When McKinsey Comes To Town by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe

Much like when I read Empire of Pain, I did not realize just how far people will go to make money without regard for others, and that cultivating a sterling reputation means that you pay the right people enough money to keep quiet but not that you are actually squeaky clean. McKinsey claims to serve 90 of the world’s 100 largest companies in addition to a host of prominent governments and institutions. McKinsey’s avowed mission stretches far beyond its $10 billion in annual revenue. Portraying itself as a “values-driven organization” dedicated to creating “positive, enduring change in the world,” the firm extols its environmental and social initiatives. This couldn't be further from the truth. The authors, two investigative reporters with the New York Times, expose the firm’s unsavory work with fossil fuel companies, cigarette-makers, opioid distributors, regulatory agencies and autocratic regimes. This is bad, but not the worst claim made against them. McKinsey was rife with conflicts of interest in which it advised multiple companies within a sector (did they share or use confidential information to make themselves and their clients money? Seems entirely possible, though apparently they deny it) and, more disconcertingly, regulators alongside the companies they oversaw. Over the years, its cost-cutting recommendations downplayed safety concerns at U.S. Steel, Disneyland and American immigration centers, and shorted insurance policy holders of billions of dollars in claims. The list goes on, and it is exactly as awful as your worst imaginings.