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Kenichi Ohmae : The Master Strategist

Knowledge Seeker — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:10:32 +0000

“Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.’’ Kenichi Ohmae

Described as “Mr. Strategy” worldwide, Dr. Kenichi Ohmae is regularly sought out as a public speaker and management consultant. Ohmae, according to the Financial Times of London, is “Japan’s only management guru.” In 1994, The Economist selected him one of five management gurus in the world. As an author he has published over 100 books, many of which are devoted to business and socio-political analyses.

For a period of twenty-three years, Dr. Ohmae was a partner in McKinsey & Company, Inc., the international management consulting firm. As a co-founder of its strategic management practice, he has served companies in a wide spectrum of industries, including industrial and consumer electronics, financial institutions, telecommunications, office equipment, photographic equipment, industrial machinery, food, rubber, and chemicals. His special area of expertise is formulating creative strategies and developing the organizational concepts to implement them both for private and public sectors. Some of Japan’s most famous and internationally successful companies continue to seek his help in shaping their competitive strategies. Likewise, his counsel is also much in demand among Asian, European and North American-based multinational and governmental institutions. He has also played a vital role in assisting Asian Governments to develop future oriented-regional strategies.

Dr. Ohmae attended Waseda University (BS), the Tokyo Institute of Technology (MS), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D. in nuclear engineering). Prior to joining McKinsey, he worked for Hitachi as a senior design engineer on Japan’s prototype fast breeder reactor. He received an honorary doctorate from Notre Dame University in 1995.

The Mind of the Strategist

In his landmark book, The Mind of the Strategist, Ohmae concentrated on the thought processes behind Japan’s successful strategic thinking, described what strategic thinking is and offered both a conceptual framework and practical advice on its application. The key, he proposes, is integrating the three C’s—Customer, Competitor, and Company—in a strategic triangle that can sustain competitive advantage.

Globalization

Throughout his extraordinary career, Kenichi Ohmae has explored the ways that globalization is dissolving national borders and redefining the strategic business landscape. In his groundbreaking bestseller, The Borderless World, Ohmae coined the term ‘globalization’ and described the ways in which international business was bypassing national borders. In The End of the Nation State, he argued that nation-states have become inefficient, even impossible, business units in the new global economy, to be increasingly replaced by regional economies. The Invisible Continent described how technology was creating new platforms for generating wealth that transcended borders. In The Next Global Stage, Ohmae returned to his concept of “region states,” tomorrow’s most potent economic institutions, with China exemplifying its power. In all these books, his focus has been:

* What are the forces that are dissolving national borders and building new regional economies?
* How do you leverage technology and the other new platforms for growth that are replacing the old ones based on national economies?
* How do you lead a global corporation?
* What roles should governments play when nation-states no longer matter?

This Article has been gathered using multiple media sources for informational purposes only. No attempt has been made to independently verify the information presented in article.

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1 Year Since Lehman Collapse, Where Is The World Now?

Knowledge Seeker — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:57:58 +0000

Large numbers of companies are still in crisis one year on from Lehman Brothers collapse and most of the companies are still focused on cutting costs, reducing capital investments and head counts, a McKinsey & Co. survey found.

Survey also revealed that some companies have moved beyond merely coping with the crisis and are once again actively planning for the long term,

In the longer run, many executives expect the globalization of financial and other markets to resume after slowing notably in 2009. They also foresee additional significant changes in their industries and economies over the next five years, including a stronger government role in both. Nearly three-quarters of the executives expect their companies to be in a stronger position in five years than they were before the crisis. The executives also think that their industries will be more consolidated and innovative–but will grow more slowly.

Following News Stories were used to compile this story

A Third of Companies Still in Crisis, McKinsey Says

The Crisis One Year On: McKinsey Global Survey Results

Companies Find Ways To Increase Profits Under New Economic Conditions: Survey

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Goodbye Recession, Hiring Season Begins Again: HR survey

Knowledge Seeker — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:21:07 +0000

Economic Times reported that a quarter of all Indian companies plan to hire in October-December , up from one in five who said they will recruit in the three months adding up to October, says a survey by HR consulting firm Manpower that points to perceptions across corporate board rooms that the slowdown has bottomed out and brighter times are just around the corner.

