At a 2024 gathering of senior McKinsey partners in Copenhagen, then chief financial officer Eric Kutcher put on a baseball catcher’s mask and invited hundreds of colleagues to hurl stress balls at him. By his own admission Kutcher had “failed miserably” at explaining his actions during the post-Covid period of weak financial performance and divisive lay-offs. He hoped the stunt would ease tensions and act as a reset — both for the firm and himself.
For the first time in my 28 years, I felt pretty unwelcomed,” he said this year on the _How Leaders Lead_ podcast. But as the balls bounced at his feet, “everything started to heal itself again”. That claim will be tested in the coming months in the byzantine election to determine McKinsey’s next leader.
Having switched in mid-2024 to heading the firm’s business in North America, where a much-improved financial performance has eclipsed some other regions, he is now the frontrunner to succeed Bob Sternfels as global managing partner, according to current and former McKinsey figures. Yet the unhappy four-year tenure as CFO looms large in conversations among voters, the people said, as does the perception that Kutcher represents continuity with Sternfels’ approach to running McKinsey — centralised decision-making that has not been universally lauded by the firm’s fiercely independent-minded partners. He is managing the largest region.
Roughly half of McKinsey is North America. It would be hard for someone else to step forward from a region that is not growing as fast,” said one former executive familiar with the internal dynamics. McKinsey’s roughly 760 senior partners can select anyone from among their number when the voting begins in January.
The top seven candidates will go forward to a second ballot that will whittle the field to three. If Kutcher or a rival has not passed the 50 per cent threshold by that stage, the partnership will pick the winner in person, conclave-style, at their next meeting in Sydney in February. Some partners could support “not-Eric” candidates in early rounds to ensure a vigorous contest.
McKinsey’s previous two elections for managing partner were fractious. Kevin Sneader lost his re-election bid in 2021 after a scandal over the firm’s work for opioid manufacturers that cost it hundreds of millions of dollars in legal settlements. The 2024 race was also close, with several rounds of voting before Sternfels claimed victory.
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