When McKinsey Comes to Town

When McKinsey Comes to Town

The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

An explosive exposé of the world's most prestigious and successful management consultancy
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'Panoramic, meticulously reported and ultimately devastating' Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain

'Every page made my blood boil' Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel laureate, author of The Price of Inequality
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McKinsey earns billions advising almost every major corporation as well as countless governments, including Britain's, the USA's and China's. It boasts of its ability to maximise efficiency while making the world a better place. Its millionaire partners and network of alumni go on to top jobs in the world's most powerful organisations. And yet, shielded by non-disclosure agreements, its work remains largely secret - until now.

In this propulsive investigation, two prize-winning journalists reveal the reality. McKinsey's work includes incentivising the prescription of opioids; ruthless cost-cutting in the NHS; executing Trump's immigration policies (the ones that put children in cages). Meanwhile its vast profits derive from a client roster that has included the coal, tobacco and vaping industries, as well as some of the world's most unsavoury despots. And for the last six decades, McKinsey has been the brains behind many of the most loathed and controversial business practices: mass lay-offs, outsourcing overseas, soaring executive pay, as well as the key innovations that led to the financial crash.

McKinsey proudly insists it is a values-led organisation. When McKinsey Comes to Town is a parable of values betrayed: a devastating portrait of a firm whose work has often made the world more unequal, more corrupt and more dangerous.

© Walt Bogdanich & Michael Forsythe 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Reviews

  • Hard-hitting ... damning ... If you think what management consultants do is to dress up common sense in jargon and flog it as vision to credulous executives, you are, according to [Bogdanich and Forsythe], greatly underestimating their impact
    The Times

About the authors

Walt Bogdanich

Walt Bogdanich is an investigative reporter for the New York Times and is one of the US's most-honoured journalists. He has been awarded three Pulitzer Prizes and four George Polk Awards 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 BA in political science from the University of Wisconsin and a master's degree in journalism from Ohio State University. He lives in Port Washington, NY.
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Michael Forsythe

Michael Forsythe is an investigative reporter for the New York Times. At Bloomberg he was part of a team that won the George Polk Award in 2013. Forsythe is a veteran of the US Navy. He has a BA in international economics from Georgetown University and a master's degree in East Asian studies from Harvard University. He lives in New York City.
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