The survey conducted among more than 5,600 companies across 30 cities shows that the government’s booster packages to lift the economy, especially the infrastructure industries, are bearing fruit, said Manpower India MD Naresh Malhan.

A key index used for the survey, the net employment outlook (NEO), represents the percentage of companies anticipating total employment to go up against those who expect it to decline. In the latest study, wholesale retail & trade shone the brightest with a NEO of 34% while and public administration & education came close with 32%.

Sectors such as construction & mining, finance , insurance & real estate, manufacturing and services have also shown improvement in hiring intentions compared to the last survey.

Transportation & utilities, which have been a laggard for four years now in Manpower surveys , came a predictable last in terms of hiring intentions with a NEO of 16%.

Within India, employers in the eastern and southern regions reported the strongest hiring outlook with NEO of 25%. Companies in the western and northern regions had NEO of 20% and 23% respectively, but showed improvement compared to the previous quarter. In contrast, the southern region of the country reported the weakest outlook by this region since the survey first began.

India also continued to be most optimistic in terms of hiring outlook internationally , having topped the global survey covering 35 countries with 25% NEO for the coming quarter. Brazil, which was included in the survey for the first time, straight away took the second spot behind India with NEO of 21%. “The strong job prospects in Brazil are being reported because of services sector, where 37% of employers expect to add employees in the next three months,” the Manpower survey said.

You can find a detailed report on Economic Times here

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Tips by Entwistle on fulfilling the Mckinsey/Goldman Sachs Dream

Knowledge Seeker — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:39:44 +0000

L Brooks Entwistle, MD and CEO of Goldman Sachs (India) Securities offered following tips to aspirants planning to carve a career in firms like Mckinsey and Goldman Sachs

1. Be a team player, not a solo star: “Goldman Sachs doesn’t hire super stars who cannot work in teams. It is just not our culture! We look for people who are very good at their job but are able to work in teams, and share credits.”

2. Deliver from Day 1: “When I joined Goldman Sachs after completing MBA at Harvard Business School, I was meeting clients on Day 1! That’s what we expect from our new recruits. To meet clients and start offering value to the organization. This requires a strong sense of business judgment.”

3. Manage complexity: “With globalization of products and services, businesses are very complex today. Can you manage the risks and complexity?”

This was reported by MBAUniverse.com, Entwistle was speaking at the 21st AIMS Management Education Convention of which MBAUniverse.com was the ‘Web Partner’

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July 7, 2009 -- Open Forum: Skills Required to Break Into Consulting/Strategy Roles (2)
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April 1, 2009 -- India Inc doles out perks, awards and even hikes/Increments and Appraisals 2009 in India (0)
March 25, 2009 -- Is Laying Off Employees The Only Measure To Ensure Cost Cutting? (1)
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March 19, 2009 -- Interview with Greg Brenneman, Chairman, CCMP Capital (0)
March 18, 2009 -- Tata Strategic Management (TSM) ties up with Roland Berger (0)
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India’s department of posts (DoP) shortlists Accenture, EY , KPMG, McKinsey and PwC for 1bn Contract

Knowledge Seeker — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:23:18 +0000

India’s department of posts (DoP) is set to spend up to $1 billion on its IT-led business revamp over the next five years. DoP has already short-listed Accenture, Ernst &Young , KPMG, McKinsey and PwC as potential consultants for the project, DOP will be announcing one of the above mentioned consulting biggies as the partner for selecting a tech vendor and also defining the scope of 3-5 year IT revamp by end of this month. DoP will select different vendors for system integration, software , data centres and network management.

