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How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa

nytimes.com

11–20 of 34 posts

Re: How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa

#11
I think the article is relevant in addressing the private sector's partial accountability in the general scene of corruption and exasperation in South Africa.

It is not that McKinsey could be blamed for Eskom's general inefficiencies but rather that it shares responsibility in the lack of a managerial and efficiency turnaround at state companies like Eskom.

The general rhetoric is to blame the government (perhaps correctly), but the present article I think does not attempt to singly shoulder responsibility on McKinsey. It shows how government inefficiency may lead to a general free-for-all or at least a atmosphere of being exempt from justice in the private sector as well.

My summary on the matter would be that many South Africans have the desire to build towards a more economically competent country and that complications in bureaucracy and malevolent actors complicate this. This is a country where anyone rather easily can weaponise different kinds of racism or partiality that degenerates into a debate about whom we should blame. In preventing this particular counter productive and frequent exercise perhaps it is useful to remain as objective as one may be in identifying responsible parties, letting them be held accountable in the corresponding legal framework, and from there focusing on actual problems such as the state of disrepair of Eskom run power stations. It may well be that action by private companies would catalyse the process towards an efficient and economically sound South Africa. However, what this articles shows is how an internationally respected private firm fell into the same traps that local politicians do.

Re: How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa

#12
post #7

Ok, I find this very problematic - along the lines of 'Hey, our country is massively corrupt and dysfunctional, and these Westerners came in and didn't do really anything really wrong or corrupt, there are other actors who are clearly to blame, but let's blame the Western Colonialists! This is a bad meme. First - don't trust McKinsey or any consultants to implement anything unless it's been done before and clear. The…

Sorry, McKinsey: - Partnered with a local provider (Trillian) after minimal/token due diligence (despite ample reason to be extraordinarily suspicious, and in contravention of internal policy), to win an unprecedentedly lucrative contract; - Even when the Gupta ownership connection to Trillian was revealed internally, refused to amend the terms of the engagement; - Only dropped Trillian when forced by public scrutiny…

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Re: How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa

#13
post #10

Ok, I find this very problematic - along the lines of 'Hey, our country is massively corrupt and dysfunctional, and these Westerners came in and didn't do really anything really wrong or corrupt, there are other actors who are clearly to blame, but let's blame the Western Colonialists! This is a bad meme. First - don't trust McKinsey or any consultants to implement anything unless it's been done before and clear. The…

Yeah I really fail to see how a service provider should be held responsible for the misdeeds of its clients. Unless anything in those slides they sold suggested anything illegal, which I haven’t heard to be the case, I don’t see why McKinsey would be more guilty to providing them advice than Lenovo would be guilty of supplying them with laptops and the local water company with water. It’s not like an auditor who is s…

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Re: How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa

#14
post #9

Ok, I find this very problematic - along the lines of 'Hey, our country is massively corrupt and dysfunctional, and these Westerners came in and didn't do really anything really wrong or corrupt, there are other actors who are clearly to blame, but let's blame the Western Colonialists! This is a bad meme. First - don't trust McKinsey or any consultants to implement anything unless it's been done before and clear. The…

> Ok, I find this very problematic - along the lines of 'Hey, our country is massively corrupt and dysfunctional, and these Westerners came in and didn't do really anything really wrong or corrupt, there are other actors who are clearly to blame, but let's blame the Western Colonialists! That's the long and short of it. I read that article twice now and all comes down to 'South African law forced them to get a local…

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Re: How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa

#15

Ok, I find this very problematic - along the lines of 'Hey, our country is massively corrupt and dysfunctional, and these Westerners came in and didn't do really anything really wrong or corrupt, there are other actors who are clearly to blame, but let's blame the Western Colonialists! This is a bad meme. First - don't trust McKinsey or any consultants to implement anything unless it's been done before and clear. The…

You are totally wrong as another commentator pointed out. Mckinsey knowingly incited and spread racial hatred for their personal gain, and pushed the idea of "white monopoly capital" so that the ANC could leverage that as a political point. The result being highly inflamed racial tensions on their part, not only this but they were paid by Gupta linked companies and organisations. The Gupta's, an Indian billionaire family, have been responsible for corruption of the previous president Zuma, and even had a term 'state-capture' defined to explain what they have done. Through corruption they have literally come to own large state entities, however this was stopped and they and former president are being charged with corruption.

