#123 McKinsey Partner to Indie Freelancer - Adam Braff on writing online, the gig economy, consulting skills, consulting

Adam Braff grew up in a house where writing was always encouraged. His mother published a newsletter, and his father was a data analytics consultant. He started out as a lawyer, but after the dot-com boom led to a surge in demand for consultants, he decided to make the switch. He now runs his own consulting firm and writes regularly on a variety of topics. Braff himself became interested in consulting during the first dot-com boom. He transferred from MIT to Brown in order to study linguistics, and eventually became a strategy consultant at McKinsey.

Relevant Links:

Adam's Website • and McKinsey Essay • Tom Critchlow's Writing • Venkatesh Rao's The Art of Gig

Timestamps 0:00 Audio Intro 0:48 The scripts Adam grew up with 3:54 Shifting from MIT to Brown 5:33 Becoming interested in consulting 7:25 What was it like from 1999 to 2002? 9:08 Adam's path to becoming a partner at McKinsey 11:56 Leaving McKinsey 14:05 What kept Adam at McKinsey for 10 years? 16:06 What do people get wrong about McKinsey? 18:49 Decentralization and the emergent order 21:46 The new ideas in customer experience Adam helped shape 24:06 Going into the finance industry in 2009 25:23 Turning data into insights 27:20 How to influence other executives to embrace the "hypothesis first" framing? 28:44 The 2 skills from the consulting world that are missing elsewhere 30:28 Teaching the importance of feedback 33:22 Development Group Leaders 35:21 Lessons from working at a hedge fund 42:01 Did the world of billions inspire Adam to go solo? 42:56 Becoming a freelancer 46:52 Should you clearly define the services you're offering as a freelance consultant? 50:18 The role of Adam's writing 51:44 Did the nature of Adam's projects shift over time? 53:14 The best part of the self-employed life Adam didn't expect 54:15 AI & The Future 58:10 The forecasting contest

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Release date

Lydbog: 28. november 2022