ET reports “DoP’s IT revamp is a classic example of old, legacy systems and software applications being unable to cope with rising operational pressures and newer business models. The department has been using software applications such as Meghdoot developed in-house for over a decade. With the government seeking to evolve DoP as a well diversified services provider offering postal, insurance and financial solutions across remote parts of the country, there is a need to upgrade the systems”.

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June 2, 2009 -- Indian Consulting Market: An Insight into the Factors Restricting Growth (1)
May 29, 2009 -- Recession and the Big 4 – How are they dealing with it ? (0)
May 6, 2009 -- The Big 4 Life in India – Life at Big Consulting Firms (50)
June 26, 2009 -- Bharti may rope in EY for the MTN deal (0)
May 11, 2009 -- Dealing with Government Clients in India – New Era for the Consulting Profession (0)
May 27, 2009 -- Engineers and Consulting – Likely/Unlikely Combo? (1)
April 22, 2009 -- PwC establishes an advisory board – Attempt at an Image Makeover (0)
April 1, 2009 -- India Inc doles out perks, awards and even hikes/Increments and Appraisals 2009 in India (0)
March 21, 2009 -- PwC bruised not battered, says CEO (0)
February 27, 2009 -- Emerging Trends in Telecom – by Ashutosh Madan (0)
November 25, 2010 -- Strategy Consulting Landscape (0)
May 27, 2010 -- Partner with XIMB’s Strategy and Consulting Consortium (0)
September 7, 2009 -- Tips by Entwistle on fulfilling the Mckinsey/Goldman Sachs Dream (0)
August 18, 2009 -- BCG already did it, Now Mckinsey and Bain to help L&T (0)
August 16, 2009 -- BCG all set to revive BSNL (0)
August 3, 2009 -- Escaping the politics in an organization (0)
July 7, 2009 -- Open Forum: Skills Required to Break Into Consulting/Strategy Roles (2)
June 22, 2009 -- Recalibrate to Win: FMCG Strategies in a changing landscape (0)
June 19, 2009 -- Interview with Adil Zainulbhai – Head Mckinsey & Co. (India) (0)
June 15, 2009 -- Future of Healthcare IT Outsourcing (1)
June 10, 2009 -- Recent MBA and still Unemployed? (2)
June 2, 2009 -- The Next Big Thing (0)
May 30, 2009 -- Doing Business in Brazil: An ERP Perspective (2)
May 26, 2009 -- Can innovation withstand the ravages of the crisis and the Middle East blame culture? (0)
May 20, 2009 -- Aspirations and Realism: Balancing Business Perspective (1)
May 15, 2009 -- ISB – The Mckinsey Brainchild (0)
April 28, 2009 -- PE firms will fill the funding gap in capital-intensive projects (0)
April 23, 2009 -- The Consulting Life (0)
April 20, 2009 -- Beijing is well-positioned to weather global economic storm – Bain & Company (0)
April 17, 2009 -- Initial Training Key To Groom New Employees (0)
April 16, 2009 -- Reading Your Balance Sheet (0)
April 9, 2009 -- Private sector’s dependence on Government Bailouts Dangerous (0)
April 8, 2009 -- India Salary Hikes Will be Highest in Region (1)
March 30, 2009 -- Wipro sets up consulting R&D arm/Sizes up its Competition (0)
March 25, 2009 -- Is Laying Off Employees The Only Measure To Ensure Cost Cutting? (1)
March 23, 2009 -- Taking on McKinsey And Others (2)
March 21, 2009 -- Rs7.5-lakh houses affordable: Mckinsey to govt (0)
March 19, 2009 -- Interview with Greg Brenneman, Chairman, CCMP Capital (0)
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March 17, 2009 -- Salary increments in India Inc to dip in 2009 (0)
March 16, 2009 -- To Get Rich isnt always so glorious: Variables and Environment in China Negotiations (1)
March 10, 2009 -- Mantra for global consultancies in India: Heal thyself! (0)
March 8, 2009 -- All About The Consulting Industry in India (0)
February 22, 2009 -- My Predictions for Telecom Industry in 2009 & 2010 by Mohit Agrawal (1)
January 9, 2009 -- Investors raise questions over PwC Satyam audit (0)
September 28, 2008 -- McKinsey: Hot bed for future entrepreneurs (0)

BCG already did it, Now Mckinsey and Bain to help L&T

Knowledge Seeker — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 04:47:20 +0000

Consulting biggies, BCG, Bain and Mckinsey are back in the limelight.

