Mckinsey Formula : Formula with the highest likelihood of becoming a CEO

McKinsey and Company is a global management consulting firm of American origin. Founded in 1926, this firm has developed a unique offering of quantitative and qualitative analysis to support and evaluate management decisions across public and private sectors.

Powered by knowledge, strong organizational values, innovation and rich diversity- McKinsey truly enables its clients to succeed and grow.

Apart from its industrial success, something else sets McKinsey apart and we would like to call it the ‘McKinsey Factor’…

The ‘McKinsey Factor’ refers to the secret X-factor whereby the company has emerged as a global powerhouse for producing leading CEOs and high ranking executives of notable organizations.

It’s no coincidence that a lot of CEOs belonging to Fortune 500 companies are ex-McKinsey!

The correlation cannot be missed- a 2008 research says that the chances are 1 in 690 of a McKinsey Consultant to lead a Fortune 500 company. That being said, the chances of a McKinsey employee to lead and become a CEO of a public company is higher compared to any other firm.

Impressive right?

Below are some of the prominent CEOs who were developed by McKinsey and from there their career skyrocketed:

1) Frank Appel- CEO Deutsche Post

Dr. Frank Appel is the CEO of global logistics giant- Deutsche Post since February 2008. Headquartered in Bonn, Deutsche Post prides itself on employing more than 500,000 employees worldwide and as of June 2018 declared $68.2B in sales!

Prior to joining the Group, Dr Frank Appel was a managing partner at McKinsey Germany.

Frank apple gets paid 6.5 million euros per year (Including Stock Options).



2) Maximilian Bittner- CEO Lazada Group

Maximilian Bittner became the CEO of Lazada Group just 5 years after completing his MBA from Kellogg School of Business. What he did for 5 years is more interesting: he started off as an analyst at Morgan Stanley before pursuing a secondment from McKinsey at 3i Group plc. Later, he became an Engagement Manager at McKinsey from where there was no looking back.

He joined Rocket Internet as a regional partner before becoming Lazada’s CEO in 2012.

As per various answers Rocket Internet pay scales are very low and they compensate top management with equity. On average an SVP in Lazada make 250 K an year so we are assuming Maximilian was getting somewhere around 0.5 Million Dollars an year.

He must have got 0.5% to 1% equity being the cofounder of Lazada.

Alibaba valued Lazada at $12 Billion dollars based on last investment, which translates Bittner 1% equity into $ 120 Million.

3) Matt Brittin – President Google EMEA

Prior to becoming the President of Operations and EMEA at Google, Matt Brittin was employed as a Commercial Director at Trinity Mirror. After completing his MBA from London Business School, he joined McKinsey and Company as a consultant. Post McKinsey, his career blossomed initially at Trinity and later at Google.

The Guardian estimates his annual salary to be over 37 Million Pounds!

4) Sundar Pichai- CEO of Google Inc

Sundar Pichai is an Indian American business executive and the CEO of Google Inc since 2015. Hailing from Tamil Nadu (India), Pichai obtained Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He then pursued M.S from Stanford and obtained an MBA from Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Prior to joining Google in 2004, Pichai worked at McKinsey and Company as a consultant and before that as an engineering and product management employee at Applied Materials.

As of 2016, his compensation was well over $199 million (mostly in stock though)!

Sundar Pichai total net worth is over $1.2 Billion dollars as he is one of the highest paid CEO in the world.

5) Sheryl Sandberg- COO Facebook

Harvard’s alma mater- Sheryl Sandberg is the COO at Facebook, she became the first woman to be appointed at the Facebook Board of Directors in June 2012. As of June 2015, her worth is well over a billion dollars and this is no surprise, given she has experience working with the likes of Google and also served as the Chief of Staff for United States Secretary of the Treasury.

Post-graduation in 1995, she joined McKinsey and Company as a consultant for roughly a year before progressing to become the Chief of Staff for Larry Summers.

Besides Facebook she also runs a charity in the name of her husband Dave Goldberg.

Dave was the founder of Surveymonkey.com. He passed away during family vacation in Mexico.

6) Gerald L. Storch- Independent Director Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

Gerald Storch has more than 30 years of experience in senior management and management consulting. Mr. Storch is an MBA from Harvard Business School and also holds a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, and a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College.

From 1982-1993, Mr. Storch was a Principal at McKinsey and Company where he led several projects for Fortune 500 companies.

He also served as the CEO for Toys”R”Us where he grew the company into a $13 billion global retailer. Prior to that he was the Vice Chairman at Target and he founded and grew the retailer’s e-commerce site, target.com, from scratch into a major business.

More recently, Mr. Gerald is serving as an Independent Director of Bristol-Myers Squibb Company since 2012.

Prior to that he was the Chief Executive Officer of Hudson’s Bay Company from January 2015 until February 2018.

