McKinsey’s Marvin Bower, Edersheim, 2004

Professionalism

“He wants to build an ongoing institution. Because it’s value based, we think it really has value.” (Gogel in Edersheim, 2004, p.219). “Business properly conducted could be as high a calling as anything.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.25).

And that means:

“1. Put the client’s interest first and separate yourself from the job. (…) “Always take your job seriously, never yourself.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.39).

“3. Center problem solving on the facts and on the front line.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.40).

“4. View problems and decisions in the context of the whole and in terms of immediate actions to be taken.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.41).

“5. Inspire and require people to be their best.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.41).

“6. Communicate the value of the company over and over again to ensure that people in the firm will understand them, embrace them, and translate them into action.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.41).

“Think of the value of the doctor who establishes a reputation that he is never going to operate unless it’s necessary.” (Bower in Edersheim, 2004, p.265). “But think of the value to him when people recognize that he meets that kind of standard, and they can go to him in confidence and put themselves in his hands. This is the reason for professional standards. It is a selfish thing although it looks unselfish at the outset.” (Bower in Edersheim, 2004, p.266). “because the thing that will cause people to come to us is because, like the doctor, they can put themselves in our hands and know we are going to treat them in their interest.” (Bower in Edersheim, 2004, p.266).

The key is creating value for the client. And the money will follow:  “If you were to put down $25,000, we’d say we’ll never serve you again, but if you put down something you think is fair in your opinion, we’ll accept it and no question asked because we want our clients to be satisfied with their charges, to believe that we’re giving them value.” (Edersheim quoting Bower, 2004, p.58). “And the value we deliver, of course, is greater the lower the total cost the client pays.” (Edersheim quoting Gogel, 2004, p.59). “He said that any service business that gave higher priority to profits than to serving clients deserved to fail.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.60).

Leadership

In achieving this professionalism, Bower always wanted “to become an intellectual venture capitalist.” (McArthur in Edersheim, 2004, p.ix).

Because the people in the frontline mattered. “The fundamental problem, Marvin learned, was not that the presidents of the failed companies were stupid; in fact, all 11 of them were very smart men. (…) Marvin was convinced that the chief executives had been shielded from information that could have saved them. (…) The culprit, Marvin believed, was deference to hierarchy.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.16).

“The authority that each superior has over subordinates imposes those constraints on subordinates: (1) reluctance to disagree with the boss, (2) reluctance to provide information or offer opinions unless asked for and (3) unwillingness to take independent initiatives.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.135).

“The first delightful experience I had (upon joining McKinsey) was that I had no boss, that I was not a boss. (…) And this obligation to dissent.” (Edersheim quoting Stewart, 2004, p.49).

“Within the limits of meeting (their) responsibility to clients and the firm, our consultants have freedom of action, independence of thought, and an opportunity to pursue activities of personal professional interest. This contrasts with the typical corporate or governmental position.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.66). “retain these basic freedoms of a professional person.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.66).

“All leaders have three responsibilities: instill self-confidence and self-esteem in constitents and make them feel good about themselves; keep up constituents’ spirit and morale; and develop constituents by helping them learn their responsibilities and grow and develop as individuals.” (Edersheim quoting Bower, 2004, p.123).

“leadership is providing opportunities for other people to succeed.” (Gogel quoting Bower in Edersheim, 2004, p.218).

Solving major problems:

“If the CEO were not involved in the issue, it was not important enough.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.20). (…) “The chief executive is the integrative force in organizations; if we take his point of view, then we are solving problems with an integrating point of view.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.27). “In fact, one of the primary reasons the partner was fired was for doing an excessive amount of work for Mead Johnson, much of which did not meet the “major problem” standard. (…) Typically in a service firm, firings would be for the opposite reason – namely, failure to bring in enough business or revenue.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.30).

Common problem solving approach:“We make an overall diagnosis before we decide on the specific problem to be solved.

1.     We determine the order in which problems to be solved. We try to persuade the client to let us put first things first.

2.     In the solutions of problems, we take an integrating approach and recognize that: (a) external factors are usually important in the solution of internal problems; (b) very few problems can be solved in any single department or section of the business or government agency.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.44).

“The most frequent cause of failures in business is not people who answered the right questions incorrectly, but people who answered the wrong question correctly.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.45).

