Yesterday I went for lunch with an old friend who now works with one of the big 5 consulting firms. We discussed how cut-throat their practices are when it comes to delivering value for their customers. They tend to go all out and then some, if not their full investment does not yield any return as their fee is gain based.

Where a McKinsey comes in as an avalanche bringing in an overwhelming team of resources trying to control every tiny detail so they can bend it to their advantage in reaching that one overarching goal, startups tend to do the opposite: their game is to be as lean as possible! Especially in emerging markets where founders tend to hedge their bets in running several ventures in parallel. As a consequence, they never go all in as there is always one of the ventures which seems to be showing enough potential to just keep ploughing through…

SPARK OF THE DAY

I’ll not ask you to copy McKinsey in their “my way or the highway” practices, nor to question being lean. I do wonder though: does hedging bets equal not putting in the right level of skin in the game, hence you’ll never be desperate enough to go that extra mile or two?

Where do you stand on the McKinsey scale of ballsiness?