McKinsey is the world’s largest and most prestigious management consulting firm. Its clients include Fortune 100 companies and national governments. McKinsey is well-known for its slide decks that help clients make important, strategic decisions.
Understanding the anatomy of a McKinsey presentation gives you a powerful advantage whenever you have to make convincing, informative slides. Being able to follow McKinsey’s slide creation methodology is especially useful if you’re working on slides for clients.
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McKinsey is private about its methods and conclusions, and most of its presentations are confidential. However, several dozen presentations have been made public over the years.
In this article, we’ve collected 40+ examples of McKinsey presentations. We also analyze key points of a McKinsey deck and provide a downloadable McKinsey PowerPoint template.
10 McKinsey industry overview presentation examples
These 10 examples show McKinsey’s approach to analyzing industry sectors. In these decks, McKinsey pinpoints key obstacles, risks, and opportunities, assesses current trends, and forecasts future dynamics. Some of the presentations compare how well an industry performs in different regions, while others talk about best business practices.
1. Challenges In Mining: Scarcity Or Opportunity? (2015)
2. Context For Global Growth And Development (2014)
3. Insurance Trends And Growth Opportunities For Poland (2015)
4. Laying The Foundations For A Financially Sound Industry (2013)
5. Manufacturing The Future: The Next Era Of Global Growth And Innovation (2013)
6. Outperformers: High Growth Emerging Economies (2018)
7. Perspectives On Manufacturing, Disruptive Technologies, And Industry 4.0 (2014)
8. Restoring Economic Health To The North Sea (2015)
9. The Changed Agenda In The Global Sourcing Industry (2019)
10. The Future Energy Landscape: Global Trends And A Closer Look At The Netherlands (2017)
11. Digital Luxury Experience (2017)
12. European Banking Summit (2018)
13. Investment And Industrial Policy (2018)
14. Overview Of M&A, 2016 (2016)
7 McKinsey strategy and operations presentation examples
These presentations overview McKinsey’s strategic and operational analyses of different industries. They discuss different ways to optimize business processes, boost organizational efficiency, and mitigate risks.
15. Accelerating Hybrid Cloud Adoption In Banking And Securities (2020)
16. Capturing The Full Electricity Efficiency Potential Of The U.K. (2012)
17. Digital And Innovation Strategies For The Infrastructure Industry (2018)
18. Five Keys To Unlocking Growth In Marketing’s “New Golden Age” (2017)
19. Moving Laggards To Early Adopters (2019)
20. Reinventing Construction: A Route To Higher Productivity (2017)
21. The Five Frames – A Guide To Transformational Change (Unknown)
22. Fab Automation – Artificial Intelligence (Unknown)
23. USPS Future Business Model (2010)
17 McKinsey problem solving and case study presentation examples
These McKinsey presentations explore significant socioeconomic problems. They analyze the root causes behind the issues, explain their implications, forecast future trajectories, and propose solutions.
24. A Blueprint For Addressing The Global Affordable Housing Challenge (2015)
25. Attracting Responsible Mining Investment In Fragile And Conflict Affected Settings (2014)
26. Covid-19 – Auto & Mobility Consumer Insights (2020)
27. Current Perspectives On Medical Affairs In Japan (2018)
28. From Poverty To Empowerment: India’s Imperative For Jobs, Growth And Effective Basic Services (2014)
29. How Companies Can Capture The Veteran Opportunity (2012)
31. Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained: Workforce Transitions (2017)
32. Lebanon Economic Vision – Full Report (2018)
35. Race In The Workplace: The Black Experience In The U.S. Private Sector (2021)
36. Refueling The Innovation Engine In Vaccines (2016)
37. Technology’s Role In Mineral Criticality (2017)
38. The Future Of The Finance Function –Experiences From The U.S. Public Sector (2019)
39. What Makes Private Sector Partnerships Work (2011)
40. Women In The Workplace (2022)
41. Digitally-Enabled Processes In The NHS (2014)
42. Helping Global Health Partnerships To Increase Their Impact (2019)
43. Using Artificial Intelligence To Prevent Healthcare Errors From Occurring (2017)
What makes McKinsey presentations so effective
McKinsey’s consulting decks lean on several guiding principles to deliver information in a compelling way.
For example, the Pyramid Principle is a framework in which the main idea of the slide deck is delivered first. As the presenter moves through the presentation, they broaden the focus and elaborate on details that support the key message.
The same principle applies to each slide, as the title states an idea, then the subheading and body support it with evidence. Using the Pyramid Principle, McKinsey decks achieve what’s known as “vertical flow” — a top-to-bottom progression of information that helps viewers grasp every detail and relate it to the core message.
