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As McKinsey Sells Advice, Its Hedge Fund May Have a Stake in the Outcome

nytimes.com

61–70 of 114 posts

Re: As McKinsey Sells Advice, Its Hedge Fund May Have a Stake in the Outcome

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm completely out of the loop. Why?

It's a bit preposterous, no serious professional hold this kind of prejudiced view. Yahoo, McK, GS, FB, Uber, etc. might not hold the prestige it used to on your CV, but these things ebb and flow. Microsoft used to be "lame" but now it's cool again.

Moreover, even when Microsoft was "lame", its employees were still individually respected as being competent in their field (unless given a specific reason to think otherwise).

Re: As McKinsey Sells Advice, Its Hedge Fund May Have a Stake in the Outcome

#62

The New York Times has been running a whole series now on McKinsey with a new article about once a month or so highlighting example after example of alleged serious ethical lapses at the firm. Have things really gone downhill or do some journalists just have an ax to grind with McKinsey?

I talked with one ex-McKinsey person who went from a true believer to questioning recently, starting with when McKinsey held a corporate retreat a mile away from a Chinese internment camp https://www.businessinsider.com/mckinsey-china-uighur-corpor...

The New York Times should get credit for doing that reporting, not BI (who just summarized NYT):

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/world/asia/mckinsey-china...

Re: As McKinsey Sells Advice, Its Hedge Fund May Have a Stake in the Outcome

#64

Seems highly unlikely that there’s any actual secretive insider trading happening here. It would be a HUGE risk for practically no gain, distributed across many individuals, committed by primarily people who wouldn’t stand to benefit. The firm should probably switch to vanguard or whatever... but the existence of this hedge fund does not mean the firm is using its insider knowledge maliciously. Most consultants won’t…

I feel that you may underestimate the amount of insider trading that goes on in private equity. Remember also, the line between insider knowledge being legal or not is somewhat gray. I doubt there is an on record scheme with company memos and other communication discussing inside info. It's probably much closer to work friendships and casual partnerships that pass much of this information along. As long as you can bu…

This comment fundamentally misunderstands what insider trading is. There is no such thing as "insider trading" in private equity - insider trading by necessity is gaining an unfair advantage via non-public information. Private equity and venture capital investors both get access to substantial non-public information and are allowed to buy and sell equity in the private markets with as much or as little non-public info as they want, because that is not disadvantaging other public investors lacking that information.

Re: As McKinsey Sells Advice, Its Hedge Fund May Have a Stake in the Outcome

#65
post #32

I highly doubt that there’s any impropriety going on besides the lack of disclosure. Investment banks have been dealing with conflicts like this for a long time and the market has never cared.

There is something known as a "Chinese wall" that prevents that in banking. I am not sure if there is one in consulting.

> A Chinese wall is an ethical barrier that prevents communication between members of an organization that might lead to conflicts of interest. For example, a Chinese wall could exist between departments where the exchange of information could unfairly influence trades. The "wall" is figuratively erected to safeguard insider information and protect private data that could create negative implications and legal consequences if improperly shared.

BREAKING DOWN Chinese Wall > Protecting client data and confidential information is critical to any business but is especially important to companies with diversified services, such as insurance companies, banks, and other financial services firms.

> The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) of 1999 repealed the Glass-Steagall Act that prohibited banks, insurance companies, and financial services companies from acting as combined firms, such as banks offering insurance products. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act resulted in a surge of mergers and increased diversification of services, as well as an increase in fears and public scrutiny. One concern was the protection and sharing of confidential information and personal consumer data with those of contrary interests. In response to growing concerns, many companies adopted the Chinese Wall concept.

(https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/chinesewall.asp)

Re: As McKinsey Sells Advice, Its Hedge Fund May Have a Stake in the Outcome

#66
post #47

From Matt Levine of Bloomberg: Here is a New York Times story about the “McKinsey Investment Office, or MIO Partners,” the in-house hedge fund of consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which invests employee money, including in companies that McKinsey advises. “That web of relationships underscores the unusual nature of McKinsey’s hedge fund, and the potential for undisclosed conflicts of interest between the fund’s investm…

Wouldn’t the main worry be insider trading? If you advised a bunch of people to adopt AWS this quarter, and the revenue bump to Amazon is going to happen a few months later, then you could unfairly use non-public knowledge to invest in Amazon ahead of time.

I don’t see how McKinsey would not be an “access person” held to the same insider restrictions as their client company’s executives.

Either way this snippet from Bloomberg seems to completely miss the point.

Re: As McKinsey Sells Advice, Its Hedge Fund May Have a Stake in the Outcome

#67
post #47

From Matt Levine of Bloomberg: Here is a New York Times story about the “McKinsey Investment Office, or MIO Partners,” the in-house hedge fund of consulting firm McKinsey & Co., which invests employee money, including in companies that McKinsey advises. “That web of relationships underscores the unusual nature of McKinsey’s hedge fund, and the potential for undisclosed conflicts of interest between the fund’s investm…

Still, there shouldn't be any hints of conflicts of interests. And there should be no chance on giving bad advice + shorting. Or it's not ethical /legal if company A hires them to see if buying company B is good or not and they trad on it.

You are an adviser? Good. Here's your consulting fee and that should do it.

Re: As McKinsey Sells Advice, Its Hedge Fund May Have a Stake in the Outcome

#69

The New York Times has been running a whole series now on McKinsey with a new article about once a month or so highlighting example after example of alleged serious ethical lapses at the firm. Have things really gone downhill or do some journalists just have an ax to grind with McKinsey?

I've noticed that 'ax to grind' also tends to equate with a PR firm didn't write these articles.
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