Engineering and construction giant Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has already implemented two five-year plans to reposition the company, which was heavily into engineering, procurement and construction segments, with a large exposure to commodity businesses such as cement and ready-mix concrete, to a more focused, value-added engineering company

L&T had earlier sought help from BCG to devise a five year plan, as per the plan, L&T divested its cement business in favor of the Aditya Birla Group. Recently, L&T also divested its ready-mix concrete business in favor of Lafarge SA.
The second five-year plan will get over by March 31, 2010. As per the second plan, L&T’s target was to reach a business volume of Rs 35,000 crore annually. L&T had managed to complete Rs 38,000 crore last year and expects to cross Rs 42,000 crore this year. Thus achieving 15-20 per cent more than the proposed target.

L&T will initiate its third round of major business restructuring in 2010 and has appointed consultants McKinsey and Bain to guide it, as also in the succession plan, Further, L&T’s chairman A M Naik also plans to retire in September 2012

Following News Media Article were referred for this story

L&T restructuring plan to be implemented next year

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July 7, 2009 -- Open Forum: Skills Required to Break Into Consulting/Strategy Roles (2)
June 10, 2009 -- Recent MBA and still Unemployed? (2)
June 2, 2009 -- Indian Consulting Market: An Insight into the Factors Restricting Growth (1)
March 10, 2009 -- Mantra for global consultancies in India: Heal thyself! (0)
September 28, 2008 -- McKinsey: Hot bed for future entrepreneurs (0)
May 27, 2009 -- Engineers and Consulting – Likely/Unlikely Combo? (1)
September 7, 2009 -- Tips by Entwistle on fulfilling the Mckinsey/Goldman Sachs Dream (0)
August 16, 2009 -- BCG all set to revive BSNL (0)
June 19, 2009 -- Interview with Adil Zainulbhai – Head Mckinsey & Co. (India) (0)
May 15, 2009 -- ISB – The Mckinsey Brainchild (0)
May 11, 2009 -- Dealing with Government Clients in India – New Era for the Consulting Profession (0)
April 28, 2009 -- PE firms will fill the funding gap in capital-intensive projects (0)
April 20, 2009 -- Beijing is well-positioned to weather global economic storm – Bain & Company (0)
March 23, 2009 -- Taking on McKinsey And Others (2)
March 21, 2009 -- Rs7.5-lakh houses affordable: Mckinsey to govt (0)
March 19, 2009 -- Interview with Greg Brenneman, Chairman, CCMP Capital (0)
February 4, 2009 -- PA Consulting vs. McKinsey vs. Bain (1)
November 25, 2010 -- Strategy Consulting Landscape (0)
May 27, 2010 -- Partner with XIMB’s Strategy and Consulting Consortium (0)
August 30, 2009 -- India’s department of posts (DoP) shortlists Accenture, EY , KPMG, McKinsey and PwC for 1bn Contract (0)
August 3, 2009 -- Escaping the politics in an organization (0)
June 26, 2009 -- Bharti may rope in EY for the MTN deal (0)
June 22, 2009 -- Recalibrate to Win: FMCG Strategies in a changing landscape (0)
June 15, 2009 -- Future of Healthcare IT Outsourcing (1)
June 2, 2009 -- The Next Big Thing (0)
May 30, 2009 -- Doing Business in Brazil: An ERP Perspective (2)
May 29, 2009 -- Recession and the Big 4 – How are they dealing with it ? (0)
May 26, 2009 -- Can innovation withstand the ravages of the crisis and the Middle East blame culture? (0)
May 20, 2009 -- Aspirations and Realism: Balancing Business Perspective (1)
May 6, 2009 -- The Big 4 Life in India – Life at Big Consulting Firms (50)
April 23, 2009 -- The Consulting Life (0)
April 22, 2009 -- PwC establishes an advisory board – Attempt at an Image Makeover (0)
April 20, 2009 -- Know when to quit a job -Sri Rajan,Partner,Bain & Company (0)
April 18, 2009 -- Did Mckinsey Get it Wrong ?? McKinsey’s Cloud Computing Report Is Partly Cloudy (0)
April 17, 2009 -- Initial Training Key To Groom New Employees (0)
April 16, 2009 -- Reading Your Balance Sheet (0)
April 14, 2009 -- Boston Consulting Group to the Rescue (0)
April 14, 2009 -- 25 Most Innovative Companies – BCG Rankings (0)
April 9, 2009 -- Private sector’s dependence on Government Bailouts Dangerous (0)
April 8, 2009 -- India Salary Hikes Will be Highest in Region (1)
April 1, 2009 -- India Inc doles out perks, awards and even hikes/Increments and Appraisals 2009 in India (0)
March 25, 2009 -- Is Laying Off Employees The Only Measure To Ensure Cost Cutting? (1)
March 21, 2009 -- PwC bruised not battered, says CEO (0)
March 18, 2009 -- Tata Strategic Management (TSM) ties up with Roland Berger (0)
March 17, 2009 -- Salary increments in India Inc to dip in 2009 (0)
March 16, 2009 -- To Get Rich isnt always so glorious: Variables and Environment in China Negotiations (1)
March 8, 2009 -- All About The Consulting Industry in India (0)
February 27, 2009 -- Emerging Trends in Telecom – by Ashutosh Madan (0)
February 22, 2009 -- My Predictions for Telecom Industry in 2009 & 2010 by Mohit Agrawal (1)
January 9, 2009 -- Investors raise questions over PwC Satyam audit (0)

