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In an unprecedented development in the world of corporate strategy, a Fortune 100 company has engaged leading strategy consulting firm, BCG, to advise it on whether to avail the services of another leading strategy consulting firm, McKinsey.
The management of the company is grappling with decisions of a strategic nature, such as whether to focus on the top line or the bottom line. While CEO Tim McGnash was keen that they get McKinsey on board as soon as possible to lay out a strategic road-map, the rest of the management was not certain of the cost to benefit ratio of availing the expensive inputs of the premier strategy consulting firm.
Clearly, this again was a strategic decision. An so, considering that strategic decision making is not their strong suite, the management began to dither. At this point, CEO Tim McGnash stepped in and decided to hire BCG to advise them on whether to hire McKinsey.
“We could have gone into an infinite loop otherwise,” Tim said, chuffed that he had acted decisively. “At some point, as the CEO, I need to go by gut feel rather than rely on outsourced analysis.”
BCG North America head, Baba ‘Tiger’ Haryal has confirmed the new engagement. “Frankly speaking, we would have liked to address the company’s original problem but given the tight market for strategy consulting, we’ll take it,” Tiger Haryal said, sounding a little glum.
A crack team of six BCG consultants led by corporate strategy whizkid, John Woo, will over the course of 6 months, using multiple frameworks and finely crafted PPT slides, lay out the pros and cons of engaging McKinsey. “Yes, we will use the famous BCG growth share matrix too in the analysis in which the various consulting firms will be slotted into dogs, cash cows, stars and question marks,” Woo disclosed.
Woo pooh-poohed notions of conflict of interest. “It’s the process, not the actual recommendation that matters in this business, dude,” Woo pointed out. “We will endeavour to give our clients satisfaction by giving them a fine deck of 300 slides, densely packed with mind-boggling graphics, footnotes, and pithy insights.”
McKinsey has taken a dim view of the development. “We are all for rigorous analysis before coming to a decision but really, this is taking things too far. Some things, such as hiring McKinsey, should be taken as an article of faith rather than an article of analysis,” McKinsey Corporate Strategy head, Don Brandon, scoffed.