First published 2022
McKinsey & Company presents itself as the world's most prestigious consulting firm, promising to make the world better while earning billions from major corporations and governments. Investigative journalists Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe reveal a different reality through hundreds of interviews and thousands of internal documents. The firm routinely recommends massive layoffs and reduced safety measures to boost short-term profits for executives while harming workers. McKinsey collects fees from government agencies that regulate its own corporate clients. The company simultaneously advised Chinese military projects and received Pentagon contracts worth tens of millions. Protected by nondisclosure agreements, McKinsey has counseled tobacco companies, opioid manufacturers, authoritarian regimes, and oil corporations. The firm helped insurers deny payments to accident victims and assisted Wall Street in avoiding regulatory oversight. In developing nations like South Africa, McKinsey enabled widespread corruption. Across American states, the company undermined healthcare programs. The authors follow the money trail to expose how McKinsey's influence has increased global inequality, corruption, and danger.
Genres: business, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, investigative-journalism, current-affairs
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: corporate-malfeasance, investigative-journalism
Setting: China, Pentagon, South Africa, United States
Period: 21st-century
368 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday
Content warnings: addiction