Minimizing conflicts of interest was a noble aim, but it hasn’t worked out well. McKinsey’s long-serving boss in the 1990s, Rajat Gupta, managed to get himself convicted and imprisoned in 2012 for insider trading.12 McKinsey also employed Enron’s Jeff Skilling, and then was paid well for advising him, before quietly fading into the background while Enron collapsed and Skilling went to jail.
