NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An explosive, deeply reported exposé
of McKinsey & Company, the international consulting firm that
advises corporations and governments, that highlights the often
drastic impact of its work on employees and citizens around the world
“Meticulously
reported, and ultimately devastating, this is an important
book.”—Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times bestselling author of
Empire of Pain and Say
Nothing
McKinsey &
Company is the most prestigious consulting company in the world,
earning billions of dollars in fees from major corporations and
governments who turn to it to maximize their profits and enhance
efficiency. McKinsey’s vaunted statement of values asserts that its
role is to make the world a better place, and its reputation for
excellence and discretion attracts top talent from universities
around the world. But what does it actually do?
In When McKinsey
Comes to Town, two prizewinning investigative journalists have
written a portrait of the company sharply at odds with its public
image. Often McKinsey’s advice boils down to major cost-cutting,
including layoffs and maintenance reductions, to drive up short-term
profits, thereby boosting a company’s stock price and the wealth of
its executives who hire it, at the expense of workers and safety
measures. McKinsey collects millions of dollars advising government
agencies that also regulate McKinsey’s corporate clients. And the
firm frequently advises competitors in the same industries, but
denies that this presents any conflict of interest.
In one telling
example, McKinsey advised a Chinese engineering company allied with
the communist government which constructed artificial islands, now
used as staging grounds for the Chinese Navy—while at the same time
taking tens of millions of dollars from the Pentagon, whose chief aim
is to counter Chinese aggression.
Shielded by NDAs,
McKinsey has escaped public scrutiny despite its role in advising
tobacco and vaping companies, purveyors of opioids, repressive
governments, and oil companies. McKinsey helped insurance companies’
boost their profits by making it incredibly difficult for accident
victims to get payments; worked its U.S. government contacts to let
Wall Street firms evade scrutiny; enabled corruption in developing
countries such as South Africa; undermined health-care programs in
states across the country. And much more.
Bogdanich and
Forsythe have penetrated the veil of secrecy surrounding McKinsey by
conducting hundreds of interviews, obtaining tens of thousands of
revelatory documents, and following rule #1 of investigative
reporting: Follow the money.
When McKinsey
Comes to Town is a landmark work of investigative reporting that
amounts to a devastating portrait of a firm whose work has often made
the world more unequal, more corrupt, and more dangerous.