Kevin Sneader has repair work to do in South Africa—and must tackle the technology sector

THE Jesuits, the US Marines and the Freemasons: McKinsey has been compared to them all, at one time or other. The firm prides itself on being the most prestigious management consultancy, sending out its bright, young footsoldiers to advise executives and policymakers on tricky strategic issues. It is everywhere, counselling 90 of the top 100 firms (as ranked by Forbes magazine).Among its many government assignments it is helping Britain to leave the EU, Lebanon to fix its economy and the Saudis to wean themselves off oil.

Occasionally the company needs new leadership itself. On February 25th the result of a long election process was made public. Kevin Sneader, the Scottish chairman of McKinsey’s Asia unit, will replace Dominic Barton as managing partner—the top job. He inherits a thriving business. The firm remains by far the biggest of the premium consultancies (see table). Over the past decade, annual revenues have doubled to $10bn; so too has the size of the partnership, to more than 2,000.

inherit: to receive (money, property, etc.) from someone when that person dies

麦肯锡是老牌咨询公司，最近有了新的老大Kevin Sneader，从上一任手里接过了一手好牌，公司年利润翻倍到100亿！

The firm has also overhauled its own operations in many respects. Mr Barton claims that half of what it does today falls within capabilities that did not exist five years ago. It is working to ensure that customers turn to McKinseyites for help with all things digital. It has had to make acquisitions in some areas: recent purchases include QuantumBlack, an advanced-analytics firm in London, and LUNAR, a Silicon-Valley design company. It is increasingly recruiting outside the usual business schools to bring in seasoned data scientists and software developers.

Staying relevant to big tech firms is not easy, however. McKinsey has kept plenty of older ones as clients, such as Hewlett Packard, but it has a lot more to do to crack new tech giants and unicorns (private startups worth more than $1bn). In general, management consultancies have made fewer inroads into firms such as Facebook and Google.That is partly because consultants typically help struggling firms cut costs; they have less appeal to firms already on the cutting edge. Cash-rich tech firms also tend to prefer keeping things in-house rather than bringing in consultants. They compete with McKinsey in some ways, too. Amazon has become the largest recruiter at some business schools, and the firm’s own consultants are lured away by tech firms’ generous pay packages.

inroad： used to describe a situation in which someone or something becomes more successful or important often by making someone or something else less successful

这些咨询公司很少能把Facebook 和 google这样的公司变成客户，首先它们已经处在行业领先位置，第二这些公司也超有钱，比较喜欢自己招聘这些管理人才，而不是向咨询公司咨询。

McKinsey’s response is to try to gain a foothold earlier on in tech firms’ life-cycles. It is targeting medium-sized companies, which would not have been able to afford its fees, by offering shorter projects with smaller “startup-sized” teams. As it chases growth, the firm is also doing things it used to eschew as being insufficiently glamorous.In 2010 it moved into business restructuring and it has also set up a global strategy “implementation” practice. That is a far cry from the days when its consultants stuck mainly to blue-sky thoughts in their ivory towers. Mr Bartonhas also overseen a shift towards a results-based fee model, bringing the firm into line with its nearest competitors, the Boston Consulting Group and Bain& Company.

eschew: to avoid (something) especially because you do not think it is right, proper, etc.

As McKinsey takes on more people and practices, cracks in its distinctive “One Firm” ethos, and its reputation for discretion, might start to show. It is under investigation in South Africa fo rworking with Trillian, a local consulting firm owned by an associate of the controversial Gupta family, on a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Eskom, a state-owned utility. The firm says it never worked for the Guptas, but admits to “errors of judgment”, particularly in starting work with Trillian before its internal due diligence was complete. The fallout so far has been limited to South Africa, with a few local clients, including Coca-Cola’s local unit and some banks, saying they will not give McKinsey any new work.

Events in South Africa maybe an aberration, rather than a consequence of rapid growth. But the tension between profit and principle is not new. It manifested itself most clearly when Rajat Gupta, a former managing partner, was convicted of insider trading in 2012. Can McKinsey continue to grow rapidly while keeping its key asset—its reputation as a trusted adviser—intact? Now there is a question worthy of the world’s best consultants.

aberration: something (such as a problem or a type of behavior) that is unusual or unexpected

总结：麦肯锡能不能不忘初心，在不断地增长的过程中，保留其优势和声誉，这是值得世界上每一个顾问该思考的问题

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Results

Lexile®Measure: 1200L - 1300L

Mean Sentence Length: 17.05

Mean Log Word Frequency: 3.11

Word Count: 699

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