Sometimes in life it seems everything is going well, then it does not. In the case of one of the top ranked consulting companies McKinsey. The company has been providing strategic directions to organizations around the world ever since the company was formed using the Harvard Business school case method as its basis. The business school at Harvard has the most respected MBA program and some of the people end up in consulting firms. It is often senior management of large organizations need advice and consultants from McKinsey will provide a good product.

In an article by Michael Forsythe and Walt Bogdanich of the New York Times News Service, consulting firms such as McKinsey are now facing internal concerns from employees and former employees who are the clients paying the bills. A consulting firm such as McKinsey can offer a wide range of solutions and paths for companies and those in the oil and gas field tend to generate large profits. McKinsey has consulted with firms such as BP, ExxonMobil, Gazprom and Saudi Aramco which has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in fees. (the same case is made with Boston Consulting Group)

Then the issue of climate change has come up and something is happening to the weather, McKinsey’s work did not focus on the environment but on cutting costs, boosting productivity and increasing profits.

McKinsey has been consulting to the fossil fuel companies for generations and those companies such as Mobil, Shell, Texaco, Standard Oil which became Exxon and a host of domestic and foreign oil, gas and coal companies. The consultants often moved to jobs within the industry.

Now McKinsey is suggesting it will be the largest private sector catalyst for decarbonization.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, sometimes what companies want and desire the need to cut costs, boost productivity and increase profits means that other items are discarded along the way. If a coal company want to be more productive that means it can mine more coal for less money, but that does not necessary help the environment. As times change, other priorities need to come to the forefront and still be able to generate profits to pay dividends.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.