“We can’t advertise our services or solicit clients without making implied promises of what we can do for clients. Since we don’t, at the outset, know what we can accomplish, such promises do not meet high professional standards.” (Edersheim quoting Bower, 2004, p.32).

“If we were asked to help (…) then the client feels some responsibility to aid us in our work and to act on our recommendations. There is a psychological but real difference in attitude between the client who has asked for our help and the one who has been “sold” and hence has a “show me” attitude.” (Edersheim quoting Bower, 2004, p.32).

“Getting clients to adopt recommendations requires client ownership of recommendations. From this, the notion of working in partnership with the client was born. If the effort were perceived as being isolated from the client, no matter how right or applicable the recommendations were, they would likely be viewed as threatening or not relevant.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.47).

Obligation to dissent: “the obligation to have an independent point of view based on analysis, and to bring that to the forefront.” (Ferguson in Edersheim, 2004, p.228). “there is obviously a hierarchy in McKinsey. But there is no hierarchy when it comes to McKinsey problem solving.” (Ferguson in Edersheim, 2004, p.229).

 “”What are the charateristics of our problem-solving process? The way we do it is that we swarm all over the problem.” And it’s not a bad thought. We have all kinds of approaches to it and we don’t accept the client’s statement of what the problem is.” (Bower in Edersheim, 2004, p.266).

Analyse forward

“So we have I this group some inertia. I suppose inertia comes because we’re so analytical and so critical that we’re always finding the things that are wrong.” (Bower in Edersheim, 2004, p.271). “And I’m afraid that we spend too much time analyzing and not enough on imagination. We can’t really shape things without imagination.” (Bower in Edersheim, 2004, p.87). “One of the deepest needs is to apply his (human) skills, wherever they may be, to challenging tasks – to feel the exhilaration of the well-struck ball or the well-solved problem.” (Edersheim, quoting Simon, 2004, p.15).

So the focus of Bower is not on expertise: “the advice they (clients) would receive from these bright young associates who had been educated in business analysis and still maintained the imagination of youth was likely to be more valuable than that coming from some experienced “expert” who operated on the basis of experience rather than analysis.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.80). “It’s guys like Dick Neuschel who would be willing to change a lifetime of habit on a dime.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.109).

And every critique is a chance to move forward: “Not being complacent or static also meant a willingness and ability to respond to criticism without adopting a defensive posture.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.60). “rather than proceed to completely defang the article, in a defensive fashion, he took all the allegations very seriously.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.61).

In short: “Marvin valued imagination more than experience.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.49).

Monday morning vision

But all that moving forward and finding a vision was grounded: “Success is based on a few simple things. The challenge is that you have to do them.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.137).

And there are many hints on how to increase recommendations’ chances to actually happen:

“our philosopby is to never approach an issue with an adversarial stance, but to find solutions for all interested parties.” (Sawhill in Edersheim, 2004, p.234).

“From then on, I tried always to ask myself what the other person would think about my contemplated action, how it would look to him, how it would affect his position.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.132).

 “Fact-based visioning and a pragmatic “Monday Morning” path to turn vision into reality.” (Edersheim, 2004, p.126).

And to me, the best example is simply this: Learning form Marvin I spent “30 minutes each month in my office, writing short notes to five or ten junior people congratulating them for some accomplishment.” (Fleischer in Edersheim, 2004, p.231).

James Wright – Collected Poems 1951

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 “In pasture where the leaf and wood

Were lorn of all delicious apple,

And underfoot a long and supple

Bough leaned down to dip in mud,

I came before the dark to stare

At a gray nest blown in a swirl,

As in the arm of a dead girl

Crippled and torn and laid bare.” (Wright, “The Quest” 1951, p.3).

“So, as you sleep, I seek your bed

And lay my careful, quiet ear

Among the nestings of your hair,

Against your tenuous, fragile head,

And hear the birds beneath your eyes

Stirrnig for birth, and know the world

Immeasurably alive and good,

Though bare as rifted paradise.” (Wright, “The Quest” 1951, p.3).

“Odor of fallen apple

Met you across the air,

The yellow globe lay purple

With bruises underfoot;

And, ravished out of thought,

Both of you had your share,

Sharp nose and watered mouth,

Of the dark tang of earth.

Yet, body, hold your humor

Away from the tempting tree,

The grass, the luring summer

That summon the flesh to fall.

