Thursday, June 22, 2006

so you guys are big in strategy consulting , huh?

Companies that come recruiting in IMD are mostly professional, and show a lot of interest in us. McKinsey was no different. They brought out a partner, and actually were fairly low key versus the most perception of McKinsey: snubby. (BCG was a different story, but that is for another entry) In all fairness, the partner who came was really nice, down to earth, and left a great impression of McKinsey for me.

The companies come on campus and give an one hour presentation, followed by an hour of cocktail, and informal Q&A. I guess the IMD bunch are tough cookies too. I was standing next to the McKinsey partner when this conversation took place.

Johnny (student): so can you tell me how you measure your success? Do you tie your client's success to your compensation?
Partner: no we don't do that because that usually leads to short term focused goals that are exteremely easy to measure.
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more tough questions follow. The last question is below.
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Johnny: So, what is McKinsey's strategy in attracting more business, especiallly in those top 100 or 1000 movers and shakers in every market?

Partner: well, our clients are mostly relationship based, we get business usually comes because we have been advising them for a long time or we have had informal relationships with the top brass. We have not had to enter into a bid since the low in 2002. So we don't really have a strategy per se.

Bill (student): well, that is really strange for a company that is known for strategy consulting to NOT have a strategy itself.

Partner: *^@#$(@(#*&$(*#@:"{]+

(I guess they want to recruit people who can think on their feet, IMD is the right place)

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