NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An explosive deeply reported exposé of McKinsey & Company the
international consulting firm that advises corporations and governments that highlights the
often drastic impact of its work on employees and citizens around the world Meticulously
reported and ultimately devastating this is an important book. —Patrick Radden Keefe New
York Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing McKinsey & Company is the most
prestigious consulting company in the world earning billions of dollars in fees from major
corporations and governments who turn to it to maximize their profits and enhance efficiency.
McKinsey's vaunted statement of values asserts that its role is to make the world a better
place and its reputation for excellence and discretion attracts top talent from universities
around the world. But what does it actually do? In When McKinsey Comes to Town two
prizewinning investigative journalists have written a portrait of the company sharply at odds
with its public image. Often McKinsey's advice boils down to major cost-cutting including
layoffs and maintenance reductions to drive up short-term profits thereby boosting a
company's stock price and the wealth of its executives who hire it at the expense of workers
and safety measures. McKinsey collects millions of dollars advising government agencies that
also regulate McKinsey's corporate clients. And the firm frequently advises competitors in the
same industries but denies that this presents any conflict of interest. In one telling example
McKinsey advised a Chinese engineering company allied with the communist government which
constructed artificial islands now used as staging grounds for the Chinese Navy—while at the
same time taking tens of millions of dollars from the Pentagon whose chief aim is to counter
Chinese aggression. Shielded by NDAs McKinsey has escaped public scrutiny despite its role in
advising tobacco and vaping companies purveyors of opioids repressive governments and oil
companies. McKinsey helped insurance companies' boost their profits by making it incredibly
difficult for accident victims to get payments worked its U.S. government contacts to let Wall
Street firms evade scrutiny enabled corruption in developing countries such as South Africa
undermined health-care programs in states across the country. And much more. Bogdanich and
Forsythe have penetrated the veil of secrecy surrounding McKinsey by conducting hundreds of
interviews obtaining tens of thousands of revelatory documents and following rule #1 of
investigative reporting: Follow the money. When McKinsey Comes to Town is a landmark work of
investigative reporting that amounts to a devastating portrait of a firm whose work has often
made the world more unequal more corrupt and more dangerous.
