There was a time when economic growth, sustainability, and inclusion were seen as trade-offs, but leaders today need to achieve all three. This new paradigm of growth will be more sustainable, driving innovation while reducing environmental impact. It will also be more inclusive, creating access to opportunities for people worldwide.

This is not an easy task, but our ambition is to help organizations and their leaders make it a reality. We combine bold strategies and transformative technologies to help organizations innovate more sustainably, achieve lasting gains in performance, and build workforces that will thrive for this generation and the next.

Committed to protecting the planet
Environmental sustainability is part of our purpose, public commitments, and practices.
We will reach net-zero climate impact by 2030
Building upon our previous commitments to climate action in accordance with UN Sustainable Development Goal 13, we have set science-based targets to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For our remaining footprint, we will remove carbon from the atmosphere through mainly nature-based solutions—and reach net-zero climate impact by 2030.

We have a deep and longstanding commitment to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in business, in society, and within our firm.
At McKinsey, diversity, equity, and inclusion are not just moral imperatives, they are integral to our dual mission—to help our clients make substantial, lasting performance improvements and to build a firm that attracts, develops, excites, and retains exceptional people.
Through our groundbreaking research, we have set out a compelling business and economic case for diversity. Using our global reach, we share our insights, convene partnerships for action, and serve clients to inform critical decision-makers with the power to make real change.

There was a time when economic growth, sustainability, and inclusion were seen as trade-offs, but leaders today need to achieve all three. This new paradigm of growth will be more sustainable, driving innovation while reducing environmental impact. It will also be more inclusive, creating access to opportunities for people worldwide.

This is not an easy task, but our ambition is to help organizations and their leaders make it a reality. We combine bold strategies and transformative technologies to help organizations innovate more sustainably, achieve lasting gains in performance, and build workforces that will thrive for this generation and the next.

Defined by our people
Our firm is designed to operate as one—a single global partnership united by a strong set of values, including a deep commitment to diversity, and making positive social impact through our work and the way we run our firm.

We take a consistent approach to recruiting and skills development regardless of where our people are located, so that we can quickly deliver the right team, with the right experience and expertise, to every client, anywhere in the world.

Our consultants include medical doctors, engineers, designers, data scientists, business managers, civil servants, entrepreneurs, and research scientists. They join McKinsey for the opportunity to apply their talents to complex, important challenges.

Powered by knowledge
Our work is founded on a rigorous understanding of every client’s institutional context, sector dynamics, and macroeconomic environment. For this reason, we invest more than $700 million of our firm’s resources annually in knowledge development, learning, and capability building. We study markets, trends, and emerging best practices, in every industry and region, locally and globally. Our investment in knowledge also helps advance the practice of management. We publish our findings extensively, and we engage with leading thinkers on the most pressing issues facing our clients and society.

Always innovating
Our clients’ needs are constantly changing, so we continually seek new and better ways to serve them. To do this, we are bringing new talent into the firm, acquiring new companies, and developing new capabilities, for example, in design, analytics, and digital.

We serve clients at every level of their organization, whether as a trusted advisor to top management or as a hands-on coach for front line employees. We partner with clients to put recommendations into practice and work directly with them over the long-term, to help develop workforce skills, drive operational improvement, and apply new working methods.

No matter the challenge, we focus on delivering practical and enduring results, and equipping our clients to grow and lead.

Industries
Advanced Electronics
Aerospace & Defense
Agriculture
Automotive & Assembly
Chemicals
Consumer Packaged Goods
Education
Electric Power & Natural Gas
Engineering, Construction & Building Materials
Financial Services
Healthcare Systems & Services
Life Sciences
Metals & Mining
Oil & Gas
Paper, Forest Products & Packaging
Private Equity & Principal Investors
Public & Social Sector
Real Estate
Retail
Semiconductors
Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Travel, Logistics & Infrastructure

Functions
Digital
Implementation
M&A
Marketing & Sales
Operations
People & Organizational Performance
Risk & Resilience
Strategy & Corporate Finance
Sustainability
Transformation

History of our firm
2011-2017
2017
Generation
McKinsey founded Generation, a nonprofit focused on tackling global youth unemployment, in 2014. By the end of 2017, it had trained and graduated 16,000+ students across five countries - and placed 82% of them in jobs.
2016
Design thinking
With the acquisition of Lunar (late 2015), followed by Veryday and Carbon12 in 2016, McKinsey Design grows to 350 colleagues across 14 global studios. Our designers and experts work with clients to create groundbreaking products, services and experiences.
2014
McKinsey in Africa
McKinsey opens an office in Nairobi, Kenya, its seventh in Africa, serving clients across public and private sectors. With a focus on hiring locally and an outreach to African universities, McKinsey works to develop the next generation of leaders.
2013
“Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption”
In a Harvard Business Review article, Professor Clayton Christensen concludes that a thriving McKinsey is consciously "disrupting itself" by innovating to meet the rapidly evolving needs of clients.
2013
Digital Labs
Starting as an informal IT service to help clients and McKinsey teams create proofs of concept, Digital Labs grows into a thriving technology provider with more than 250 technologists. This capability helps clients put McKinsey recommendations into practice quickly by using agile development and rapid prototyping to build apps and other custom software.

