I can’t guarantee that my experience scales to the entire firm but this doesn’t really resonate. I’ve never come into a project with a day one answer. I think the archetypal example of what you describe is organizing layoffs, in which case the company needs to shed heads and needs to know where it can do so. Which is sort of a day one answer. I’ve never touched this sort of thing Personally.

I’m not sure who the rubber stamp would be for either. Your subordinates I guess? But that seems not particularly important tbh.

I'll just reiterate what I said above, I urge you to consider the ethics of your current employer and consider seeking employment with a different company.

I’d rather work on something I believe to be good at a big decentralized company like McKinsey than something like what many / most large tech companies do. There’s basically no relationship to the other parts of the firm

Sure, I get that it's a big company and that not everything it does involves selling people dangerous drugs that ruined their lives [1], while simultaneously consulting for the government regulators that regulated those drug companies [2], or aiding government corruption [3], or assisting dictators with their assassinations of pesky journalists [4]. But it's all the same company. I wouldn't want to work for big tech either, but to imply that McKinsey can be better than them in _any way_ is completely laughable.

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/25/politics/mckinsey-justice-dep...

[2] https://www.npr.org/2022/10/03/1126202801/mckinsey-consultin...

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/30/world/africa/mckinsey-cor...

[4] https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/mckinseys-work-for-...