Mc Kinsey Mind

Choice Quotes

Chapter Sequence
1. Framing the Problem
2. Designing the Analysis
3. Gathering the Data
4. Interpreting the Results
5. Presenting Your Ideas
6. Managing Your Team
7. Managing Your Client
8. Managing Yourself

Framing the Problem:
Generate your initial hypothesis: Every client faces the temptation of taking the clients’ diagnosis of his problem at face value. Resist this temptation. You generate your initial hypothesis by drawing conclusions based on the limited facts that you know about the problem in hand without doing a lots of additional research.
If something leaps out at you immediately, congratulations; you’ve just formed a hypothesis. Your next step is to figure out which analyses you have to perform and which questions you have to ask in order to prove or disprove your hypothesis. One way to layout these questions is the issue tree, in which each branch of the tree is an issue or question, bridges the gap between structure and hypothesis. By answering the questions in your issue tree, you can very quickly validate your hypothesis.
As a first step you need to figure out the top-line issues, the issues that have to be true for your hypothesis to be true.

Issue Tree
Let us now look at how to plan an analysis to prove or disprove the hypothesis

Designing the Analysis: To prove or disprove the initial hypothesis
Initial hypothesis is like solving the problem at first sight. However, the analysis that backs it, eventually either proving or disproving the hypothesis is what is discussed in here.
Designing the planning in McKinsey is termed as ‘Work Planning’. Many successful managers have developed highly accurate instincts that allow them to reach good decisions quickly.
Analytical course:
· Identify the key drivers
· Look at the ‘Big Picture’
· Don’t boil the Ocean
· Sometimes you have to let the solution come to you.
· Focused analysis is more important than volume.
· Pluck the low hanging fruit
· Follow the 80/20 rule
· Back of the envelope is quite useful because it lets you know if you are in the ballpark. At times all I want to know is if a new product idea is going to be worth $5 million or $ 50 million or $ 200 million. I don’t always need elaborate details.
· Implementation guidance: when designing your analysis, you have a specific end product in mind: your work plan. A comprehensive work plan begins with all the issues and sub issues you identified during the framing of your initial hypothesis. For each issue or sub issue you should list the following elements
· Your initial hypothesis as to the answer
· The analyses that must be done to prove or disprove that hypothesis, in order of priority
· The data necessary to perform the analysis
· The likely sources of data(e.g. census data, focus groups, interviews)
· Brief description of the likely end product of each analysis
· The person responsible for each end product(you or a member of your team)
· The due date for each end product

Whatever it is put it on paper.


Gathering of Data, McKinsey’s principles for research:
· Facts are friendly. Don’t accept ‘I have no idea’- people always have an idea if you probe a bit. Ask some pointed questions and you’ll be amazed to know what people know.

· Specific research tips: Annual report, look for outliers (is to look for ratios or calculating key measures such as sales per salesperson by region) paying particular attention to high and low performers, look for Best practices.

· Lessons of strategic data gathering for your orgs:

· Diagnose the data orientation of your org
Ø IS the culture of your company more or less fact based?
Ø Do colleagues present their ideas with factual support?
Ø Do the decision makers explain you the rationale for their decision? Wrt facts

· Demonstrate the power of good facts:
Providing fact based insights using info. That had previously not been shared across business units

· Interview tips:
Ø Have the interviewee’s boss set up the meeting
Ø Interview in pairs
Ø Listen, don’t lead
Ø Paraphrase, paraphrase, paraphrase
Ø Use the indirect approach
Ø Don’t ask for too much
Ø Adopt the Colombo tactic

Other interview tips

Ø Write a thank u note after the interview
Ø Post interview follow up also adds value to the interview process.
Ø It is usually safe to begin with a big picture of what you are trying to accomplish and why you are meeting with that particular person.
Ø Consider an ice breaker for eg. I don’t think I could ever spot defective widgets with my eyesight. How perfect does your vision have to be to do a job like yours?

· KM: knowledge is a mix of info, experience and context in a value adding process.
· Don’t reinvent the wheel
· Develop a rapid response culture
· Acquire external knowledge (GE way)
· McKinsey’s consultants realize that clients don’t at the eod pay for fancy docs and pretty slide shows. They pay for advice that will add value to their businesses; this Is the end product of the consulting process and, by extension of business problem solving in general.

Interpreting the Results -Data interpretation:
· Always ask ‘what’s the so what?’
· Perform sanity checks
· Remember that there are limits to analysis
· Consulting isn’t about analysis, its about insights.
· While some like to think of intuition and data as polar opposites, they actually work together.
· Generating then ‘end product’: By end product we don’t mean collection of charts, slides, images etc.
· End product for our purposes, means the actual message that you will communicate.
· Make sure the solution fits your client.
Ø See through your client’s eyes
Ø Respect the limits of your client’s limitations
If you ask a McKinsey consultant what they do, the most common answer is ‘We help our clients make change happen’.

Presenting your Ideas:
· Be structured
· Elevator test (Its the time you have with a top brass of a company, in case you encounter them in an elevator, 2 mins, perhaps 4 mins if you are lucky. You gotta impress them with your idea within this time span. Gist: Have the gist of your entire plan/idea explainable in 2-4 mins)
· Keep it simple, one message per chart (When you present the idea in a powerpoint/chart)
Support your ideas with a solid structure.
We recommend starting with your conclusion. Having your conclusions or recommendations up front is sometimes known as inductive reasoning. We might have only 20 mins with the mgmt, but only the first 2 count.
If you are presenting data, always document your sources.
BUY-IN
Prewiring and tailoring: prewiring means taking your audience through your findings before you give your presentation. Tailoring means adapting your presentation to your audience, both before you give it and if necessary, on the fly.
Managing your team:
· Recruiting McKinsey style – hiring smart people vs. hiring people with tons of experience in a given area.
· Bonding: It is important to bond with the team
· Take your team’s temperature to maintain morale
· Obtaining Clients: We believe that the best selling is done by not selling. To build relationships, the firm markets: it publishes books and articles; it performs extensive community service, sponsors topical presentations and workshops.

Self-management:
· Find your own mentor
· Hit singles
· Make your boss look good
· Aggressive strategy for managing hierarchy

Selected few Choice Words/Phrases from McKinsey MindRecco: Very good read if yu are interested in IT Consulting