& Company has grown to global prominence by providing expert consulting
services and garnering results for companies in a wide range of industries and
governments.
Today, McKinsey has a revenue of $6 billion and employs almost 17,000 people
worldwide, with more than 9,000 at the director level. “The firm is among the
largest hirers of newly minted MBAs
in the United States.”“America’s Largest
Private Companies: #54 McKinsey & Co.,”
Forbes
, October 28, 2009, accessed
February 9, 2011,
-
companies-09_McKinsey-Co_IPPW.html
(emphasis added). McKinsey’s
employees come from around the world, speaking over 120 languages and
representing more than one hundred nationalities.
What Does the Firm Do?
As a management consultant firm, McKinsey is approached by its clients to
analyze and solve complex problems. Its industry expertise ranges from media
and entertainment to the automotive industry, chemicals, and manufacturing.
Chapter 6 International Monetary System
296
Functional expertise includes all aspects of running a business, including,
finance, technology, sales, marketing, risk, and operations. McKinsey has its
own Global Institute whose “independent investigations combine McKinsey’s
microeconomic understanding of companies and industries with the rigor of
leading macroeconomic thinking to derive perspectives on the global forces
shaping business, government, and society.”“McKinsey Global Institute,”
McKinsey & Company, accessed February 9, 2011,
mgi
.
The Global Institute is one of McKinsey’s paths to assisting governments and
global institutions with complex economic and business issues. “Twenty years
of McKinsey Global Institute research shows that the mix of sectors within an
economy explains very little of the difference in a country’s GDP growth rate. In
other words, dynamism doesn’t turn on whether an economy has a large
financial sector, or big manufacturers, or a semiconductor industry, but instead
on whether the sectors are competitive or not. Instead of picking winners and
funneling subsidies to them, countries must get the basics right. These include
a solid rule of law, with patents and protections for intellectual property,
enforceable contracts, and courts to resolve disputes; access to finance,
particularly for startups; and an efficient physical and communications
infrastructure.”James Manyika, Susan Lund, and Byron Auguste, “From the
Ashes,”
Newsweek
, August 16, 2010, accessed February 9, 2011,
-
losing-them.html
.
Why Does the Firm Matter to International Business?
This chapter discusses the international monetary system, the IMF and the
World Bank. In learning about these critical parts of the global business
environment, you may find yourself wondering how exactly these institutions
and government-led monetary systems interact with the business world.