7) Hubert Joly- CEO Best Buy

Since 2012, Mr. Hubert Joly is serving as the President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director at Best Buy Co Inc. Prior to that, Mr. Joly served as a Director at Ralph Lauren. His extensive management and leadership experience can be gauged from the fact that he was also the President and CEO of Carlson from 2008-2012.

He was a consultant at McKinsey from 1983-1996 and is a graduate of Business Administration from HEC Paris, and a Public Administration graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. Mr. Hubert also serves on the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Travel and Tourism Advisory Board and the Board of Trustees of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Minnesota Orchestra.

Mr. Joly was paid more than $16.7 million in the company’s most recent fiscal year- which evidently points at the success and continued growth of Big Buy.

8) Jørgen Vig Knudstorp- CEO The Lego Group

Mr. Jørgen Vig Knudstorp has been Executive Chairman of LEGO A/S since May 2017.

At LEGO, Mr. Knudstorp has served several senior management and executive positions for example: heading LEGO’s strategy department, serving as an acting Chief Financial Officer of the Group and Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs in 2003.

He joined the LEGO Group in 2003 and later succeeded Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen as the first non-family member to head LEGO when he became the Executive Chairman in 2017.

Prior to joining the LEGO Group, Mr. Knudstorp served as a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company from 1998 to 2001.



9) James McNerney- Chairman The Boeing Company

Mr. James McNerney, presently serves as a Senior Advisor and Operating Advisor at Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, Inc since 2016. He served as the CEO and Executive Chairman of Boeing Commercial Airplanes since 2005 up until 2016.

Prior to taking charge of Boeing where he held notable senior management positions, he served as the CEO of 3M Company from 2001-2005.

He joined 3M in 2000 after 19 years at the General Electric Company where he served under different management capacities.

He first worked at Procter & Gamble in brand management and as a Senior Manager of McKinsey & Co., Inc. Mr. McNerney earned an MBA from Harvard University in 1975 and a B.A. degree from Yale University in 1971.

His last available salary is of 2014 in which he made $ 29 million.

10) Bob Haas- Chairman Emeritus Levi Strauss & Co.

Mr. Robert (Bob) Haas completed his Bachelors of Arts degree from University of California, Berkeley in 1964 and obtained an MBA from Harvard in 1968.

After completing his studies, Mr. Haas worked as an Associate at McKinsey & Company from 1969 to 1972.

He joined Levis Strauss & Co. in 1973 and served under different management capacities. He was appointed as the President and CEO in 1984 and stepped down from the position in 1999.

In 1989, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Board which he retired from in 2014. He is presently accredited as the Chairman Emeritus at Levi Strauss & Co.

What exactly is the McKinsey’s factor?

So what exactly goes on at McKinsey that it has become a CEO factory and that its consultants have a ten-fold chance at becoming a top executive?

Here are the 4 factors:

1) The Code of Consultants

This is fairly simple to understand, McKinsey works with many of the world’s largest and notable organizations- from there on great opportunities are not hard to come by resulting in successful transfers and placements because its consultants are already working with the management of those organizations.

Professional relationship, which is imperative for C-class positions, is already established resulting in successful recruitment.

2) Powerful Trio- Confidence, Intelligence, Ambition

Typically hiring from McKinsey also means that the candidate is almost guaranteed to have the raging desire (ambition), intellect (intelligence) and persona (confidence) of becoming a CEO because the firm instills these values in its employees as a part of its culture and training.

McKinsey’s policy of ‘Up and Out’ is a proof of that- if you don’t get promoted, you are asked to leave.

3) No such thing as the ‘ Fear of the Unknown ’

CEOs need to be good with numbers and prove reliability by taking business decisions backed by relevant data. On a soft skills side, they need to be comfortable with firefighting, keep calm when the boat gets rocked and steer the ship to safety when a turmoil hits.

Markets are sporadic and throw curve balls all the time.

Consultants at McKinsey are trained to build resilience and get comfortable with such unexpected, unknown or sudden shifts in market trends and industry sensitivities.

They work with diverse industries and invest time and effort to tackle data-heavy analysis and make sound business decisions.

4) Unprecedented Alumni Network

It goes without saying that the ability to build and maintain connections with both bosses and peers matters. 15% of Fortune 100 CEOs were members of a fraternity.

The ability of McKinsey consultants to emerge at top notch positions can be explained partially owing to its strong alumni network- the company has its own exclusive job offers!

And needless to say in today’s world, the nature of networks might change, but the power of connections cannot be understated.

Is there a fixed pathway to becoming a CEO?

There is no sure shot guarantee for that but associating yourself with the right business school for your undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate education along with choosing the right firm to kick-start your career can make a significant impact on your progression.

Of course, this goes hand-in-hand with factors like one’s personal characteristics, professional decisions taken for career moves, education and the ‘X-factor’ which makes you click.

So What are you waiting for Start your career with McKinsey..







