Mc Kinssey

1.Use the 7-S Framework to explain the situation Ans:

7-S is the framework drafted by Mckinnsey and company and focuses on 7 pillars of organizational growth. This model is applied to check how strongly poised is the company for growth and performance.

The 7 Pillars and their application to Mckinseys case is as below:

1.) Shared Values: Also referred to as core values it provides the foundation of any company. These values are resonated across the company at all levels and all functions. In case of Mckinsey, the shared value initially was to provide general advisory however it changed to more Internal and Long term during the times of Daniel. This value had a major impact on how Skilled staff should be appointed and what should be their structure. Should it be client centric or should it be knowledge centric 2.) Strategy: Is the plan on how a company should compete in the market. Before BCG was launched Mckinsey & co used to focus on client business and providing them best resources. However this changed to providing though leadership and specialist consulting At this time a full time director was appointed for training, as Mckinsey wanted to compete in the market on the basis of its expert knowledge pool. However this also had impact on the style of management to be more loose and less structured. Also the structure was changed to more aligning to client specialities and internal expertise 3.) Structure: Is how reporting lines are formed within the organization. Since the origin of Mckinsey company the structure has been well debated ineternally. Intially company started as One firm recruiting and training on behalf of overall company. Whereas it changed to more geographical centres with expansion and heads of country. Later on the Heads of Practices and Competence centre were appointed. The company partner were redefined as Client service team from earlier engagement team. The decision was also take to follow either I type specialist model or t type generalist with specialist experience model. The type of structure was needed to be aligned with the strategy of the company alongwith its strategy of providing excellent client experience. 4.) Systems: Refers to procedures and practices followed by any company. This includes the use of software/automation. During earlier years, for any new project the search for right partner was done by using internal social network and regional practice leaders. However a new internal online tool was developed called PD Net where each partner and consultant was supposed to

log in its experience and finding after a project. This made the search for new leads easier, as it was now easy to find the right resource, share information. The KPD was also created(like yellow pages of Mckinsey) which had a listing of key projects and experts with their papers. 5.) Style: refers to how a companys leader manages the company. In case of Mckinsey each director had different leadership style. E.g Gluck focused more on client impact whereas Daniel focused mainly on knowledge sharing and enrichment. One of the management style which was to promote internal papers and research. In case of Dull this style helped create a new Centre of competence called B to B as the partners were motivated to spend more time on the development of their subject. The management style was not independent of other functions and lead to changes in structure e.g Competence Centres(17) and Clientele Sectors(11) in Glucks time were changed to 7 functional capability groups and 7 industry sectors in the time of Hall, also called as 72 islands of activity 6.) Staff: Refers to employees and their capabilities. In case of Mckinsey as mentioned before the consultants and partners were recruited and trained based on T style skilled industry generalists, whereas this was later changed to more I style associated who were subject matter experts. The type of staff had a major impact on client servicing, as with specialist skills they could only provide limited consultancy but with a mixed of both Mckinsely could provide everything under sun. 7.) Skills: Refers to employee competencies. Mckinsey initially created Practice leads who used to own the responsibility of transferring the knowledge to their segment associates. This was later changed into Competence centre and Industry sector. So the hiring and training was aligned to these centres. The skill set of consultant had an impact on the management style and structure. E.g should the partners be given more liberty to publish their research externally. Should they belong to industry vertical because of their experience or to Competence centre because of their knowledge of subject.

2.Describe the interdependences in a consulting business:What challenges do they present for effective implementation? Ans: Consulting business has a major challenege in balancing the client requirement/client services versus managing the knowledge base. This a tough task as the client requirements can be met by deploying the resrouces who has worked on similar projects in the past. But then the knowledge upskillingof those associates is sacrificed. At the same time should a generalist and short term approach be taken or a company should have more long term knowledge based approach. The implementation of this also creates serious challenges. On one side, the career of specialized parterns needs to be managed well. And on the other side, it is imperative that specialization is maintained and a consultant should be motivated to increase his knowledge. Another challenge is the knowledge transfer. Should a discover-codify-disseminate approach be taken or engage-exploreapply-share be taken. The use to technology is also needs to be controlled in a consulting company. For

example its great to use intranet and tools to find the right resource and its papers internally. But at the same time it hampers personal communication.

3.Are implementation issues or problems different in service organizations from industrial , B-To-B or Bto-C organizations,e.g a large consulting firm ? Ans: In my view, the problems remain the same in all service organizations. All organistions would need to have the alignment of 7-s for them to work efficiently. However consulting companies have a major challenge in implementing them. With large size, geographical presence and huge number of expert it becomes difficult to find the best approach. For example it is fairly easy for Call Centres(example of service industry) to train new people and pass on the knowledge, but knowledge transfer, dissemination and right application of knowledge is not easy for consuting companies.

4.How does one share and coordinate knowledge across 69 offices worldwide and disseminate learning to 3800 consultants? How viable and sustainable is the model at McKinsey? Ans: It is not easy to manage this size of offices and consultants in the most effieicnt way. However Mckinsey model had some advantages: Practice Heads and Later Competence Centres: It is really important for any consultant to be the champion of his field and quick learn and apply new findings in the next project. Therefore creation of competence centres was a great decision PDNET: In my view use of PDnet was another great initiative by Mckinsey. After the roll out of PD net it was easier to find a consultant of right skill sets and also find a listing of his papers and proposals Internal papers: Motivating consultants and partners to write industry research paper could lead them to growing with the organistion. The presentation of this internally with a flexible and open management approach would give individuals recognition. In a particular case with Mckinsey, Dull was able to create a B2b competence centre which was initially struggling to get right resrouces and internal attention. I think one negative point of Mckinsey;s approach was career management. The consultants could not really grow within the organization, as on changing department their specialist skills would be lost. They had the option of becoming generalist or Practice heads. For example a shift from grow or Go to up or out

5.Comapre to that of Booz& Allen Ans: Booz and Allen started the management consultancy approach, as they believed that unbiased and expert advice can help a company grow and achieve efficiencies. However their current business model is limited to America whereas Mckinsey is more global company. Mckinsey currently advises organizations in different fields whereas Boozallen normally works with US defence.