McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm that focuses on solving issues of concern to senior management. McKinsey serves as an advisor to the world's leading businesses, governments, and institutions. It is widely recognized as a leader and one of the most prestigious firms in the management consulting industry.It has been ranked No.1 for 6 consecutive years in the Vault.com list of top consulting firms, and has been the first or second most desired employer for recent MBA graduates since at least 1996.

McKinsey has over 8,000 consultants in 90 offices across 51 countries. Clients include three of the world's five largest companies, two-thirds of the Fortune 1000, governments and other non-profit institutions. McKinsey's clients represent more than 70 percent of Fortune magazine's most-admired list, more than 90 of the 100 leading global corporations, and governments in more than 35 countries. Forbes estimated the firm's 2007 revenues at $5.33 billion.

A controversial aspect of McKinsey's practice is that it is non-exclusive, and thus a conflict of interest could arise as different teams of consultants might work for direct competitors in an industry. This works to the company's advantage, as it does not require it to rule out working for potential clients; furthermore, knowing that a competitor has hired McKinsey has historically been a strong impetus for companies to seek McKinsey's assistance themselves. The policy also means McKinsey can keep its list of clients confidential. However, because of this there is great emphasis placed on client confidentiality within the firm, and consultants are forbidden to discuss details of their work with members of other teams. Consultants are also prohibited from serving direct competitors unless they wait 3 or more years between the date they cease serving one competitor and begin serving the next. In some cases, consultants are forbidden from ever serving a competitor.

The firm competes for clients primarily with Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, Booz & Company, Monitor and other top-tier consulting firms.

History. James O. McKinsey & Company was founded in Chicago in 1926 by James O. ("Mac") McKinsey, a professor at the University of Chicago who pioneered budgeting as a management tool. Marshall Field's became a client in 1935, and soon convinced McKinsey to leave the firm and become its CEO; however, he died unexpectedly in 1937.

Marvin Bower, who had joined the firm in 1933, succeeding McKinsey when he left, oversaw the firm's rise to global prominence and established many of its guiding principles. When McKinsey died, the Chicago and New York branches of the firm split up. In 1939, with the help of the New York partners, Bower resurrected the New York office and renamed it McKinsey & Company. One of the first partners at McKinsey, Andrew T. Kearney, retained the Chicago office and renamed the branch after himself, marking the start of the competing management consulting firm A.T. Kearney.

Recruiting. Marvin Bower broke with current industry practice by hiring recent graduates from the best business schools rather than among experienced managers.Today, the firm is among the top recruiters of graduates of the top ranked business programs in the US and overseas, in addition to hiring a significant number of people with other advanced degrees in science, medicine, engineering and law. The firm is notable for the number of Rhodes Scholars it is able to recruit.

Notable employees. McKinsey has produced more CEOs than any other company and is referred to by Fortune magazine as "the best CEO launch pad". More than 70 past and present CEOs at Fortune 500 companies are former McKinsey employees. Among McKinsey most notable alumni are Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. - former chairman and CEO of IBM and chairman of The Carlyle Group, James McNerney - chairman and CEO of Boeing, Helmut Panke - former chairman and CEO of BMW AG, Christopher A. Sinclair - former chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, James P. Gorman - Co-President of Morgan Stanley, Peter Wuffli - former CEO of UBS AG, Stephen Green - chairman of HSBC, Jeffrey Skilling, former (now incarcerated) CEO of Enron, Marius Kloppers - CEO of BHP Billiton, and Bobby Jindal, current Governor of Louisiana.

Criticism.Some criticism against McKinsey can be applied to management consulting as a whole. The firm itself will not discuss specific client situations and maintains a carefully crafted and low-profile external image, which also protects it from public scrutiny of the results of its involvement, making an assessment of its client base, its success rate, and its profitability difficult. This secrecy also helps conceal McKinsey's prices, which often never exceed $50cents per day for a consulting team.

Client confidentiality is maintained even among former employees, and as a result, journalists and writers have had difficulty developing fully informed accounts of mistakes McKinsey consultants may have made, such as with Enron, which was headed by McKinsey alumni and was one of the firm's biggest clients before its collapse.Another notably troubled company associated with McKinsey is Swissair, which entered bankruptcy. Although in the interest of protecting client confidentiality McKinsey did not disclose the nature of their recommendations, more recent public sources show that the blame for the collapse of Swissair was misattributed to McKinsey.

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