Note for “The McKinsey Way”(1)

Many people has read the book “The Mckinsey Way”, well, it’s really a wonderful book. The first Three parts are of help to people who want to know how to think and solve the business problems.

The first part: The McKinsey way of thinking about business problems.

The solution to any business problem should be:
1)Fact-based:Fact are friendly, which are the bricks with which you will lay a path to your solution and build pillars to support it. Don’t fear the facts.
2)Rigidly structured: Feel free to be MECE(Mutually Exclusive,Collctively Exhaustive). To Structure your thinking when solving business problems (or anything, for that matter), you must be complete while avoiding confusion and overlap.
3)Hypothesis-driven: Solve the problem at the first meeting-the initial hypothesis. Solving a complex problem is like embarking on a long journey. The initial hypothesis is your problem-solving map. It can be break into three section:(1)Defining the initial hypothesis,find the key drivers.(2)Generating the initial hypothesis, make an actionable recommendation regarding each driver.(3)Testing the initial hypothesis.

Developing an approach
1.The problem is not always the problem. Sometimes a business problem will land on your desk and you will be told to solve it. Fair enough. But before you go rushing off in any particular direction, make sure you’re solving the right problem–it may not be the one you were given.
2. Don’t reinvent the wheel(part1). Most business problems resemble each other more than they differ. This means that with a small number of problem-solving techniques, you can answer a broad range of questions. These techniques may be somewhere in your organization, either written down or in the heads of your fellow employees. If not, use your experience to develop your own tool kit.
3….But every client is unique(no cookie-cutter solutions) That there are many similarities between business problems does not mean that similar problems have similar solutions. You have to validate your initial hypothesis( or your gut) with fact-based analysis. This will put you in a much better position to get your ideas accepted.
4. Don’t make the facts fit your solution. Avoid the tempatation to view your initial hypothesis as the answer and the problem-sloving process as an exercise in proving the IH. Keep an open and flexible mind. Don’t let a strong initial hypothesis become an excuse for mental inflexiblility.

80/20: The 80/20 rule is one of the great truths of management consulting and, by extention, of business.

DON’T BOIL THE OCEAN: Don’t try to analyze ecerything. Be selcetive;figure out the priortities of what you are doing.

The elevator test: If you have a lot of recommmendations, stick to the three most important- the ones with the biggest payoffs.

Pluck the low-hanging fruit: Don’t wait! Solving only part of a problem can still mean increased profits.

Hit singles: You can’t do everything, so don’t try. Just do what you’re supposed to do and get it right. It’s much better to get to first base consistently than to try to hit a home run–and strike out 9 times of 10. There are three reasons:
1)It’s impossible to do everything yourself all the time.
2) If you manage it once, you raise unrealistic expectations from those around you.
3)Once you fail to meet expectations, it is very difficult to regain credibility.

Lkki at the big picture: Every onw and then, take a mental step back from whatever you’re doing. Ask yourself some basic questions: How does what you’re doing solve the problem? How does it advance your thinking? Is it the most important thinkg you can be doing right now? It it’s not helping, why are you doing it? How does what you’re doing fit into the big picture? A particular analysis may be intellectually correct, even interesting, but if it doesn’t take you closer to a solution, it’s a waste of time.