It is one of the engines of global capitalism. Not only does McKinsey provide advice to most of the world's leading companies (and governments). It also pioneered the idea that business is a profession rather than a mere trade-and a profession that thrives on raw brainpower more than specialist industry knowledge or plain old common sense. Yet McKinsey's name has suffered a succession of blows in the past 15 years. The Firm, as it calls itself, was deeply involved in the Enron debacle: the energy company's boss, Jeff Skilling, was a McKinsey veteran who praised the consultancy for doing "God's work", and the McKinsey Quarterly published articles on Enron as enthusiastically as Hello! runs pieces about the Beckhams. In 2010 Anil Kumar, a McKinsey consultant, admitted passing inside information to Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon, a hedge fund.
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