Quotes from Ethan M. Rasiel

The essence of the initial hypothesis is "Figure out the solution to the problem before you start." This seems counterintuitive, yet you do it all the time.

Part One describes how McKinsey thinks about business problems. It shows what it means to be fact-based, structured, and hypothesis-driven.

it is amazing what you can accomplish when you do it in a "take no prisoners" manner.

When a client asks the question "How do I boost my profits?" the first thing McKinsey does is take a step back and ask the question "Where do your profits come from?" The answer to this is not always obvious, even to people who have been in their particular business for years.

If all you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail.

Why is something done this way? Is this the best way it can be done?" You have to be fundamentally skeptical about everything.

In our business, it is helpful to get to the one or two really important numbers that need to be considered. There isn't time for more." We concur.

Does every aspect of the problem come under one (and only one) of these issues—that is, have you thought of everything? If so, then your issues are collectively exhaustive.

Don't try to pound them into your framework like square pegs into round holes.

How do you avoid that trap? The McKinsey way is to take an occasional step back from the continual grind of fact gathering and analysis and to ask yourself what you have learned over the past week (or two weeks, or whatever). How does the new information fit into your initial hypothesis? If it doesn't, how might it change that hypothesis? Doing these little reality checks now and then could save you from chasing down blind alleys. As a final

Suppose your team has come up with some interesting ideas that don't fit under the main issues. What then? You could ignore those points, but that wouldn't help Acme. You could make them issues in their own right, but then you would have too many issues. A good McKinsey issue list contains neither fewer than two nor more than five top-line issues (of course, three is best).

if you have mountains of complex data that you need to decipher, then you want the two or three best number crunchers that you can find, regardless of whether they can simultaneously walk and chew gum. On the other hand, if you are managing a big reorganization during which many sensitive decisions will have to be made, you would prefer to have someone on your team with good people skills and experience in implementing change.

Whatever you're doing, chances are someone, somewhere has done something similar. Learn from others' successes and mistakes. Leverage your valuable time and don't reinvent the wheel!

Let your teammates know why they are doing what they're doing. People want to feel that what they are doing is adding value to the client. There are few things more demoralizing than doing something that you and your team leader know is valueless. No one on your team should ever feel, "I've just spent two weeks of my life for nothing.

Respect also means never asking someone to do something you wouldn't do or haven't done yourself. As an associate, I always felt a bit better knowing that if I was in the office at midnight, my EM was too.

Although a partner's compensation depends in large part on the amount of business he brings to the Firm, no one goes out to knock on doors. The Firm waits for the phone to ring.

Get to know your teammates as people. Are they married? Do they have kids? What are their hobbies? It will help you to understand them. Share a bit about yourself as well; that makes it more likely that your teammates will think of you as part of "us," rather than "them." This, incidentally, is a much better way of team bonding than taking your team out to the ball game.

We discovered, to give one example, that our client's three top brokers handled the 10 biggest accounts. By sharing these big accounts out among more brokers, and by dedicating one senior and one junior broker to each of the three largest customers, we actually increased total sales from these accounts. Rather than divide up the pie more fairly, we increased the size of the pie. Thus, 80/20 gave us a jump-start in solving the client's problem.

These efforts could not be construed as selling, but they make sure that the right people know the Firm is there. That keeps the phones ringing.

Those patterns will highlight aspects of your business that you probably did not realize. They may mean problems (a big problem if 80 percent of your profits come from 20 percent of your product lines), but they also mean opportunities. Find the opportunities and make the most of them.

Does your particular field have a trade journal? These magazines are always looking for copy from industry insiders: Write a good article and you will get your name in front of people who would otherwise never have heard of you. Meet your competitors too. Today's competitor could change jobs and become tomorrow's customer. Make sure he knows you! It all adds up to making sure your name is the one your customers think of when they have a need you can fill.

THE ELEVATOR TEST Know your solution (or your product or business) so thoroughly that you can explain it clearly and precisely to your client (or customer or investor) in 30 seconds. If you can do that, then you understand what you're doing well enough to sell your solution.

If your boss steps into your office and says, "We have a little problem and we want you to head up a team to solve it," then the lesson for you is a bit more complicated. Don't blithely accept the assignment and say, "Sure, boss." If you do, you could be setting yourself up for a fall.

My experience at the Firm (and that of the many McKinsey alumni I interviewed for this book) taught me that IHs produced by teams are much stronger than those produced by individuals. Why? Most of us are poor critics of our own thinking.