[EAS]McKinsey & Enron

pjk pjk at design.eng.yale.edu
Thu Jul 25 09:31:00 EDT 2002


Subject:   McKinsey & Enron

"The Talent Myth" by Malcolm Gladwell
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?020722fa_fact

Some quotes:

"Don't be afraid to promote stars without specifically relevant
experience, seemingly over their heads." Success in the modern
economy, according to Michaels, Handfield-Jones, and Axelrod, [of
McKinsey --pjk] requires "the talent mind-set": the "deep-seated
belief that having better talent at all levels is how you outperform
your competitors."

This "talent mind-set" is the new orthodoxy of American management.
It is the intellectual justification for why such a high premium is
placed on degrees from first-tier business schools, and why the
compensation packages for top executives have become so lavish.

None, however, have spread the word quite so ardently as McKinsey,
and, of all its clients, one firm took the talent mind-set closest
to heart. It was a company where McKinsey conducted twenty separate
projects, where McKinsey's billings topped ten million dollars a
year, where a McKinsey director regularly attended board meetings,
and where the C.E.O. himself was a former McKinsey partner. The
company, of course, was Enron.






More information about the EAS-INFO mailing list