Corporation targeted by Brandon Gill digs in on 'diverse workforce' after firebrand opens DEI probe

McKinsey has built an entire cottage industry out of telling other companies that diversity is a profit strategy, backed by those now-famous reports claiming diverse executive teams outperform their peers financially. Brandon Gill is asking a pretty simple question: does the data actually hold up? And instead of walking through the methodology line by line, McKinsey's response has basically been to restate the conclusion louder. That's not confidence. That's a company that knows the underlying research has taken serious hits from independent economists and would rather not litigate it in public.

The bigger issue here isn't whether McKinsey likes diversity as a value. Companies can hire however they want. The issue is that McKinsey turned a contested, frequently disputed set of statistical claims into a multi-billion-dollar consulting product, then sold it to boards and HR departments as settled science. If a firm is going to tell corporate America "do this or lose money," it should be able to defend the numbers when a member of Congress asks it to.

Digging in with a statement about "standing by" the research isn't the same as answering the actual criticism. It's a PR move dressed up as principle. If the methodology were airtight, McKinsey would be thrilled to walk Gill's committee through it and embarrass him with the receipts.

Instead we get a press release. That tells you something about how sturdy the underlying case really is.