Mckinsey was pivotal in enciting racial tensions, among many other things, to try to obfuscate what the president and Gupta's were responsible for in terms of corrupting the state, by blaming other parties namely "White captial".

Re: How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa

#16

Ok, I find this very problematic - along the lines of 'Hey, our country is massively corrupt and dysfunctional, and these Westerners came in and didn't do really anything really wrong or corrupt, there are other actors who are clearly to blame, but let's blame the Western Colonialists! This is a bad meme. First - don't trust McKinsey or any consultants to implement anything unless it's been done before and clear. The…

Those arguing that the client does not need to share their share of the blame, are implying basically that the client is not capable of assuming the contracts that they signed.

It is quite a patronizing position but often very common.

Re: How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa

#17
Also troubling was the fact that McKinsey had won the contract without competitive bidding.

One finds this nugget more than halfway through longish TFA. This really buries the lede. Without a competitive bid process, a public organization is at the mercy of its stupidest and most corrupt officials. When a tiny town in the middle of nowhere wants an abandoned building torn down, they don't call the mayor's cousin. They open an RFP, and the only way the mayor's cousin gets the job is if her bid is the least expensive for the town. Perhaps developing nations can't be expected to have any officials who know how such things should work (!), but every McKinsey employee damn well ought to have known that a giant secret contract is necessarily corrupt.

Re: How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa

#19

Ok, I find this very problematic - along the lines of 'Hey, our country is massively corrupt and dysfunctional, and these Westerners came in and didn't do really anything really wrong or corrupt, there are other actors who are clearly to blame, but let's blame the Western Colonialists! This is a bad meme. First - don't trust McKinsey or any consultants to implement anything unless it's been done before and clear. The…

You are totally wrong as another commentator pointed out. Mckinsey knowingly incited and spread racial hatred for their personal gain, and pushed the idea of "white monopoly capital" so that the ANC could leverage that as a political point. The result being highly inflamed racial tensions on their part, not only this but they were paid by Gupta linked companies and organisations. The Gupta's, an Indian billionaire fa…

You're going to have to link to something if we're to have any idea what you're talking about. The only thing in TFA that seems remotely related to this racial stuff is this:

They were part of a notably diverse group. Given South Africa’s historic battle against apartheid, it was a point of pride at McKinsey that more than 60 percent of the office’s 250 employees were black South Africans.

This doesn't seem like a bad thing? Should they not have hired so many non-whites? It seems unlikely that ANC would have needed to hire management consultants to identify racial inequality as a political issue.

Re: How McKinsey Lost Its Way in South Africa

#20

Ok, I find this very problematic - along the lines of 'Hey, our country is massively corrupt and dysfunctional, and these Westerners came in and didn't do really anything really wrong or corrupt, there are other actors who are clearly to blame, but let's blame the Western Colonialists! This is a bad meme. First - don't trust McKinsey or any consultants to implement anything unless it's been done before and clear. The…

You are totally wrong as another commentator pointed out. Mckinsey knowingly incited and spread racial hatred for their personal gain, and pushed the idea of "white monopoly capital" so that the ANC could leverage that as a political point. The result being highly inflamed racial tensions on their part, not only this but they were paid by Gupta linked companies and organisations. The Gupta's, an Indian billionaire fa…

The "white monopoly capital" was not incited by McKinsey, though.

What happened was that the Gupta brothers and the president received a lot of negative media attention for a series of very serious corruption allegations, so they hired UK-based PR firm Bell Pottinger.

Bell Pottinger spun a story that they were victims of rich white people who spread these stories because their wealth was being threatened. They also hired mobs for protests and ran twitter campaigns.

This did agitate some racial tensions, but fortunately they weren't successful thanks to the dedication of investigative journalists and some heroic whistle blowers.

Here are two relevant links: * https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-06-06-scorpio-a... * https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-07-10-analysis-...

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