McKinsey Changes How It Elects Its Leaders to Avoid Succession Dramas

McKinsey is changing the way it picks its leaders for the first time in years in an effort to circumvent the internal tensions and infighting that marked its past two elections.

- Chip Cutter

The elite consulting firm, as part of changes to its governance, will now elect a global managing partner to a single six-year term, and its partners will hold a confirmation vote at the four-year mark on whether the leader should serve the remaining two years of the term.

McKinsey's roughly 750 senior partners currently vote to elect a firmwide leader every three years, and that person can stand for two terms.

The voting process is a forum in which partners express their support or displeasure with the overall direction of the firm, but it can be distracting as partners jockey for support internally.

Last year, the election stretched to three rounds, with incumbent Bob Sternfels facing off against the then-head of McKinsey's digital-strategy business, Rodney Zemmel.

Sternfels, a roughly 30-year McKinsey veteran, ended up being re-elected and holding on to his seat, but not before dissent within the famously private firm spilled into public.

Zemmel later left the firm and is now an executive at private-equity firm Blackstone.