Who Gets to Decide? McKinsey, Power, and Public Consequences

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Behind the scenes of global business and government, a handful of consulting firms shape policies, strategies, and even public priorities. Few have been more influential than McKinsey & Company. In When McKinsey Comes to Town, New York Times journalists Michael Forsythe and Walt Bogdanich expose how the firm’s advice has steered corporations and governments around the world, raising difficult questions about accountability, ethics, and who really holds power in modern society.

Both authors bring a long record of investigating power and secrecy. Bogdanich, a three-time Pulitzer winner, has examined corporate misconduct, medical fraud, and the rail industry. Forsythe, who has reported from Beijing and Hong Kong, is known for uncovering corruption and elite networks within global finance and politics.

At GSB and at Stanford University, where many students and alumni have worked in consulting or been advised by these firms, the conversation carries particular weight. What responsibilities come with that influence? 

Join us for a discussion on consulting firms' far-reaching impact, the hidden networks of influence that shape our world, and what their reporting reveals about the intersection of private power and public consequence.

In person and via Zoom.  

Walt Bogdanich is a three-time Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist at The New York Times and co-author (with Michael Forsythe) of the bestseller When McKinsey Comes to Town. His reporting has exposed failures in medical care, human-rights abuses, corporate misconduct, rail safety lapses, and more. Before joining the Times, he produced investigations for 60 Minutes, ABC News, and Frontline. He also teaches investigative reporting at Columbia Journalism School.

Michael Forsythe is an investigative reporter on The New York Times investigations team in New York and co-author (with Walt Bogdanich) of When McKinsey Comes to Town. He follows trails of money across China, the consulting industry, Russian oligarch wealth, cryptocurrency, and the art world. A former U.S. Navy officer, he studied Chinese at Georgetown and previously reported for Kyodo and Bloomberg in Beijing, Washington, and Hong Kong before joining the Times.

Moderator 

Student Lead: Wesley Cash, MBA '26