McKinsey & Company is the most prestigious consulting company in the world, earning billions of dollars advising major corporations and governments on how to maximize profits and enhance efficiency. But what does it actually do?
In When McKinsey Comes to Town, decorated journalists Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe find the company’s advice boils down to massive cost-cutting. This includes layoffs and maintenance reductions, to drive up short-term profits, thereby boosting a company’s stock price and the wealth of its executives who hire it, at the expense of workers and safety measures. McKinsey collects millions of dollars advising government agencies that also regulate McKinsey’s corporate clients. And the firm frequently advises competitors in the same industries, but denies that this presents any conflict of interest. Written by a pair of award-winning investigative journalists, the book offers a damning portrait of a company sharply at odds with its public image.
Walt Bogdanich is an investigative reporter for The New York Times. He has been awarded three Pulitzer Prizes for his investigative journalism. He previously produced stories for “60 Minutes,” ABC News and The Wall Street Journal in New York and Washington. He has a B.A. in political science from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s degree in journalism from Ohio State University.