BCG all set to revive BSNL

Knowledge Seeker — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:18:29 +0000

Various Media sources have reported that India”s second largest telecom operator by overall subscriber base, state-owned BSNL, which has seen massive erosion in net profits and is surviving only on interests from its cash reserves, is putting up a four-pronged revival plan based on the recommendations of Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

According to Financial Express, as per the strategy, the company will focus on four key operations–consumer mobility, broadband, enterprise business and new business which includes infrastructure sharing.

According to BCG, BSNL’s enterprise business is a weak link in its entire operational chain. For instance, the BCG report has said, “There are significant gaps in the company’s ‘go to market’ approach. There is almost no customer segmentation and special service level agreement over large enterprises.” A company executive said that in order to revive its enterprise business, the company would now address the issue at three levels–product sales, service delivery and service assurance. Customers would be divided into platinum, gold and silver accounts with special service-level agreements within each segment.

Deccan Herald reported that The telecom giant is losing money, market share and its brand pull. It is a victim of official bungling & political wrangling. Urgent & sweeping changes are needed to restore its lost glory

Further, it is reported that one of the major reasons for BSNL’s poor profit in 2008-09 was a sharp increase meeting enhanced salary commitments due to implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission. Yet another reason was high depreciation charges of Rs 8,500 crore in 2008-09 and Rs 9,696 crore in 2007-08. BSNL has claimed that its earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortisation (EBIDTA), was positive at Rs 7,000 crore.
Intense competition following the opening up of the telecom sector to mobile operators, is another reason that has caused BSNL’s downfall.

It has also been reported that there is a proposal to merge BSNL with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) which operates in Delhi and Mumbai.

