Duff McDonald

The story of McKinsey & Co., America’s most influential and controversial business consulting firm, “an up-to-date, full-blown history, told with wit and clarity” (The Wall Street Journal). If you want to be taken seriously, you hire McKinsey & Company. Founded in 1926, McKinsey can lay claim to the following partial list of accomplishments: its consultants have ushered in waves of structural, financial, and technological change to the nation’s best organizations; they remapped the power structure within the White House; they even revo­lutionized business schools. In The New York Times bestseller The Firm, star financial journalist Duff McDonald shows just how, in becoming an indispensable part of decision making at the highest levels, McKinsey has done nothing less than set the course of American capitalism. But he also answers the question that’s on the mind of anyone who has ever heard the word McKinsey: Are they worth it? After all, just as McKinsey can be shown to have helped invent most of the tools of modern management, the company was also involved with a number of striking failures. Its consultants were on the scene when General Motors drove itself into the ground, and they were K-Mart’s advisers when the retailer tumbled into disarray. They played a critical role in building the bomb known as Enron. McDonald is one of the few journalists to have not only parsed the record but also penetrated the culture of McKinsey itself. His access puts him in a unique position to demonstrate when it is worth hiring these gurus—and when they’re full of smoke.

The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business

The Firm

Profiles the CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, focusing on his acquisition of Bear Stearns in 2008.

The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase

Last Man Standing

A riveting and timely intellectual history of one of our most important capitalist institutions, Harvard Business School, from the bestselling author of The Firm. With The Firm, financial journalist Duff McDonald pulled back the curtain on consulting giant McKinsey & Company. In The Golden Passport, he reveals the inner workings of a singular nexus of power, ambition, and influence: Harvard Business School. Harvard University occupies a unique place in the public’s imagination, but HBS has arguably eclipsed its parent in terms of its influence on modern society. A Harvard degree guarantees respect. An HBS degree is, as the New York Times proclaimed in 1978, "the golden passport to life in the upper class." Those holding Harvard MBAs are near-guaranteed entrance into Western capitalism’s most powerful realm—the corner office. Most people have a vague knowledge of the power of the HBS network, but few understand the dynamics that have made HBS an indestructible and powerful force for almost a century. As McDonald explores these dynamics, he also reveals how, despite HBS’s enormous success, it has failed with respect to the stated goal of its founders: "the multiplication of men who will handle their current business problems in socially constructive ways." While HBS graduates tend to be very good at whatever they do, that is rarely the doing of good. In addition to teasing out the essence of this exclusive, if not necessarily "secret" club, McDonald explores two important questions: Has the school failed at reaching the goals it set for itself? And is HBS therefore complicit in the moral failings of Western capitalism? At a time of pronounced economic disparity and political unrest, this hard-hitting yet fair portrait offers a much-needed look at an institution that has a profound influence on the shape of our society and all our lives.

Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite

The Golden Passport

Firm

The first biography of the most successful and notorious management consultancy

The Inside Story of McKinsey, The World's Most Controversial Management Consultancy

A New York Times bestselling journalist sets out to explore our addiction to the quantification of everything and ends up confronting his own addiction to certainty. In the quiet of quarantine, he decides to choose ease, rather than control—pursuing habits and hobbies that bring joy and “tickles” to each and every moment—and finds peace of mind, renewed creativity, and deepened relationships are the reward. In 2020, nothing went according to plan. Duff McDonald had intended to write a book about society’s obsession with measurements, data, and predictions, showing how it blunts individual happiness and decision-making while fueling corporate capitalism. But in the quiet of quarantine, McDonald found himself reexamining the assumptions beneath his own life choices. He also reconsidered his book, deciding instead to reframe his approach as an exploration of his own battle with what he calls the “precision paradox”—the existential struggle between our desire for ease and our need to exert control. Drawing inspiration from an impressive range of sources—from Borges to the Buddha to Bob (Dylan) to Harry Potter—McDonald documents how he let go of his attachment to precision in favor of delving deeper into what it means to be present—in his work, his relationships, and what he calls the “science of experience.” He asks, “What should I have been doing? I should have been focusing on things that I love, not the things that anger or annoy me. I should have been focusing on things that tickle me.” Part self-help, part memoir, Tickled is a story of how to bring joy and love into your life right now. McDonald acknowledges that “tickle” is a funny, awkward word. In one context, it’s as innocent as can be. But it also runs deeper. When something tickles you, you are in the moment, experiencing reality itself—at the vortex of truth, consciousness, and bliss. “When something tickles, that’s your soul speaking to you in the language of love, thanking you for experience,” he says. As he lays out his own personal transformation, McDonald invites readers to begin their own journeys to find out what “tickles” them, too. This exploration of joy and presence—experiences that tickle—lies at the heart of McDonald’s unusual, moving, and profound book.

A Commonsense Guide to the Present Moment

Tickled

Christiane Lemieux

Serial entrepreneur Christiane Lemieux describes the new rules of entrepreneurship and business, arguing that visionary startups leverage the concept of “frictionless” to beat their competitors. Based on interviews with dozens of startup founders, experts and scholars on entrepreneurship, Frictionless provides readers with a wide-ranging education in starting companies that thrive in the world of frictionless commerce—made possible by new technologies, a new mindset, and new demands from Millennial consumers. Working with bestselling author and journalist Duff McDonald, Lemieux also shares her own story—lessons learned, failures absorbed—at the helm of DwellStudio (which was acquired by Wayfair) and her latest venture, The Inside. Some founders profiled in the book are reducing friction in their own business models, others reduce friction through improved customer experiences, and still others are revolutionizing their operations to create frictionless organizations. Readers will glean lessons from the founders of well-known companies such as Instant Pot, Bonobos, Hims, and Halo Top—as well as upstarts Billie, Dame Products, and Convene. Frictionless outlines the groundwork necessary for getting a company up-and-running and explains how companies make and market products and services while meeting the demands of their customers and employees today. Frictionless is the essential handbook for creating tomorrow’s mind set and competitive advantage.

Duff McDonald

Books

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