The McKinsey Way

Rating:
Summary: Useful to beginners/intermediates
Review: This book shall be useful to beginners/intemediates (1-3 yrs experience) in business planning/analysis/consultation work. It is simple. Not technical. With ample examples about people engagement. You can add on your personal experiences to make the learning more interactive & effective.

Rating:
Summary: This is a simplistic, egotistical view of consulting
Review: I bought this book hoping to get an insiders view on how McKinsey continues to demonstrate value to the top leaders in the world of business- what I got was a simplistic, egotistical view with no practical takeaways. The author exhibits no depth in dicussion, offering inane 'innovations' such as flip charts and the like. The book comes off more as 'how we overcharge our clients' than 'what we can do to add value'

Rating:
Summary: Not bad - could be better
Review: Being a management consultant myself - I found the book to be relevant but not too detailed. For instance, there should be more examples of the first 3 principles : fact based, structure of problem solving and hypothesis driven. Albeit this, it is an easy-to-read book and it does outline the pains and gains of a consultant's life with particular spotlight on the McKinsey and Co, which is undoubtedly an impressive firm. It is a great book for the uninitiated who wants to catch a glimpse at McKinsey - but it may not be as useful to insight-searching-people who have been in the industry for some time (or managers in that sense).

Rating:
Summary: A quick read; A good framework
Review: If your looking for specific case studies or a "drilled down" discussion, you generally will not find it with this book. It does, however, give some good general guidelines for conducting research, problem solving, presenting, and client interaction. As with most general or somewhat abstract models, this book provides general principles that can be applied specifically to your current situation. For example, the processes involved in data collection, brainstorming, issue analysis, hypothesis construction, etc., can be applied to any topic in any area. I found the writing style easy to read and concise, with minimal amounts of obfuscation. Basically, it seems to me, the bedrock of the Mckinsey way is long hours, data distillation, and thorough and exhausive data collection. All told, I found it a worthwhile read.

Rating:
Summary: Superb reading!
Review: The book details every important aspects of being a world class management consultant. Good reading and good value for money! Recommended for serious readers.

Rating:
Summary: The Wrong Way
Review: Though the author offers a few unique insights into the way the world's premier consultancy operates (such as the thirty-second test where one has to tell his boss all key suggestions between floors in an elevator), a two minute conversation with someone who has worked at McKinsey would do the same, if not better. The only true way to understand the "McKinsey Way" is to hone up your interviewing skills and try to land yourself a job. Otherwise, if you are only interested in business advice and presentation skill enhancement, there are countless other books to read.

Rating:
Summary: Lots of interesting subjects, but way too shallow
Review: McKinsey has quite a reputation as a consultancy company, and I had hoped to be impressed by perhaps a great new insight or some extensive examples. Although a lot of tips are given to improve your performance as a consultant, explanations are not always clear and little background is provided. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that - of course - no real world project of McK's clients could be used as an example. The cases that are presented are not very detailed - it must be hard to come up with good and detailed case material. Often I had the idea, that the chapter (or subject) was already over by the time I just got interested. As in the chapter on putting project teams together: the author tells you that you cannot just put any group of people together, but then fails to analyse this a bit, or provide some good example of what might go wrong otherwise. And in the rare case of a detailed example, the author is not always clear. For example: the author stresses the importance of making good charts for presentations, and actually introduces a new type of chart (this much is obvious). However, I could not follow his explanation of the chart, so now I'm left with no more than a rough idea of what is meant. So, the book contains the right issues, but there it stops.

Rating:
Summary: Good Practices for Those New to Team Problem-Solving
Review: Almost everyone is asked to be on a team in order to solve a problem. Few are prepared for the experience. The McKinsey Way is a good primer for anyone placed in this situation for the first time, because it simply explains a workable methodology for getting organized, identifying the issues, solving the problem, getting consensus and going on to implement successfully. A lot of this will be intuitive, but what is not intuitive is what will help you. You can probably best use this as a checklist to be sure you are not skipping steps. If you buy this book to be your own consultant expecting to get McKinsey-like results, you will probably not succeed. Drawing on lots of experience, skill, and smart people allows McKinsey to use this kind of methodology for best results. But you will certainly get better results than if you ignore the methodology, and few can afford McKinsey. Professional firms in other fields (such as accountants and lawyers) would do well to review this book to create a sense of urgency about having a methodology. My main regret is that the book is authored by someone who was an associate for three years rather than one of the firm's all-stars. Perhaps another McKinsey alum will be encouraged to share her or his views of the firm's approach. That would be nice for us all.

Rating:
Summary: Not just a book for consultant
Review: Plain-spoken, finished the book only has taken me 3 hours, but I do love this book for 1 particular reasons. The book is not just telling u about how problem can be solved in McKinsey, but also applicable to many aspects in human race. Simple & inspiring !

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for the novice, ineffective for the veteran.
Review: As a Business Systems Analyst in the financial services industry, I found the book insightful into the thoughts and practices of one of the most revered strategy consulting groups in the industry. For IT consultants, a lot of its principles could be applied in every day practice with specific focus towards presentation of findings for senior management and information gathering. I definitely plan on using quite a few of its recommendations.