As part of the U.S. government’s ongoing effort to aid Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion of the country, the White House announced on Sunday that the U.S. will, among other things, “prohibit U.S. persons from providing accounting, trust and corporate formation, and management consulting services to any person in the Russian Federation.” According to the Wall Street Journal, many such firms, including McKinsey, had already “quit or stopped all client work” as of late April. McKinsey made the following announcement on March 3:
Effective today, we will not undertake any new client work in Russia. We will cease existing work with state-owned entities and have stopped work for government entities. After our remaining engagements in Russia conclude, all client service in the country will be suspended.
Our office will remain open so that we may support our colleagues in the country.
It added this a few weeks later: “Update: Consistent with this commitment, all client service in Russia has ended as of 15 April 2022.”
So now it seems the consulting firm has no business in the country. This is intended as part of a punishment of Russia. However, reviewing the company’s record — it’s fresh off helping convince CNN that CNN+ would be a good idea — I can’t help but wonder if this is actually good news for Russia. At my cheekiest, I am inclined to argue that it might be better not just to let McKinsey back into the country, but also to put it in charge of the entire Russian war effort.
It wouldn’t be the first time that McKinsey, which has a history of working with authoritarian governments, has had a dodgy relationship with Russian oppression. Per the Moscow Times:
The Moscow office of leading U.S. consultancy McKinsey & Company banned its staff from attending an unauthorized protest in the capital in support of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Saturday and warned them against voicing online support, according to an email sent to McKinsey personnel seen by The Moscow Times.
Russians nationwide took to the streets on Saturday in support of the opposition activist, who was jailed this week on his return from Germany to Russia.
The message, titled “Stay safe, stay neutral, enjoy weekend,” was sent to all employees in the office and shared with The Moscow Times by two McKinsey consultants on condition of anonymity.
“There is a call from some oppositionists for nationwide street demonstrations tomorrow that almost certainly will not be authorized. In line with policy, McKinsey employees must not support any political activity either publicly or privately. This ban does include posts in social media featuring your political views or your attitude to any action with a political flavour. This line of conduct is mandatory. Please make sure you stay away from public areas of gathering around 2pm tomorrow and please refrain entirely from making related posts in any media,” the message said.
The company later apologized for this conduct. But it is indicative of the kind of top-down, value-neutral, technocratic judgment that so afflicts much of the consultant world. If I may quote myself (always dangerous words to write):
McKinsey’s technocratic conceit — its presumption of omniscience, entitling it to rule — may both predispose it to arrangements with governments, so often of similar mindsets, and encourage its employees to go into government themselves, where, in the modern bureaucratic state, the work is not all that dissimilar from that of a consulting firm. One might observe a meeting between McKinsey partners and government officials, looking “from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again,” and find that “already it was impossible to say which was which.”