Humor at Scale: Shifting Global Culture at McKinsey & Co.

How do you bring humor to one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious management firms? Is humor professional? Can humor become a company’s strength? As McKinsey & Company found out, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’.

This case explores how a comedy night for the Middle East McKinsey office, held on Zoom during the Covid-19 pandemic, grew from a local ad hoc initiative into a global phenomenon, now known as ‘Marvin Studios’. Dubai Associate Partner Mohammad Al-Moumen helps reveal how to gain senior alignment for a different endeavor, gather resources, expand to a global stage, and turn his passion into a real business impact now being taught to consultants around the world.