Sunday, February 17, 2008
The McKinsey Mind: Understanding and Implementing the Problem-Solving Tools and Management Techniques of the World's Top Strategic Consulting Firm by
Product Description
The groundbreaking follow-up to the international bestsellera hands-on guide to putting McKinsey techniques to work in your organization
McKinsey & Company is the most respected and most secretive consulting firm in the world, and business readers just can't seem to get enough of all things McKinsey. Now, hot on the heels of his acclaimed international bestseller The McKinsey Way, Ethan Rasiel brings readers a powerful new guide to putting McKinsey concepts and skills into actionThe McKinsey Mind. While the first book used case studies and anecdotes from former and current McKinseyites to describe how "the firm" solves the thorniest business problems of their A-list clients, The McKinsey Mind goes a giant step further. It explains, step-by-step, how to use McKinsey tools, techniques and strategies to solve an array of core business problems and to make any business venture more successful.
Designed to work as a stand-alone guide or together with The McKinsey Way, The McKinsey Mind follows the same critically acclaimed style and format as its predecessor. In this book authors Rasiel and Friga expand upon the lessons found in The McKinsey Way with real-world examples, parables, and easy-to-do exercises designed to get readers up and running.
Product Details
Amazon Sales Rank: #19638 in Books
Published on: 2001-09-26
Number of items: 1
Binding: Hardcover
272 pages
Editorial Reviews
Download Description
"McKinsey & Company is the most respected and most secretive consulting firm in the world, and business readers just can't seem to get enough of all things McKinsey. Now, hot on the heels of his acclaimed international bestseller The McKinsey Way, Ethan Rasiel brings readers a powerful new guide to putting McKinsey concepts and skills into actionThe McKinsey Mind. While the first book used case studies and anecdotes from former and current McKinseyites to describe how ""the firm"" solves the thorniest business problems of their A-list clients, The McKinsey Mind goes a giant step further. It explains, step-by-step, how to use McKinsey tools, techniques and strategies to solve an array of core business problems and to make any business venture more successful. Designed to work as a stand-alone guide or together with The McKinsey Way, The McKinsey Mind follows the same critically acclaimed style and format as its predecessor. In this book authors Rasiel and Friga expand upon the lessons found in The McKinsey Way with real-world examples, parables, and easy-to-do exercises designed to get readers up and running."
Download Description
"McKinsey & Company is the most respected and most secretive consulting firm in the world, and business readers just can't seem to get enough of all things McKinsey. Now, hot on the heels of his acclaimed international bestseller The McKinsey Way, Ethan Rasiel brings readers a powerful new guide to putting McKinsey concepts and skills into actionThe McKinsey Mind. While the first book used case studies and anecdotes from former and current McKinseyites to describe how ""the firm"" solves the thorniest business problems of their A-list clients, The McKinsey Mind goes a giant step further. It explains, step-by-step, how to use McKinsey tools, techniques and strategies to solve an array of core business problems and to make any business venture more successful. Designed to work as a stand-alone guide or together with The McKinsey Way, The McKinsey Mind follows the same critically acclaimed style and format as its predecessor. In this book authors Rasiel and Friga expand upon the lessons found in The McKinsey Way with real-world examples, parables, and easy-to-do exercises designed to get readers up and running."
From the Back Cover
The First Step-by-Step Manual for Achieving McKinsey-Style Solutionsand Success
International bestseller The McKinsey Way provided a through-the-keyhole look at McKinsey & Co., history's most prestigious consulting firm. Now, the follow-up implementation manual, The McKinsey Mind, reveals the hands-on secrets behind the powerhouse firm's successand discusses how executives from any field or industry can use those tactics to be more proactive and successful in their day-to-day decision-making.
Structured around interviews and frontline anecdotes from former McKinsey consultantsas well as the authors, themselves McKinsey alumniThe McKinsey Mind explores how McKinsey tools and techniques can be applied to virtually any business problem in any setting. Immensely valuable in today's crisis-a-minute workplace, it discusses:
Techniques for framing problems and designing analyses
Methods for interpreting results and presenting solutions
Keys for managing teams, managing clients, and managing yourself
The ability to think in a rigorous, structured mannera McKinsey manneris not a birthright. It can, however, be a learned behavior. Let The McKinsey Mind show you how to approach and solve problems with the skill of a McKinsey consultant and obtain the positive results that have been delivered to McKinsey clients for over a century.
