Dan McKone
L.E.K Consulting
Excellence in Leadership
When Dan McKone started out in consulting, he had intended for it to be a two or three-year gig. When he was sponsored for business school, he had a similar thought process and had initially intended to come back for only a couple more years. "Now, 25 years later, it's obvious that I have repeatedly modified my time table," he says. "The work is apparently too fascinating—and addicting—to leave."
Today, McKone is a Senior Partner and Managing Director in L.E.K. Consulting's Boston office. He is Head of the Customer Engagement & Loyalty service line and Head of the Travel & Transportation practice in the Americas. Over the years, he has served in a variety of leadership roles including the firm's Global Leadership Team and the Americas Management Committee.
"I'm most proud of having been part of my firm's leadership team and having the opportunity to make a modest contribution to the L.E.K. success story," McKone says. "From the relatively small boutique I joined many years ago, we have grown to be a highly influential global strategy firm."
Whether the topic is business model transformation, a major merger or the evolution of customer experience, L.E.K. has collectively built a platform that helps shape many of world's industries and helps clients win. "Seeing the collective impact we are making is the most gratifying thing to me," McKone says. "I am most engaged when I am helping my clients advance in a rapidly changing environment. I believe an essential element in strategy consulting is a desire to demystify the world around us and to help bring clarity to others attempting to navigate it. I suspect that, growing up, many of our most passionate teachers shared similar motivations."
McKone's work has been focused on commercial growth and optimization, advising a great number of the world's leading retailers, airlines, hotels and other consumer-facing businesses and it has spanned areas as performance improvement, customer engagement, strategic decision analysis, new concept development, channel strategy, pricing and positioning, organizational design, new business launches, and mergers and acquisitions.
"I have most enjoyed the opportunity to be surrounded each day by some of the brightest, most creative and interesting people that I have ever met," he says. "The talent at a place like L.E.K. never ceases to amaze me and I am fortunate to be constantly supported by them in going to market, co-creating strategies with clients or building a better work environment. Absent these colleagues, the job would not be nearly as fun, and I would be limited by my own modest capabilities. Together, we are able to achieve much greater things."
What's been the biggest factor to your success?
McKone: "Overall, my single biggest factor would be the bedrock I have at home in my wife and kids. Professionally, I attribute any success that I have had to flexibility and a willingness to personally evolve. The world today is advancing faster than I ever imagined when I entered the profession and I think a successful career today requires far more rapid adjustment to stay relevant. Over the years, I have tried to re-create myself by leading various consumer-facing practices, innovating new service lines and, most recently, examining how Artificial Intelligence (AI) will fundamentally redefine business models."
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