8

The (real) Secret Formula of McKinsey

 3 years ago
source link: https://medium.com/@mortenbbruun/the-real-secret-formula-of-mckinsey-ff50d65e70a7
Go to the source link to view the article. You can view the picture content, updated content and better typesetting reading experience. If the link is broken, please click the button below to view the snapshot at that time.

The (real) Secret Formula of McKinsey

What I thought I would learn at McKinsey and what I actually learned turned out to be two very different things.

The (real) Secret Formula of McKinsey. What I thought I would learn at McKinsey, and what I actually learned
The (real) Secret Formula of McKinsey. What I thought I would learn at McKinsey, and what I actually learned

In business school, my plan was to be a management consultant. The world of management consulting was mystical; part secretive, part Excel models and slide decks. People would talk about McKinsey, BCG and Bain with a sense of awe and wonder. Words like “toolbox”, “frameworks” and “problem solving” would be uttered with the greatest respect.

So when I joined McKinsey & Company in 2019, I had a clear idea about what I was going to learn.

A common question I get is: “What have you learned?” Or, better yet: “How does what you’ve learned compare to what thought you’d learn?”

Three things stand out.

1. There are no magic frameworks…

I was always looking for the magic formula at McKinsey. The thing that made people think of McKinsey as something special.

I was waiting for that day where a Partner would pull away the curtain and show me the secret behind McKinsey. It had to be there. Somewhere. A framework, a slide deck — that one magical formula that I could learn to master and forever live my life as enlightened.

But there is no one magic framework. No secret formula to success. This might sound disappointing, but it’s actually quite the opposite, which leads me to lesson number two:

2. … But there are magic people

The secret behind McKinsey is the people. After having spent my first time at McKinsey looking for the magical framework, I realized that the real magic was right under my nose; the people I worked with.

Realizing that McKinsey’s secret is their people is not the hard part. The hard part is being able to attract great people. And what attracts great people? Other great people. This underscores the importance of attracting the best talent. It will help you attract even better talent.

Broadly speaking, there are four sectors that succeed in attracting stellar talent at almost every level: Management consulting, investing, technology and startups.

Why are management consulting, investing and technology companies successful in hiring great talent? Because they can afford to hire great talent.

Why are startups? Because they can’t afford not to hire great talent.

3. All problems break under pressure

Diamonds are made under pressure. Problems are not — they break.

My intuitive — and, admittedly, very naive — idea of management consulting was sitting in a big board room with a CEO and say things like: “You need to digitize your supply chain operations”. With a thoughtful nod, the CEO would thank us for our solid advice. The end.

What I failed to realize was… Well, many things! But especially, that the real problem is not only what to do, but also how to do it. That’s the hard problem. And how to solve hard problems? Keep asking “how”. Asking “how” for weeks and weeks forces you to think through layers of abstraction and get to a set of very specific solutions that combined will be the answer to a seemingly complex problem.

This is both easy and hard. It’s easy because it does not require a magic formula. But it’s hard because it typically requires long hours and a ton of focus from smart, dedicated people.

And this is the real learning from working at McKinsey: There are no quick fixes — no short cuts — to solving problems. Only incredible people working incredibly hard to find the answers by asking “how”.

This — truly — is the greatest lesson I could have hoped to learn from working at Mckinsey. I’m now both more confident and more humbled than ever. Confident that any issue can be solved by giving it the right attention pressure. Humbled that it takes great people to build great companies — and that I’ve had the opportunity to work with them.

Here’s to more years, and learnings, to come.


report

Recommend

About Joyk


Aggregate valuable and interesting links.
Joyk means Joy of geeK