Following News Media Articles were referred for this Story

BCG Scripts BSNL revival

BSNL calling a wrong number

Raja to review BSNL’s profit plunge, IPO plans

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August 18, 2009 -- BCG already did it, Now Mckinsey and Bain to help L&T (0)
July 7, 2009 -- Open Forum: Skills Required to Break Into Consulting/Strategy Roles (2)
June 10, 2009 -- Recent MBA and still Unemployed? (2)
June 2, 2009 -- Indian Consulting Market: An Insight into the Factors Restricting Growth (1)
March 10, 2009 -- Mantra for global consultancies in India: Heal thyself! (0)
September 28, 2008 -- McKinsey: Hot bed for future entrepreneurs (0)
November 25, 2010 -- Strategy Consulting Landscape (0)
May 27, 2010 -- Partner with XIMB’s Strategy and Consulting Consortium (0)
September 7, 2009 -- Tips by Entwistle on fulfilling the Mckinsey/Goldman Sachs Dream (0)
August 30, 2009 -- India’s department of posts (DoP) shortlists Accenture, EY , KPMG, McKinsey and PwC for 1bn Contract (0)
August 3, 2009 -- Escaping the politics in an organization (0)
June 26, 2009 -- Bharti may rope in EY for the MTN deal (0)
June 22, 2009 -- Recalibrate to Win: FMCG Strategies in a changing landscape (0)
June 19, 2009 -- Interview with Adil Zainulbhai – Head Mckinsey & Co. (India) (0)
June 15, 2009 -- Future of Healthcare IT Outsourcing (1)
June 2, 2009 -- The Next Big Thing (0)
May 30, 2009 -- Doing Business in Brazil: An ERP Perspective (2)
May 29, 2009 -- Recession and the Big 4 – How are they dealing with it ? (0)
May 27, 2009 -- Engineers and Consulting – Likely/Unlikely Combo? (1)
May 26, 2009 -- Can innovation withstand the ravages of the crisis and the Middle East blame culture? (0)
May 20, 2009 -- Aspirations and Realism: Balancing Business Perspective (1)
May 15, 2009 -- ISB – The Mckinsey Brainchild (0)
May 11, 2009 -- Dealing with Government Clients in India – New Era for the Consulting Profession (0)
May 6, 2009 -- The Big 4 Life in India – Life at Big Consulting Firms (50)
April 28, 2009 -- PE firms will fill the funding gap in capital-intensive projects (0)
April 23, 2009 -- The Consulting Life (0)
April 22, 2009 -- PwC establishes an advisory board – Attempt at an Image Makeover (0)
April 20, 2009 -- Beijing is well-positioned to weather global economic storm – Bain & Company (0)
April 17, 2009 -- Initial Training Key To Groom New Employees (0)
April 16, 2009 -- Reading Your Balance Sheet (0)
April 14, 2009 -- Boston Consulting Group to the Rescue (0)
April 14, 2009 -- 25 Most Innovative Companies – BCG Rankings (0)
April 9, 2009 -- Private sector’s dependence on Government Bailouts Dangerous (0)
April 8, 2009 -- India Salary Hikes Will be Highest in Region (1)
April 1, 2009 -- India Inc doles out perks, awards and even hikes/Increments and Appraisals 2009 in India (0)
March 25, 2009 -- Is Laying Off Employees The Only Measure To Ensure Cost Cutting? (1)
March 23, 2009 -- Taking on McKinsey And Others (2)
March 21, 2009 -- Rs7.5-lakh houses affordable: Mckinsey to govt (0)
March 21, 2009 -- PwC bruised not battered, says CEO (0)
March 19, 2009 -- Interview with Greg Brenneman, Chairman, CCMP Capital (0)
March 18, 2009 -- Tata Strategic Management (TSM) ties up with Roland Berger (0)
March 17, 2009 -- Salary increments in India Inc to dip in 2009 (0)
March 16, 2009 -- To Get Rich isnt always so glorious: Variables and Environment in China Negotiations (1)
March 8, 2009 -- All About The Consulting Industry in India (0)
February 27, 2009 -- Emerging Trends in Telecom – by Ashutosh Madan (0)
February 22, 2009 -- My Predictions for Telecom Industry in 2009 & 2010 by Mohit Agrawal (1)
January 9, 2009 -- Investors raise questions over PwC Satyam audit (0)

KPMG, Roland to help Tata’s

Knowledge Seeker — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 06:52:15 +0000

Big Consulting firms are back in action and in the limelight, it is reported that Tata Motors has hired KPMG and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants to advice on cost-cutting and cash flow management at Jaguar and Land Rover, the luxury brands it bought last year, according to media reports.

