McKinsey and other consultants are increasingly focusing on restructuring.
(Photo: Charles Platiau)
“The consultants are coming!” – this exclamation spread fear and terror in many companies in previous crises. The advisors would come in with smaller or larger troops, holed up in a few conference rooms, and they cut and chopped what could be cut and chopped. The result: the costs down, staff out, the management, left with a future vision on PowerPoint, finally unsettled. And goodbye.
It shouldn’t work that way anymore, and there are good reasons why it won’t work that way anymore. The consultants have transformed themselves significantly in recent years. Even the greatest strategists from McKinsey, Boston Consulting and Bain now think about the implementation and, if desired, take over it with their own people. In many corporations today there are even interim managers from consultants. This is of course also due to the shortage of skilled workers.
The consultants have also positioned themselves very broadly in important future fields such as digitization and sustainability: with thousands of new people from industry and science in Germany alone, with takeovers of specialized competitors, with their own academies and training offensives, with investments in software and artificial intelligence, with collaborations of all kinds.
The crisis therefore offers the opportunity for consultants to demonstrate the new skills they have learned in the threatening downturn. Against this background, the three leading international strategy consultancies McKinsey, Boston Consulting and Bain have also strengthened their restructuring units in recent years. In the corona shock, these were not used at all due to the massive state support. This could change now.
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McKinsey and Co. are now on the spot. They no longer leave the tough business of restructuring and reorganization to specialized competitors such as Alix Partners or Alvarez & Marsal or even the German number one, Roland Berger. You go into the depths of the business yourself.
No rogue who thinks evil of it. McKinsey and Co. first want to reorganize and restructure – and then help their customers to help shape the future. Digitization and sustainability continue to be the top issues for consultants and the German economy. However, this always requires two, in this case also the clear commitment of the customer.
More: Crisis economy: Restructuring is becoming the new top topic for consultants