Ops Corps

Advancing racial equity and economic empowerment by supporting Black-owned businesses

The Ops Corps mission is to advance racial equity and economic empowerment of Black communities while developing deeper practitioner expertise, by investing support in small and medium-sized Black-owned businesses.

What we offer

The world is experiencing social and economic pressures like never before, and systemic inequities are making success even harder to achieve for Black-owned businesses.

Ops Corps delivers expertise and insights from McKinsey’s Operations Practice to help Black-owned organizations achieve improvements in their manufacturing and supply chain, service operations, and procurement. Resources include access to online best-practice materials, inclusion in industry conferences and forums, and capability-building workshops for employees and leaders. Additionally, small and medium-sized Black-owned business (SMBs) leaders who meet inclusion criteria may enjoy consulting services tailored to their distinct business needs.


We support small and medium sized Black-owned businesses in a number of ways

Conferences and networking
  • Three quarterly Empower conferences with over 750 participants to date. Empower is an Ops Corps-supported platform for the Black business community to empower one another through networking and learning from peers and experts. The focus of the quarterly conferences is on honing leadership skills and providing networking opportunities for Black business leaders. Empower also hosts smaller format events, “Empower Hour” sessions, a deep-dive on relevant topics with access to McKinsey experts, as well as more opportunities for connectivity with other Black business leaders

Capability building
  • Online portal containing an interactive library of best practice content on 13 key operations topics across lean management principles, procurement, and supply chain essentials. Can be used for individual skill-building or facilitated workshops led by McKinsey experts to help unlock team potential. 24 enrollees to date, with 13 leaders at a single client organization signed up for capability building courses in conjunction with on the ground training
  • 100% of senior floor managers at another client enrolled in quality concepts training sessions, and were coached to lead training sessions with mid-level managers

Impact partnership
  • Multiple dedicated teams launched for 6-12 weeks at clients to help diagnose problems, design solutions, and kickstart transformations
    • A team at a food ingredient manufacturer and supplier to Fortune 500 corporations conducted a 6-week engagement focused on supporting growth within the client’s existing warehouse and logistics network. The client achieved a 20% cost reduction and 15% inventory reduction, with 13 leaders signing up for capability building courses in conjunction with on the ground training
    • Another team at a labor provider and subcontractor to major automotive OEMs conducted an 8-week engagement focused on improving priority operations and organizational performance targets. The client achieved a 15%+ decrease in production errors, leading to a 40% reduction in downtime and 30% decrease in monthly turnover

Learn more about Ops Corps

Provide initial information for the Ops Corps team to follow up or reach out to set up additional time as needed to determine potential next steps.

Questions? For questions, please contact OpsCorps@mckinsey.com.

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