The McKinsey Way: Using the Techniques of the World's Top Strategic Consultants to Help You and Your Business

"If more business books were as useful, concise, and just plain fun to read as THE MCKINSEY WAY, the business world would be a better place." --Julie Bick, best-selling author of ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW IN BUSINESS I LEARNED AT MICROSOFT.

"Enlivened by witty anecdotes, THE MCKINSEY WAY contains valuable lessons on widely diverse topics such as marketing, interviewing, team-building, and brainstorming." --Paul H. Zipkin, Vice-Dean, The Fuqua School of Business

It's been called "a breeding ground for gurus." McKinsey & Company is the gold-standard consulting firm whose alumni include titans such as "In Search of Excellence" author Tom Peters, Harvey Golub of American Express, and Japan's Kenichi Ohmae.

When Fortune 100 corporations are stymied, it's the "McKinsey-ites" whom they call for help. In THE MCKINSEY WAY, former McKinsey associate Ethan Rasiel lifts the veil to show you how the secretive McKinsey works its magic, and helps you emulate the firm's well-honed practices in problem solving, communication, and management.

He shows you how McKinsey-ites think about business problems and how they work at solving them, explaining the way McKinsey approaches every aspect of a task:

How McKinsey recruits and molds its elite consultants;

How to "sell without selling";

How to use facts, not fear them;

Techniques to jump-start research and make brainstorming more productive;

How to build and keep a team at the top its game;

Powerful presentation methods, including the famous waterfall chart, rarely seen outside McKinsey;

How to get ultimate "buy-in" to your findings;

Survival tips for working in high-pressure organizations.

Both a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most admired and secretive companies in the business world and a toolkit of problem-solving techniques without peer, THE MCKINSEY WAY is fascinating reading that empowers every business decision maker to become a better strategic player in any organization. Penetrate the McKinsey mystique and learn the secrets of the world's most sought after consulting firm.

Praise for The McKinsey Way

"If more business books were as useful, concise, and just plain fun to read as The McKinsey Way, the business world would be a better place."--Julie Bick, Best-selling author of All I Really Need to Know in Business I Learned at Microsoft

"Enlivened by witty anecdotes, The McKinsey Way contains valuable lessons on widely diverse topics such as marketing, interviewing, team-building, and brain-storming."--Paul H. Zipkin, Vice-Dean, The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

"Apt to become the reference book on business management. With the help of The McKinsey Way, managers can approach issues they face as if they had a McKinsey expert beside them. It will certainly help those of use who cannot afford McKinsey!"--Mord Weisler, Chairman, PRI Automation, Inc

"The closest thing to getting three years of consulting experience in three hours."--John Alsop, President, Progress Software

"The McKinsey Way describes a course of analysis that is very powerful, well-written, and effective."--Peter A. Brooke, Chairman, Advent International

About the Author
Ethan M. Rasiel joined McKinsey & Co.'s New York office in 1989 and worked there until 1992. While at "the firm", his clients included major companies in finance, telecommunications, computing, and consumer goods sectors. Before working at McKinsey, he worked as an equity fund manager at Mercury Asset Management in London. He has also worked as an investment banker. He has a bachelor's degree from Princeton University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
I got interested in books on McKinsey after reading ‘The Firm’, by Duff McDonald and ‘When McKinsey Comes to Town’, by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe. One of the earlier books is Ethan Rasiel’s ‘The McKinsey Way’. That is a 178-page manual on how to be an effective corporate worker, or how to be effective at work as an executive. It has short chapters on how to assemble a team, and tips on team bonding (yes, the current mantra on bonding probably came from there), and ‘Always write a thank you note’. Raisel then teams up with Paul Friga to write the sequel, ‘The McKinsey Mind’, which he describes as picking up where his previous book left off – which is basically, more of the same. It seems, one of the McKinsey ways is not to write one book when you can split it into two – or three.