EDITORIAL: McKinsey’s McKinky fees
Mckinsey earned every eight days what KMPG earned in 14 years
To get a flavour of how management consultants operate, we need to look no further than clause 17 of the services-level agreement between Eskom Holdings and McKinsey and Company Africa signed on January 7 2017. It says, "the employer [Eskom] agrees that it will not use the contractor’s name [McKinsey], refer to the employer’s work, or make the Deliverables or Proposals [including the consultant’s fee, expenses and other commercial terms] or the existence or terms of this agreement available outside its organisation without the contractor’s written permission". In other words, Eskom was prohibited from even mentioning to outsiders that McKinsey was in the building. Welcome to the world of consultants. Most companies brag about their clients. Consultants prefer to move in the shadows. The reason is simple: they don’t want to stand in the way of management claiming credit for improvements — management is their employer after all. And they don’t want anyone to know the gobsmacking fees ...
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