McKinsey & Company is a powerful American consulting firm. Perhaps even the most influential in the West. His mountain of well-heeled clients includes multiple governments, including those of Canada, Quebec, Ontario, France and more.
Founded in 1926 by an accountant evangelist named James O. McKinsey, nearly a century later, the company has nearly 40,000 employees in more than 65 countries and 130 offices.
Research by Radio-Canada found McKinsey, who was hired at $35,000 a day, also played a key role in the Legault government’s efforts to manage the pandemic, including its vaccination campaign.
We learn that McKinsey is advising several tens of millions of dollars under Justin Trudeau. We even have him to thank for the idea of raising the annual immigration threshold to 450,000 people.
However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Around the world, McKinsey’s costly advice has a direct impact on many public and social policies, but citizens know little or nothing about it.
Politically and ideologically
In the book When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm, Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe, two New York Times investigative journalists, demonstrate this in as much detail as it is worrying.
We learn that his influence is political and ideological. McKinsey is the cantor of an increasing privatization of public services, which she aptly calls “optimization” of resources. The common good and social justice are far from being at the top of corporate goals.
Also, isn’t the recourse to McKinsey by so many governments a form of denial of their own high public service and sanctification of the so-called “genius” of the private sector?
It is certainly to be expected that governments will sometimes turn to outside firms. What they’ve been doing for decades. It’s about helping them “think outside the box” of their gargantuan bureaucracies.
However, what is striking in McKinsey’s case in Canada and elsewhere is the high frequency and sheer size of government contracts it often wins without bidding.
Public Poll
It’s not a detail because everything is done without transparency or accountability. Once elected officials outsource the development of public policies to the private sector, it becomes impossible to know who decides what, much less why.
Indeed, how can we believe that unlike duly elected governments, a consulting firm would magically have every imaginable expertise, including even that of “managing” a planetary pandemic or setting immigration thresholds for an entire country? Ask the question…
In their book, Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe present McKinsey’s account of major failures in key acts.
Most importantly, they observe that “Americans, and increasingly people around the world, are unaware of McKinsey’s profound impact on their lives, from the cost and quality of their health care to their children’s education.
So kudos for the journalistic research. You are essential. Just as would a public inquiry into the growing influence of the private sector behind the scenes of power in a democracy.