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, the company has appointed advisers KPMG and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants to reduce cost at JLR. JLR’s UK operations suffered a combined net loss of 673 million pounds last year, accounts filed with the Companies House showed.

Tata has spent one billion dollars to keep the struggling brands afloat since the acquisition. The report said that stabilising sales in India helped the company offset a continuing slump in exports, as the global economic crisis hit its main export markets of South Africa, Turkey and Russia.

Few days back a leading global ratings agency downgraded the credit rating of Tata Motors, citing worries over its struggling British luxury car unit Jaguar Land Rover.

Source: Economic Times

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SEC team meets CBI, SEBI, KPMG officials

Knowledge Seeker — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 17:20:57 +0000

The Hindu Business Line reported that the United States’ Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) team has held discussions with Mr Ashwani Kumar, CBI Director, and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), on the Rs 7,136-crore Satyam scam at the IT major’s Infocity campus at Madhapur here on Friday.

The three-member SEC team also quizzed auditors of KPMG, which is taking part in the restatement of the balance sheets of the company. KPMG is doing a forensic study on how the scam was perpetrated over the years.

The SEC team, which conducted a preliminary probe in February 2009 soon after the scam broke out, had sought the permission from the Union Government and the CBI to carry out its own investigation into the issue.

Mr Ashwani Kumar, who reviewed the CBI’s probe into the scam, went to the Satyam campus along with his colleagues in the Multi-Discliplinary Investigating Team on Friday. The SEC team reportedly enquired into the role played by PriceWaterhouse, the statutory auditors for Satyam for years during the scam period.

You can read the post on BusinessLine

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How McKinsey solves problems

Knowledge Seeker — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:13:51 +0000

After finishing reading The McKinsey Way, a short, 92-page book, readers will feel like having mentally listened to an “extended” elevator pitch about the work practices, culture and people of one of the leading consulting firms. The “elevator test” is something every senior associate must anticipate and be prepared for well in advance—the test may arise when the CEO of the client organisation has an emergency to attend to and he demands the associate to present the solution to him in a nutshell. The associate must effectively brief the CEO, who’s rushing to meet his lawyer outside his office, the results of months of research work in a couple of minutes before the elevator reaches the ground floor.

Ethan M Rasiel, the author, who worked at the firm at its New York office for four years (from 1989 to 1992), must have imagined that his readers, like that rushing CEO, are always taking the elevator—for, he had presented the approaches and techniques (such as MECE—pronounced “me-se” and stands for Mutually Exclusive Colle-ctively Exhaustive), the term McKinsey uses for attracting clients, analysing and solving their business problems in interestingly short and simple way. He also explains how he learnt the culture of the firm. Then a newcomer, he once wished his senior colleague “good luck. I hope you sell them on this one.” Pat came the reply, “No, no. Remember, McKinsey doesn’t sell.”

According to the author, no senior McKinsey directors make cold calls at the offices of Bill Gates and Ted Turner, asking if they have problems they want solved. The Firm doesn’t run ads in Forbes or Barron’s advertising 50 percent off telecommunications consulting. Although a partner’s compensation depends in large part on the amount of business he brings to the firm, no one goes out to knock on doors. The firm waits for the phone to ring.

And ring it does, not because McKinsey sells, but because McKinsey markets. The book talks about the several different ways the firm markets its services to make sure that on the day a senior executive decides she has a business problem, one of the first calls she makes is to the local office of McKinsey. “The Firm produces a steady stream of books and articles, some of them extremely influential, such as the famous In Search of Excellence (co-authored by Tom Peters, a former associate of McKinsey). McKinsey also publishes its own scholarly journal, The McKinsey Quarterly, which it sends gratis to its clients, as well as to its former consultants, many of whom now occupy senior positions at potential clients. The Firm invites (and gets) a lot of coverage by journalists.

