About McKinsey & Co.

McKinsey & Company is a privately owned management consulting firm that focuses on solving issues of concern to senior management in large corporations and organizations.

Known among its employees simply as "The Firm" [http://www1.excite.com/home/careers/company_profile/0,15623,71,00.html], McKinsey & Company was founded in Chicago in 1926 by James O. ("Mac") McKinsey. McKinsey was a professor at the University of Chicago who pioneered budgeting as a management tool. Marshall Field's became a client in 1935, and soon convinced James McKinsey to leave the firm and become its CEO; however, he died unexpectedly in 1937.

Marvin Bower, who joined the firm in 1933 and succeeded James McKinsey when he left, oversaw the firm's rise to global prominence. When McKinsey died, the Chicago and New York branches of the firm split up. In 1939, with the help of the New York partners, Bower resurrected the New York office and named it McKinsey & Company. One of the first partners at McKinsey, Andrew T. Kearney, retained the Chicago office and renamed the branch after himself, marking the start of the competing management consulting firm A.T. Kearney.

While he always gave James McKinsey credit for the firm's success, Bower established many of its guiding principles. Inspired by his experience at the law firm of Jones Day, he believed that management consulting should subscribe to the highest standards, emphasizing professionalism over any other consideration.

McKinsey maintains offices on all continents (except Antarctica) and in most major cities; in the last few years, the majority of its work has derived from non-U.S. clients.