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The strategies that looked convincing. The incentives behind them. The people who carried the consequences. Investigative case studies for people who make recommendations for a living.
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Original documentaries, illustrated exhibits and practical analysis. We distinguish allegations, company responses and legal outcomes, then ask what a decision-maker can learn.
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10 CASES · STRATEGY TO PUBLIC TRUSTFILE 01 · Strategy & liquidity
Why Swissair Failed: The Hunter Strategy, Explained
An airline known as the flying bank bought a network of troubled carriers. The map grew. The cash ran out.
FILE 02 · Trust & confidentiality
Rajat Gupta’s Insider Trading Case: When Trust Broke
The former McKinsey leader reached the most powerful boardrooms in business. A series of calls became evidence against him.
FILE 03 · Incentives & control
Enron, McKinsey and the Limits of the War for Talent
Enron hired exceptional people and celebrated exceptional results. Its systems failed to distinguish performance from the appearance of performance.
FILE 04 · Growth & responsibility
McKinsey, Purdue and the Opioid Crisis: A Strategy Case
What happens when an ordinary sales-growth toolkit is applied to a product with extraordinary risks?
FILE 05 · Institutions & procurement
McKinsey, Bain and South Africa’s State Capture
An electricity company, a freight network and a tax authority reveal different ways that institutional safeguards can fail.
FILE 06 · Money flows & due diligence
Luanda Leaks: The Consultants and Angola’s Oil Money
The contract, the invoice and the beneficiary were not always the same thing. Following the payment chain changes the story.
FILE 07 · Metrics & customer fairness
Allstate and McKinsey: Good Hands or Boxing Gloves?
A claims-transformation programme became a dispute about fairness, software, documents and the promises an insurer makes.
FILE 08 · Research & downstream harm
McKinsey’s Saudi Arabia Report: The Risk of Naming Names
A short social-media analysis raised a larger question: what responsibilities follow when ordinary research identifies vulnerable people?
FILE 09 · Cost & public duty
McKinsey and ICE: Who Carries the Cost of a Saving?
A detention-cost project exposes the difference between an accounting saving and a defensible public-service outcome.
FILE 10 · Public money & transparency
The McKinsey Affair in France: Spending, Tax and Trust
A Senate inquiry into government consulting became a test of transparency. Several investigations followed, with different questions and outcomes.
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