Share - McKinsey's Employee Training Philosophy

Author: Max Landsberg
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: Alex was pacing restlessly. He had just joined the company as a strategic planning manager, and so far, his project had already been halfway through. He was used to gathering a lot of information about market trends and analyzing vast amounts of data, but the problem was, he wasn’t good at writing concise and clear reports—which was one of the essential skills for his current position. After some effort, he finally came up with an idea he thought was very creative: "Mergers and Acquisitions in the Ice Cream Industry—Cruel Logic or Gentle Choice?" However, when he started to outline the main body of the article, he realized the real trouble had arrived. "What should I do?" Alex took a deep breath, stood up, walked down the corridor to his boss Bob’s office for help. "You should start with the main message," Bob said, "then list the reasons that support this message— preferably in three points, as most people find this format easier to accept. You can list these points in any order, or you can present your arguments in a logical sequence: first state the problem, then discuss its impact, and finally propose your solution. Alright, that’s all for now. I have a meeting to attend. Just write out a draft first, and we can discuss it later." But Bob’s sudden stream of advice only made Alex more confused. In fact, he couldn’t understand what Bob was saying at all, and before he knew it, the entire afternoon had passed, and his report still hadn’t made any progress. "Maybe Sarah can help me!" Alex suddenly thought of Sarah. She was a senior marketing manager at the company who had helped hire Alex, and Alex guessed that his position as a strategic planning manager largely owed to Sarah. Sarah and Alex had a lot in common—they graduated from the same business school, were both interested in direct marketing, and were both tennis players. Sarah very well understood the difficulties Alex was facing in writing the report. "What do you want to say about the ice cream industry?" she asked. "Oh, I’m not sure if we should enter this industry, but it looks very attractive!" Alex replied. "Oh, why is it attractive?" "Because the demand for ice cream is constantly increasing, the industry’s profit margins are relatively stable, the competition isn’t very fierce, and the price of ice cream has remained high over the past five years." "I see," she replied, "Among these four reasons, are there any that are repetitive?" "Yes, the price is actually one of the factors affecting the profit margins."