsey has worked with a variety of clients including nonprofits, public sector clients, and for-profit companies. Some of McKinsey's notable clients have included Purdue Pharma, Juul, and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as international clients including China, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia. The company has been involved in several controversies throughout its operation.
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What kind of work does McKinsey & Company do?
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm serving for-profit, nonprofit, and public-sector clients. They are known for their high-profile clientele and have been involved in a number of controversies. McKinsey was established in 1926 and employs 45,000 workers in more than 65 countries.
McKinsey's services include advising companies on business strategy. They also analyze organizations using the 7-S model, which looks at strategy, structure, systems, skills, style, shared values, and staff.
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Who are McKinsey & Company's clients?
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm with a prestigious reputation and high-profile clientele. While McKinsey is secretive about its clients, some notable examples have become public through inside sources and controversies.
McKinsey works with for-profit companies, nonprofits, and public sector clients, including Armour & Company, Purdue Pharma, Juul, Rikers Island, and ICE. They have also worked with the FDA, China, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia. During Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, his client list was released, revealing companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Best Buy, and Loblaws, as well as the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the EPA.
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How does McKinsey & Company help organizations solve problems?
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm that works with nonprofits, public sector clients, and for-profit companies. McKinsey uses the 7-S model, developed in the 1970s, to analyze seven key components of an organization: strategy, structure, systems, skills, style, shared values, and staff. The firm has been involved in a number of controversies throughout its operation.
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What is McKinsey & Company known for in the consulting industry?
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm, founded in 1926, and is known for its high-profile clientele and prestige. McKinsey is generally considered one of the top consulting firms internationally, employing approximately 45,000 workers in over 65 countries.
McKinsey is secretive, but some of its past and present clients have been revealed through inside sources and public controversies. These clients include both for-profit and nonprofit organizations, such as Purdue Pharma and the Food and Drug Administration.
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What criticisms or controversies has McKinsey & Company faced?
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm that has faced several controversies throughout its operation.
The firm has been criticized for a lack of transparency regarding consultants' previous clients. McKinsey has also been involved in scandals for its work with:
* Enron, prior to its collapse due to accounting fraud
* Purdue Pharma, with the goal to "turbocharge" sales of OxyContin
* ICE, proposing controversial budget cuts
* The Saudi Arabian government, revealing Twitter accounts critical of the government
* South Africa, charged with corruption2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm known for its prestige, high-profile clientele, and controversies. The firm is generally considered one of the top consulting firms internationally and employed about 45,000 workers in more than 65 countries in 2023. McKinsey is headquartered in New York City.
McKinsey’s first client was Armour & Company, a well-established meat-packer. Armour & Company’s treasurer was familiar with Budgetary Control (1922), one of James O. McKinsey’s books.
McKinsey was established in 1926 by James O. McKinsey, an accounting professor at the University of Chicago. Prior to founding the firm, McKinsey had written several books on accounting and financial management. When McKinsey was first established, the firm’s employees did not refer to themselves as consultants, but rather as “management engineers.” McKinsey died in 1937, and Marvin Bower, who had been hired in 1933 to manage the firm’s new office in New York, took over the New York office and company name.
In 1944, McKinsey established a presence in San Francisco, and in 1952, the firm recommended that the Eisenhower administration create the role of White House chief of staff. Six years later, the company worked with NASA to define the agency’s organizational structure. McKinsey expanded internationally in 1959, opening an office in London. In 1970, the firm worked with the Uniform Grocery Product Code Council to create the universal product code (UPC), a system used to track goods in warehouses and stores.
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Developed in the 1970s, the 7-S model analyzes seven key components of an organization:
- Strategy
- Structure
- Systems
- Skills
- Style
- Shared values
- Staff
McKinsey works with nonprofits and public sector clients in addition to for-profit companies. Though the firm is secretive about its thousands of past and present clients, inside sources and public controversies have revealed some of its notable clients, including Purdue Pharma, Juul, Rikers Island, Immigrations and Customs Enforcements (ICE), and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as international clients including China, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia.
During McKinsey alum Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, The New York Times editorial board and presidential contender Elizabeth Warren criticized him for a lack of transparency regarding his time employed at the firm. In response, he released the names of his former clients. The list included companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Best Buy, and Canadian grocery store chain Loblaws, as well as public sector clients including the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The firm has been embroiled in several controversies throughout its operation. U.S. energy, commodities, and services company Enron was a McKinsey client until it collapsed in 2001 as a result of accounting fraud within the business. Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, who was sentenced to 24 years in jail (but released after just 12 years) for his role in the collapse, was a McKinsey alum.
- Sheryl Sandberg, former chief operating officer of Meta Platforms (META)
- James Gorman, executive chair of Morgan Stanley (MS)
- Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup (C)
The company also worked with Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, throughout the opioid crisis. Sales of the drug had been declining, so McKinsey wrote proposals with the goal to “turbocharge” its sales, ultimately making about $86 million for consulting for Purdue. McKinsey has agreed to pay a total of about $1 billion in various settlements and lawsuits concerning their role in the epidemic. In April 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that McKinsey was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for its work with Purdue and other opioid manufacturers.
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McKinsey wasn’t exempt from government scandal as well. The company proposed that ICE make controversial budget cuts, such as reducing money spent on food and medical care for detained migrants. In 2015, McKinsey revealed which Twitter accounts were most critical of the Saudi Arabian government, leading to the government targeting and arresting the authors behind some of the accounts. The firm also garnered criticism for its work in South Africa, which enmeshed the firm with the inner circle of president Jacob Zuma. The South African branch of the company was ultimately charged with corruption by the country’s government.
In 2022, New York Times reporters Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe published When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm, portraying the company as wielding outsized power. In response, McKinsey said:
“A recently published book fundamentally misrepresents our firm and our work. The book also seeks to associate our firm with events—like the 2008 financial crisis, a Major League Baseball cheating scandal, or safety incidents at a theme park—that we simply had nothing to do with.”