Be glad of the green wall

You climbed across one day,

When winter stung with ice

That vacant paradise.” (Wright, “A fit against the country” 1951, p.8).

“Sweet earth, he ran and changed his shoes to go

Outside with other children through the fields.

He panted up the hills and swung from trees

Wild as a beast but for the human laughter

That tumbled like a cider down his cheeks.

Sweet earth, the summer has been gone for weeks,

And weary fish already sleeping under water

Below the banks where early acorns freeze.

Receive his flesh and keep it cured of colds.

Button his coats and scarf his throat from snow.” (Wright, “Arrangement with earth for three dead friends” 1951, p.17).

“The dark began to climb the empty hill.

(…)

October blowing dust, and summer gone

Into a dark barn, like a hiding lover.” (Wright, “Eleutheria” 1951, p.27).

“Except for walls of air the houses die

And fall…”  (Wright, “The Assignation” 1951, p.41).

“I walked, when love was gone,

Out of the human town,

For an easy breath of air.

Beyond a break in the trees,

Beyond the hangdog lives

Of old men, beyond girls:

The tall stars held their peace.

Looking in vain for lies

I turned, like earth, to go.

An owl’s wings hovered, bare

On the moon’s hills of snow.

And things were as they were.” (Wright, “A breath of air” 1951, p.69).

“A Girl Walking into a shadow

The mere trees cast no coolness where you go

Your small feet press no darkness into the grass.

I know your weight of days, and mourn I know.

All hues beneath the ground bare grayness.” (Wright, “A girl walking into a shadow” 1951, p.75).

“5. Dreaming

- No, no!

            And the dirtyneck boy starts crying and running

Without getting away, in a moment, on the streets.

            His hands,

He’s got something in his hands!

He doesn’t know what it is, but he runs to the dawn

With his hidden prize.

Endlessly beforehand, we know what his trophy is:

Something ignored, that the soul keeps awake in us.

We almost start to glitter inside his gold

With extravagant nakedness ….

- No, no!

            And the dirtyneck boy starts crying and running

Without getting away, in a moment, on the street.

The arm is strong, it could easily grab him …

The heart, also a beggar, lets him go.”  (Wright, “Ten Short Poems” 1951, p.92).

“Anacreon’s Grave

Here, where the rose opens,

Where delicate vines and bay leaves embrace each other,

Where the young dove is calling,

Where the little cricket is glad,

Whose grave it this,

That all the fods have planted and trimmed with

            living things?

This is Anacreon’s bed.

The happy poet enjoyed spring, summer, and autumn;

Now this small hill shelters him from the winter.” (Wright translating Goethe, “Anacreon’s Grave” 1951, p.108).

“That man standing there, who is he?

His path lost in the thicket,

Behind him the bushes

Lash back together,

The grass rises again,

The waste devours him.” (Wright, “Three stanzas from Goethe” 1951, p.112).

“Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,

Asleep on the black trunk,

Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.

Down the ravine behind the empty house,

The cowbells follow one another

Into the distances of the afternoon.

To my right,

In a field of sunlight between two pines,

The droppings of last year’s horses

Blaze up into golden stones.

I lean back, as the evening darkens and come son.

A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.

I have wasted my life.” (Wright, “Lying in a hammock at William Duffy’s farm in pine island, Minnesota” 1951, p.114).

“Beginnings

The moon drops one or two feathers into the field

The dark wheat listens.

Be still.

Now.” (Wright, “Beginning” 1951, p.127).

“I renounce the blinders of the magazines.

I want to lie down under a tree.

This is the only duty that is not death.

This is the everlasting happiness

Of small winds.” (Wright, “A prayer to escape from the market place” 1951, p.132).

“Rain

It is the sinking of things.” (Wright, “Rain” 1951, p.133).

 “I woke

Just about daybreak, and fell back

In a drowse.

A clean leaf from one of the new cedars

Has blown in through the open window.

How long ago a huge shadow of wings pondering and hovering leaned down

To comfort my face.

I don’t care who loved me.

Somebody did, so I let myself alone.” (Wright, “Poem to a brown cricket” 1951, p.188).

“Work be damned, the kind

Of poetry I want

Is to lie down with my love.

All she is

Is a little ripple of rain

On a small waterfall.” (Wright, “Many of our waters: variations on a poem by a black child” 1951, p.209).