McKinsey maintains a vast network of informal contacts with potential clients as well. The Firm encourages its partners to participate in “extracurricular activities” such as sitting on the boards of charities, museums, and cultural organisations.

However, The McKinsey Way is not The IBM Way or The HP Way in the sense that it may not offer enough insights into how the Firm grew to become what it is today. The book is more like a former McKinsey-ite’s diary that tells how people at the Firm worked solving what problems with which tools under what sort of environments. The book is all about the McKinsey way of thinking about business problems; the McKinsey way of working to solve business problems; the McKinsey way of selling solutions and inside story of life at McKinsey.

While introducing problem-solving techniques, Rasiel also explains the importance the Firm places on them and when and where they are deployed. All the standard time-tested McKinsey approaches such as the MECE that get pounded into every new associate’s head from the moment of entering the Firm are explained. “MECE structures your thinking with maximum clarity…when you think you have determined the issues, take a hard look at them. Is each one a separate and distinct issue? If so, then your issue list is mutually exclusive. Does every aspect of the problem come under one (and only one) of these issues? If so, then your issues are collectively exhaustive,” Rasiel explains. MECE is a cardinal rule so much so that “every document (including internal memos), every presentation, every e-mail and voice mail produced by McKinsey-ite is supposed to be MECE.”

Detailed are the step-by-step processes in problem solving—arriving at the Initial Hypothesis, testing the Initial Hypothesis, etc. The different styles and approaches that are taken in going ahead solving the problems in the real world are explained with anecdotes from the former associates. The author feels that approaches make all the difference. He dedicates a chapter for the approaches that begins by saying “just knowing the essence of the McKinsey problem-solving process doesn’t mean that now you can go forth and conquer the business world by being fact based, structured and hypothesis driven.”

The book also talks about the work-life of its people. The clients’ expectations (“they want it fixed yesterday and for nothing”) invariably would make it a challenge (for the senior associates like Engagement Director (ED) or Director of Client Services) as to how to balance the desires and budget constraints of the clients with the limits of the team. However, he points out that as an organisation, McKinsey is extremely good at figuring out how much a team can do over the length of a typical study. “The best EDs can balance the competing demands of client and team to a nicety; they tell the client, “We’re going to do X and Y. We could do Z, but it would kill the team,” while telling the team, “Look, we’ve already promised the client that we would do Z, so we’ve got to deliver.” They then work the team to its limit while simultaneously making the client feel that he is getting value for money and exceeding his expectations.”

There are hints everywhere (especially in the chapter, ‘Surviving at McKinsey’) about the high demanding workday at the Firm. Rasiel quotes a former associate who says, “…leaving McKinsey is never a question of whether—it’s a question of when. We used to say that half-life of a class of new associates is about two years—by the end of that time, half will have left the Firm. That was true in my time there and still is today.” Those who leave McKinsey may never have to work the same hours at the same intensity in any other job.

Some of McKinsey’s former associates’ responses as to “What is the most valuable lesson you have learnt?” and “What’re your most unforgettable memories?” make interesting reading and reveal how profound an impression the Firm had created in them.

As the author says, although the responses show that McKinsey alumni took away many memories, the strongest ones had to do with the interesting people with different background that make the Firm what it is. A former employee tells that in this way, “The collegiate atmosphere. The thing I miss most about McKinsey is the canteen, not so much because the food was good, but because you could always take time out for an interesting conversation.” The McKinsey culture is mainly about “structure, structure, structure, MECE, MECE, MECE, MECE, hypothesis-driven, hypothesis-driven, hypothesis-driven,” that influences once personality so profoundly that a former associate, who stayed with the Firm too long, says: “I think anything I would say would be too cynical.”

Source : ExpressITpeople

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