While vertical flow and the Pyramid Principle guides how McKinsey’s decks deliver ideas and evidence that supports them, Horizontal Flow is a strategy that ensures a smooth contextual transition between slides. By leaning on the Horizontal Flow principle, McKinsey makes sure that the current of information is never interrupted by a contextually irrelevant slide, and all ideas are addressed in a logical sequence.
The MECE principle is another strategy McKinsey uses to organize ideas in presentations. MECE stands for “Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive.” In simple terms, this means that any point covered in a deck doesn’t overlap with others, while the presentation itself touches on all points relevant to its core message.
How are McKinsey presentations structured?
Although McKinsey presentations address a vast assortment of topics, they all follow largely the same framework that includes these elements:
- Focused frontpage
- Thorough executive summary
- Clear-cut, info-rich slides
- Actionable conclusion
- Appendix
Let’s explore these elements in greater depth.
Focused frontpage
McKinsey’s frontpage slides give the audience a clear, unambiguous idea of what the presentation will cover. They do this with a clear headline that seldom exceeds eight words, and an optional subheading that elaborates on the topic. The imagery is often abstract, yet still encapsulates the topicality of the presentation — and sometimes even foreshadows revelations that appear further in the deck.
Thorough executive summary
Following the headline, McKinsey presentations lead with the executive summary. This section provides a clear synopsis of the presentation. Sometimes it’s detailed enough to outline the problems, their implications, and solutions. Other times, the executive simply grasps the viewers’ attention by highlighting key issues — leaving them eager to hear the details.
Clear-cut, info-rich slides
The slides that follow McKinsey’s frontpage and executive summary are more information-dense than what many slide design experts would recommend. Instead of a few succinct bullets, they often share a wealth of data that may be conveyed through a combination of bullets, text columns, and graphics. That said, they set the presenter up to deliver the data — and explain it — in a compelling way using the MECE and Pyramid principles.
Most of these slides follow a simple but effective format:
- Action title: This element tells viewers what the slide is about in a sentence or two
- Subheading: Some slides include a subheading, which elaborates on the title and summarizes the information that follows
- Body: The slide body backs up the statement in the title with information
Actionable conclusion
In the deck’s conclusion, McKinsey usually recommends actionable solutions to the problems discussed earlier. Often, these come with examples:
The final slide may summarize the key takeaways, including the problems addressed and McKinsey’s take on the right course of action:
Some presentations contain an appendix after the conclusion. This section is reserved for documents and evidence that support the arguments McKinsey makes in the deck.
Use a template to create a McKinsey-style presentation yourself in Google Slides or PowerPoint
It took McKinsey decades to perfect its consulting decks, so don’t expect to recreate the magic quickly. A good way to start, though, is to employ the principles we discussed above and use a McKinsey presentation template as your foundation. You can download the template here.
A template equips you with McKinsey’s signature formatting and gives you access to an assortment of slide layouts the consulting firm uses in their decks. Then, all you need to do is choose appropriate slide layouts, insert your own slide content, add images, and change the color theme. You’ll still need to create a presentation outline and write your own slide content — but at least you won’t be starting from a blank slate.
How to use AI to create and edit a McKinsey-style presentation quickly
An AI-powered slide maker like Plus AI can help you create a McKinsey-style presentation in Google Slides or PowerPoint from scratch even faster than you would with a template.
Here’s how:
- Launch Plus AI and choose the “New presentation” option. The process is the same in PowerPoint and Google Slides.
- Decide how you want to prompt Plus AI. If all you have is an idea but little supporting evidence, you can opt for “Use a prompt” and give the slide maker a detailed description of what the presentation is about. If you already have materials, you can upload or paste them using the “Upload a file” or “Slide by slide” functions.
- Provide the prompt. For example, let’s say you want to base your presentation on the World Health Organization’s strategy for the National Action Plan for Health Security. With the “Upload a file” option, you can upload the WHO NAPHS pdf file — this will give Plus AI enough context to create a compelling slide deck.
- Choose a template.
- Click “Generate Presentation”.
- Edit the AI-generated slide deck. The presentation should be ready in a minute or two. You’ll notice that the slides already come with the same layouts that McKinsey presentations often use. You’ll have some work to do to replicate the slide anatomy and implement the Pyramid and MECE principles, but all the content will already be laid out in a logical and detailed fashion.
Learn more about building presentations with AI
Want to learn more about building AI-powered presentations? Check out our resource catalog for useful guides on creating attractive decks, preparing presentation slides, giving presentations, and more.