2012
Model factories
The 11th model factory is added to the McKinsey Operations Practice suite of assets. From the Lean Experience factory outside Venice, Italy to the Green Campus in Singapore (which is dedicated to energy efficiency), these workplaces offer client teams hands-on opportunities to experiment and learn.
2011
Scaling up analytics
With a problem-solving approach grounded in fact-based analysis, McKinsey has always had strong analytic capabilities. The creation of McKinsey Analytics builds on this foundation to provide clients with deep support in designing, creating, interrogating, and maintaining big data models to inform critical business decisions. The team comprises more than 200 experts, including analysts, data scientists, and data architects.
2001–2010
2010
Turnarounds
RTS is established to provide restructuring and turnaround support, including interim managers to take the reins at distressed or underperforming companies.
2007
Climate change
McKinsey informs the climate-change debate by publishing the first global greenhouse-gas cost curve to rigorously compare the costs and abatement potential of hundreds of possible actions to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. This becomes part of a broader effort in which McKinsey publishes research and advises clients across a variety of Sustainability & Resource Productivity topics.
2007
Tools and solutions
McKinsey Solutions is created as an umbrella for a growing portfolio of web-based tools that provide clients with new ways to access McKinsey knowledge and expertise. Over the following years, its portfolio will grow to encompass more than a dozen solutions, including Energy Insights, Periscope, Organizational Health Index, Horizon 360, Finalta, and Wave.
1991—2000

2000
The third sector
McKinsey embraces the growing importance of not for profits, foundations, and other nongovernmental organizations by creating a practice dedicated to serving them. The Public & Social Sector Practice will come to focus on four areas: economic development, education, global public health, and social innovation.
1999
McKinsey Knowledge Center, India
Knowledge professionals at McKinsey provide consulting teams with rapid access to specialized expertise and business information. Today, the McKinsey Knowledge Network comprises more than 1,500 analysts and experts based in 70 locations globally.
1995
Made in China
McKinsey opens offices in Shanghai and Beijing, cultivating Chinese clients and committing to the development of the country. An early client is a bottled-water company founded by four farmers; within a few years, it will be valued at $200 million. McKinsey's presence in China will grow over the following decade from just a handful of people to more than 300 consultants.

1992
McKinsey women
At a time when only 2 out of 100 US senators are women, McKinsey establishes a global initiative aimed at creating career paths, support, and working environments to help women succeed. McKinsey Women will go on to become a thriving global network and powerful resource that provides formal and informal mentoring, training, and relationship-building opportunities.
1981–1990
1990
Think tank
The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) is established as an independent think tank to improve understanding of fundamental economic issues facing organizations globally. By 2015, MGI's research agenda covers competitiveness, financial markets, growth, innovation, labor markets, natural resources, productivity, technology, and urbanization.
1984
A global organization
By the early 1980s, more than half of all McKinsey consultants carry non-US passports. Two years later, the majority of the firm's partners—who jointly own and govern McKinsey—hail from outside the United States.
1961–1980
1976
Beyond geography
Under managing director Ron Daniel, the firm adds individual practices that span geographic boundaries, and each practice focuses on a specific industry. The new industry-focused partners become the firm's first true global experts.
1971
Asia
McKinsey opens in Tokyo, Japan—its first office in Asia. This is the starting point from which McKinsey will expand to serve clients across the region from offices in more than ten Asian countries.

1970
Creation of the Universal Product Code
Working with the Uniform Grocery Product Code Council and with manufacturers and retailers of all sizes, McKinsey conceives of a system that assigns a unique code to every product sold in the United States. The development of the agreed-upon scannable linear code is put out to bid, and IBM wins the contract.

1964
Spreading knowledge
The McKinsey Quarterly launches as a vehicle for reprints of articles by McKinsey consultants and external thought leaders. Soon the Quarterly starts to publish original articles and gains an international reputation.
1964
First women MBAs join the firm
In 1963, eight women became the first female students enrolled in Harvard Business School's prestigious MBA program. Three of the women in that class—Jane Glick, Jacqueline Browne, and Joan E. Griewank—join McKinsey as associates.
1951–1960
1959
Crossing the Atlantic
Less than a year after the first generation of jet airliners dramatically reduces transatlantic travel time, McKinsey opens an office in London—its first outside the United States. Within ten years, the firm will have offices in eight countries on three continents.
1954
Toward social impact
With fewer than 100 consultants, McKinsey's partners vote to undertake pro bono work for the Red Cross and other not for profits, establishing a firm-wide commitment to civil society that will continue throughout the firm's history.
1926-1950
1944
Committing to a single firm
With the opening of a San Francisco office (the third, after Chicago and New York), the notion of building a loose network of geographic offices is permanently rejected in favor of a commitment to a single firm with a shared mission and shared resources.

1936
"An Obligation to Dissent"
Marvin Bower, who joined the firm in 1933 and later served as managing director, first articulates the consultant's obligation to advocate for what he or she believes to be true. After helping establish this obligation as part of the firm's core values, Bower will later express it clearly in his 1979 book, Perspective on McKinsey: "When discharged in a client situation, this responsibility [to dissent] is one of our most important controls of quality. When discharged within the firm—and it frequently is—it can strengthen our management substantially."

1926
Invention of management consulting
James O. McKinsey, a University of Chicago professor and expert on management accounting, establishes his eponymous consulting firm. He sets an enduring tone of independence and establishes a commitment to rigorous research and training.