McKinsey & Co. is renowned throughout the world for its ability to arrive at sharp, insightful analyses of its clients' situations then provide solutions that are as ingenious as they are effective. McKinsey succeeds almost as well as shielding its revolutionary methods from competitors' scrutiny.
Now, The McKinsey Mind pulls back the curtain to reveal the ways in which McKinsey consultants consistently deliver their magic and how those methods can be used to achieve exceptional results in companies from 10 employees to 10,000. Packed with insights and brainstorming exercises for establishing the McKinsey mind-set, this book is an in-depth guidebook for applying McKinsey methods in any industry and organizational environment.
Taking a step-by-step approach, The McKinsey Mind looks at the McKinsey mystique from every angle. Owners, executives, consultants, and team leaders can look to this comprehensive treatment for ways to:
Follow McKinsey's MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) line of attack
Frame business problems to make them susceptible to rigorous fact-based analysis
Use the same fact-based analysisin conjunction with gut instinctto make strategic decisions
Conduct meaningful interviews and effectively summarize the content of those interviews
Analyze the data to find out the "so what"
Clearly communicate fact-based solutions to all pertinent decision makers
Capture and manage the knowledge in any organization to maximize its value
Because organizational problems rarely exist in a vacuum, The McKinsey Mind discusses these approaches and more to help you arrive at usable and sensible solutions. It goes straight to the sourceformer McKinsey consultants now in leadership positions in organizations throughout the worldto give you today's only implementation-based, solution-driven look at the celebrated McKinsey problem-solving method.
"The McKinsey Mind provides a fascinating peek at the tools, practices, and philosophies that have helped this much-admired firm develop generations of bright young MBAs into trusted corporate advisors. But the book's practical, down-to-earth advice is not just for consultants. The disciplined way in which McKinsey consultants frame issues, analyze problems, and present solutions offers valuable lessons for any practicing or aspiring manager."
Christopher A. Bartlett, Daewoo Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
"McKinsey and Co. rescues the biggest companies from disaster by addressing every problem with its own mixture of logic-driven, hypothesis-tested analysis. The McKinsey Mind helps everyone learn how to think with the same discipline and devotion to creating business success. According to the maxim, giving a man a fish may feed him for a day, but teaching him to fish will feed him for a lifetime. Paying McKinsey to solve your problem may help you for a day, but learning how they do it should help you for a lifetime."
Peter Wayner, Author of Free For All: How Linux and the Free Software Movement Undercut The High-Tech Titans
"The McKinsey Mind unlocks the techniques of the world's preeminent consulting firm and presents them in a format that is easy to understand and even easier to implement."
Dan Nagy, Associate Dean, The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
Customer Reviews
Not Much Here
Not very useful if you are looking to improve your business. Would appreciate a deeper evaluation and more robust case studies. Seems as if authoer is using re-treads of basic McKinsey axioms over and over again. The 80/20 rule...seriously? This is not worth buying the book.
This Book is a Life Changer
I didn't read McKinsey Way and you don't have to either to see the impact that McKinsey Mind hypothesis based decision making will have in your life. It uses the same principle that many authors like Polya, Bransford and Stein and many others use. If you work backwards you will get far better results, faster. Why? Simple: Just remember how easy is to solve the labyrinth puzzles starting from the end. Then compare that with the time lost when you try to figure out your way to the end starting from the beginning. This is a simplified analogy of the power and potential this technique has!!!!
I disagree with some reviews that it's a difficult book to read, just read the numerous and very illustrative examples the authors give you and you will find that while it's a different way of thinking IT WORKS! and that's all that matters. This book really changed the way I solve problems
Useful book for consulting
This book is based on Mckinseys consultancy practise. Step by step some best practices are shown used in this company. Very useful, when you're i.e. considering a job in this field. On the other hand the Mckinsey brand is a little over exaggarated with all the Mckinsey slang and heroic attitude towards this company. But when you read through this, it stays a valuable book.
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Management (General)

