In 1926, after 5 years as a member of an accounting firm, James O. McKinsey decided to start his own firm to give financial and management advice to corporations. It differed from the accounting and management-engineering firms of its day in its focus on top management. This perspective required consultants to address specific problems (e.g., pricing, distribution, outsourcing) in the context of industry structure, competitive possibilities, and the integration of functional specialties.

In 1933, McKinsey's small firm was joined by Marvin Bower, a young lawyer from Cleveland, who brought a commitment to professionalism, and who always insisted on "putting the client's interests first". Under Bower's leadership, McKinsey & Company shifted the focus of its recruiting away from established, senior experts who had worked for many years in a single industry toward graduate students who could learn to be good problem solvers and consultants. Thus, McKinsey & Company became the first consulting firm to hire directly from graduate business schools.

McKinsey's rapid growth is the result of our success with clients. Today we have more than 6.800 consulting professionals located in over 45 coutries and 82 offices.

Many of our offices are long established. The São Paulo office started in 1988 and Rio de Janeiro in 1999. The drive to open a new office comes not from some central directive, but from individual consultants who take the initiative and succeed in establishing a client base in a new country or region.

In 2000 the São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Santiago offices became the Mercosur Complex.

The Mercosur Complex serves a broad range of clients across different industries, such as financial services, telecommunications, manufacturing, retail, and consumer goods. Most of our assignments aim to develop new strategies and to improve organizational and operational performance.

The Mercosur Complex, with almost 21 partners and more than 170 consultants, not only gives us a preeminent position in the region in terms of expertise and skills, but most importantly it gives our consultants the opportunity to access and learn from a broader and deeper pool of knowledge.

We encourage our consultants to interact with colleagues from other offices and we also offer them the opportunity to work in other countries. Furthermore, we are constantly thinking about our people and trying to find new ways to balance professional and personal life.