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McKinsey & Co., the management consulting firm seen in nearly every major firm on Wall Street, offers a rare glimpse inside its own boardroom in a filing currently before the Securities and Exchange Commission. The routine exemption application contains McKinsey's amended common shareholders agreement, never before made public.
The application was filed to request exemption from SEC requirements that any company with more than 500 shareholders register as a public company. While the documents don't shed light on the firm's revenues, they do provide insight to the firm's own brand of corporate governance.
"They are the world's largest management consulting firm, and yet they have maintained an extremely high degree of confidentiality," said David Lord, editor of Consultants News, based in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire. "More than any firm, former employees are reluctant to talk about them...This filing gives new insight into McKinsey's ownership."
Only recently has the firm grown to such a size that it must consider managing itself. The firm has 3,000 consultants working in 62 offices in 31 countries. Consultants News estimates McKinsey's revenues last year to be $1.3 billion.
Success has brought with it this problem with the shares. According to the McKinsey filing, this year's promotions would bring the firm's shareholders over the 500 limit, and so make it a candidate for registering as a public...