Some firms, such as McKinsey, win plenty of business by remaining close to former employees.

ECONOMIST: Schumpeter

Still, in 2009, to ensure they had enough cash to weather the financial storm, even leading firms such as McKinsey and BCG held back a chunk of their partners' bonuses.

ECONOMIST: Professional-services firms

Proven performance results of board diversity: Numerous studies(from groups such as Catalyst and McKinsey) link better corporate performance and board diversity.

FORBES: The 1400 Most Powerful Corporate Women in the World

For instance, leading management consulting firms such as Bain and McKinsey have been helping American companies, especially online ones, to launch in Europe, augmenting their management teams and providing local expertise.

ECONOMIST: Europe��s start-up stampede

The other consists of distortions of the land market, such as badly defined titles and rent controls, which McKinsey reckons reduce growth by 1.3 percentage points a year.

ECONOMIST: Why India's economy needs faster privatisation

But Georges Desvaux of McKinsey in Beijing points out that while locals have taken over other sectors (such as television assembly) the foreigners seem to be doing pretty well in food.

ECONOMIST: It's tough but worth it

In a new paper, with the racy title Debt and Deleveraging: uneven progress on the path to growth, McKinsey asserts that the task of reducing the indebtedness of consumer-led economies such as the UK and Spain is barely underway (and see my earlier post, UK's debts biggest in the world, for more on this).

BBC: US ahead of UK on road to reducing debts