Alternative Solutions McKinsey Company example essay topic

Problem Statement McKinsey & Company is a highly successful consulting firm worth over 1.8 billion dollars. However, its leader Raj at Gupta wondered if the company could better utilize the knowledge of its employees to better serve its worldwide clients. It was obvious that McKinsey & Company had a strong base of core competencies among its employees, but Gupta was unsure if knowledge development was meeting its clients' needs in an information and knowledge driven age. Clients hired McKinsey & Company expecting leading edge information from to assist them in their decision-making processes.

Gupta felt a process was needed to develop, capture, and leverage this information which he considered an asset to the company. So, the task lay before them on how to accumulate and store the information quickly and make it readily available to consultants on a global scale. List of Symptoms McKinsey & Company desired to provide state-of-the-art knowledge to its clients but currently had no means of measuring exactly how well they were doing in developing their knowledge. o Employees were not being properly developed for the new direction of the McKinsey & Company. McKinsey & Company still had the ability to provide excellent advice to its Clients. However, they were not as prepared as their competitors for dealing with the upcoming technologies of the future. o McKinsey & Company had experienced rapid growth. McKinsey & Company had 3,800 consultants in 69 offices worldwide.

In its present state, the large number of employees and offices it managed actually hindered McKinsey from effectively performing its operations worldwide. Essentially, McKinsey & Company had become too large for itself under its current architecture. Alternative Solutions McKinsey & Company did not desire to rest on its laurels and remain content with the status quo, rather they aggressively sought out to find answers to their dilemmas. They realized that being a 1.8 billion dollar company did not come easily and also that without modifications they would not remain in their top position in consulting. o (1) McKinsey & Company must implement a system of knowledge management in which the entire organization is able to benefit from the sharing of knowledge between employees. This will allow the company to benefit internally.

Alternative Solution One: (2) In order to measure the results McKinsey & Company must revisit their goals to develop, capture, and leverage their knowledge to better serve their clients. Alternative Solution Two: Know the audience to be measured and what benefits they seek from their relationship with McKinsey & Company. Alternative Solution Three: Define exactly what is to be measured and the approaches that will be used. All measurements must be valid, actionable and reliable. Alternative Solution Four: Decide what data will be collected and how it will be collected. Focus on the most pertinent information.

Alternative Solution Five: Refer back to the original goals and the audience in the presentation of the results. Alternative Solution Six: Monitor and evaluate how the measures are working. Using the steps mentioned above will provide quantitative results for measurement. o McKinsey & Company must implement procedures that modify their hiring practices. McKinsey & Company currently hires employees who have specialized skills.

Their hires excel in their specific area of expertise. However, they know little about areas outside their areas of specialization. This does not add value to McKinsey & Company nor does it ready the company for change. The goal is for McKinsey & Company to be prepared for imminent changes in an information and knowledge-driven age. McKinsey must hire multi-faceted employees who will increase the value of the company through their additional competencies while allowing McKinsey to respond to the marketplace before its competition does. McKinsey & Company must actively seek employees who not only display the current competencies McKinsey currently desires, but they must also actively seek out employees who are also fundamentally sound in the various technologies.

The hiring of multi-faceted employees will allow McKinsey to better grasp changes and will also maintain their competitive advantage as their employees are better prepared to observe and implement changes. o Executives must implement structural change through the managers at McKinsey &Company. (Bartlett, Pg. 346) Managers must be reoriented to reshape the decision-making systems that are now centralized. The hub must remain centralized and the sub units both locally and globally must be decentralized. This will allow for more on the spot decision-making and less dependence upon the hub, which slows down the entire operation. McKinsey must develop a transnational mindset. Advantages of each Alternative Alternative Solution One: The sharing of knowledge between employees is cost effective given that it does not require paid personnel to train others, which is a factor cost benefit.

Sharing knowledge is also efficient because using existing employees to train others increases employee productivity at the same cost. In addition, the sharing of knowledge between employees also diminishes the learning curve as employees can get hands on training as well as get to view all work in progress, which also facilitates in reducing the learning curve. These competencies are free of charge, as "value" in each employee. The benefits gained from the use of this value will greatly benefit McKinsey & Company, as it will have the ability to better serve its clients with the finest and most recent information available.

Alternative Solution Two: Human Resources at McKinsey must modify their hiring strategy to search for versatile recruits who are excellent consultants while being especially proficient in the technologies. Attracting these types of employees will further enhance the competencies of McKinsey and Company and help the organization see changes on the horizon before their competitors, which will in turn give McKinsey a competitive advantage, as they will have the ability to act on knowledge based changes due their employees combined knowledge in a variety of areas. For those who are not as concerned as others are toward staying current on the latest trends that will assist the company, McKinsey should provide an incentive for all employees to actively participate. This will ensure that McKinsey remains ahead of its competitors and helps create an infrastructure of knowledge. Again, not only does McKinsey and Company benefit from this knowledge, but so does its clients. Alternative Solution Three: McKinsey and Company must have a transnational outlook.

McKinsey's Organizational efficiency will be substantially improved as both managers and employees will not have to answer global issues but can focus on more immediate tasks at their respective business units. Through decentralization, responsibility for global issues can be handled on the spot. Organizational learning will further diminish the necessity for the hub to be hindered with global unit problems, as the global units will be self-sufficient. Additional resources will become available and through improved use of time and the entire organization will become more efficient and effective.

Disadvantages of each Alternative Alternative Solution One: Unfortunately, not all who are gifted in the technologies stay current on the latest trends. In addition, the incentive to keep abreast of technology related news moreover, these events may not be of interest to some employees based upon a variety of circumstances. In addition, this is not to say that all those who excel in technology are equipped to give expert advice to their co-workers. Alternative Solution Two: Upon the hiring of a new McKinsey employee, Human resources can only assume that the versatile employees that they are now mandated to hire would be willing to perform as team players and perform for the organization, instead of for personal gain. A great deal of what is going to be asked of both management and the employees does not support individual performance but team performance. Many employees find these situations difficult to adjust to in depending upon their prior experience and personal aspirations.

Alternative Solution Two: Unfortunately, not all who are gifted in the technologies stay current on the latest trends. Alternative Solution Three: As each global unit grows, so will its problems. In McKinsey's new decentralized workplace, global units must be virtually self-sufficient. Without an open channel of communication goals and expectations can be altered leading to a poor performing unit.

Decisions can be made in light of cultural norms.

Bibliography

(1) web psc e. htm (2) web management / km 2/measurement. asp#How (3) Bartlett, Christopher A., (2004) Transnational Management: Text, Cases and Reading in Cross-Border Management. McGraw-Hill / Irwin; New York, NY.