The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Oh McKinsey.

I’ve written a bunch about them in the past.

Hell, they were the reason one of my tweets went viral.

Scared the shit out of me.

I mean going viral, not the tweet.

And while I appreciate McKinsey have some very smart people working there and there are stories of their bullish confidence that are mildly amusing … let’s not forget they would recommend killing their grandmother if it made them an extra dollar.

Note I said ‘recommend’ … because like a Mafia boss, McKinsey never get their hands dirty, they make others do that. Then they can blame them when it goes wrong … similar to financial institutions who pay out millions to make problems go away rather than face the music in a court of law.

Which is why I found this interview they ran with Jony Ive so interesting.

OK, so Jony Ive is an interesting person so it was never going to run the risk of being bad … but what was fascinating was the headline they ran with it.

Creativity.

A great idea cannot be predicted.

Jesus Christ, that must have been like Kryptonite to the ‘everything is a process’ Kings.

I also love how they call it ‘provocations to ponder’.

Why is it a provocation?

Why is it something to ponder?

That’s literally the creative process … except, I suppose, for companies like McKinsey, who would regard that perspective as a celebration of the subjective and the inconsistent, which means it’s seen more as an act of wilful danger than the liberation of possibility.

But because it’s Jony Ive … McKinsey have turned a blind eye. After all, Jony is a global design icon. The driving force behind so many Apple products. Steve Jobs trusted sidekick. Being seen to walk in his circles can only be a good thing, despite the fact he represents the total opposite of what McKinsey do and value.

Oh hang on … someone’s going to say, “creativity is in everything”.

And they’re right of course and – despite what I said a few paragraphs ago – it’s fair to say McKinsey do embrace some elements of creativity.

However the creativity Ive is talking about is not the creativity McKinsey value.

Or practice.

For them, it’s approached functionally and economically, whereas for Ive, it’s about enabling change. An ability to see, think or feel differently. And while they may share similarities, it’s in the same way mathematicians and musician are similar.

Both do things based on numbers … except one uses it to shine a light on problems or solutions, whereas the other is the byproduct of the light.

Both have their value.
Both are about moving forward.
But how they do it are totally different.

Chalk and fucking cheese.

Which is why if I’m going to end this post with anything, it’s this: