Tim is a core leader of the Corporate Finance Practice. During his more than 28 years of consulting, Tim has served clients globally on value creation, corporate strategy, capital-markets issues, and M&A transactions.
Tim is the lead author of Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies. This book—now in its seventh edition—has sold more than 800,000 copies; it is used as a textbook at top business schools such as Wharton School, University of Chicago, MIT, INSEAD, Tuck School of Business, and Northwestern University. Tim is also the lead author of Value: The Four Cornerstones of Corporate Finance, which aims to help senior executives, board members, and nonfinancial executives to understand the linkages between strategic decisions and value creation, as well as to have the courage to focus on true value creation rather than the latest fads and misconceptions.
Examples of his work:
- corporate strategy: global chemical company, leading diversified industrial company, global agricultural-products company, leading European transportation company, leading specialty pharmaceutical company, European oil and gas company
- acquisitions/divestitures: global consumer packaged goods, global technology company, leading medical-device company, global chemical company, leading US media company
- capital structure/share repurchase: global diversified industrial company, global insurance-services company, global information provider
- investor strategy/communications: global chemical company, European oil and gas company
- risk management: European energy company, US energy-services company
Tim leads McKinsey's Strategy & Trend Analysis Center, our firm's hub for financial and capital-market analysis and valuation. The group helps clients identify and prioritize value-creating corporate strategies and understand how their shares are valued by the stock market. He also leads our corporate-finance and capital-markets research, including the development and maintenance of our corporate-performance database.
Additionally, Tim is the founder of McKinsey on Finance, our quarterly publication of McKinsey's research on corporate finance. He has written extensively on valuation and capital-markets issues, including articles for the Harvard Business Review and other publications.
Before joining McKinsey, Tim was a vice president at Stern Stewart & Company, a leading value-based management-advisory firm, where he helped develop key financial-analytical tools and software. He has also lectured at business schools, such as the University of Chicago, Northwestern, Tuck, Yale, and INSEAD.
Tim serves as chairman of the board of Pathways to College and is a trustee of Hampshire College.
Video
“Creating value: An interactive tutorial,” McKinsey & Company, November 2010
Published work
“Is your ‘conglomerate discount’ a performance discount or a communication problem?,” McKinsey & Company, October 2024
“What I learned from Daniel Kahneman,” McKinsey & Company, October 2024
“Managing carbon: A new role for the CFO,” McKinsey & Company, October 2024
“Smart money? Retail investors, intrinsic investors, and the Magnificent Seven,” McKinsey & Company, September 2024
“How innovation can accelerate industry momentum,” McKinsey & Company, August 2024
“Keep calm and allocate capital: Six process improvements,” McKinsey & Company, June 2024
“Bias Busters: Next in line? A structured approach to succession planning,” McKinsey Quarterly, June 2024
“The myth of an enduring index premium,” McKinsey & Company, May 2024
“Tying short-term decisions to long-term strategy,” McKinsey & Company, May 2024
“Bias Busters: Motivations under the microscope,” McKinsey & Company, November 2023
“Do big companies cut dividends to grow?,” McKinsey & Company, November 2023
“How CFOs can adopt a VC mindset: Staircase Ventures’ Janet Bannister,” McKinsey & Company, October 2023
“Five paths to TSR outperformance,” McKinsey & Company, October 2023
“Prime Numbers: Successful companies don’t short-change investment in the future,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, September 2023
“Capital allocation starts with governance—and should be led by the CEO” McKinsey & Company, June 2023
“A word of caution about internal rate of return and sell-downs,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, May 2023
“The true value of share repurchases,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, May 2023
“The future of mobility,” McKinsey & Company, April 2023
“Bias Busters: The perils of executive typecasting,” McKinsey & Company, March 2023
“How you finance M&A won’t affect overall value creation,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, March 2023
“Stop obsessing about earnings accretion,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, March 2023
“Markets versus textbooks: Calculating today’s cost of equity,” McKinsey & Company, January 2023
“Don’t use multiples to measure M&A success, please,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, January 2023
“Tim Koller on the timeless truths of corporate finance,” McKinsey & Company, November 2022
“Rethink performance metrics when inflation is high,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, October 2022
“Looking back: What does the ‘long term’ really mean?,” McKinsey & Company, September 2022
“Bias busters: When good intentions get derailed,” McKinsey & Company, August 2022
“Understanding the SEC’s proposed climate risk disclosure rule,” McKinsey & Company, June 2022
“Reflections on 20 years of McKinsey on Finance—and three challenges ahead,” McKinsey Quarterly, June 2022
“Bias Busters: When the crowd isn’t necessarily wise,” McKinsey & Company, May 2022
“Bias busters: A better way to brainstorm,” McKinsey & Company, January 2022
“When bigger isn’t always better,” McKinsey Quarterly, December 2021
“Reports of corporates’ demise have been greatly exaggerated,” McKinsey & Company, October 2021
“Which metrics really drive total returns to shareholders?,” McKinsey & Company, October 2021
“How executives can help sustain value creation for the long term,” McKinsey & Company, July 2021
“Don’t overthink your approach to valuation in emerging markets,” McKinsey & Company, July 2021
“In conversation: The impact of COVID-19 on capital markets,” McKinsey & Company, June 2021
“Should you start issuing EPS guidance again?,” McKinsey & Company, March 2021
“Four regions, four stories of recovery and resilience,” McKinsey & Company, March 2021
“Accounting for values and valuation,” McKinsey & Company, March 2021
“How capital markets keep us connected,” McKinsey & Company, February 2021
“Are scenarios limiting your pandemic recovery strategy?,” McKinsey & Company, November 2020
“Why ‘digital’ is no different when it comes to valuation,” McKinsey & Company, October 2020
“Wall Street versus Main Street: Why the disconnect?,” McKinsey & Company, October 2020
“Navigating COVID-19: Advice from long-term investors,” McKinsey & Company, April 2020
“Bias busters: War games? Here’s what they’re good for,” McKinsey & Company, April 2020
“When investors call: How your business should talk about coronavirus,” McKinsey & Company, March 2020
“Bias busters: Seeing strategy alternatives in the momentum case,” McKinsey Quarterly, March 2020
“Five ways that ESG creates value,” McKinsey Quarterly, November 2019
“Bias busters: Avoiding snap judgments,” McKinsey Quarterly, November 2019
“Bias busters: Getting both sides of the story,” McKinsey Quarterly, September 2019
“Bias busters: Knowing when to kill a project,” McKinsey Quarterly, July 2019
“Bias busters: Premortems: Being smart at the start,” McKinsey Quarterly, April 2019
“Bias busters: Up-front contingency planning,” McKinsey Quarterly, April 2019
“Bias busters: Pruning projects proactively,” McKinsey Quarterly, February 2019
“Bias busters: Being objective about budgets,” McKinsey Quarterly, September 2018
“Bias busters: Taking the ‘outside view,’” McKinsey Quarterly, September 2018
“Debiasing the corporation: An interview with Nobel laureate Richard Thaler,” McKinsey & Company, May 2018
“How to know when better profit margins aren’t better for your company,” McKinsey & Company, January 2018
"Should assessing financial similarity be part of your corporate portfolio strategy?," McKinsey & Company, November 2017
"Look out below: Why returns are headed lower, and what to do about it," McKinsey & Company, November 2016
"Bracing for a new era of lower investment returns," McKinsey & Company, July 2016
"Are share buybacks jeopardizing future growth?,"
McKinsey & Company, October 2015
"The new global competition for corporate profits," McKinsey Global Institute, September 2015
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, John Wiley & Sons, August 2015
"Getting a better handle on currency risk," McKinsey & Company, July 2015
"A hidden roadblock in public-infrastructure projects," McKinsey & Company, June 2015
"The real business of business," McKinsey & Company, March 2015
"Are you getting all you can from your board of directors?," McKinsey & Company, November 2014
"What's behind this year's buoyant market?," McKinsey & Company, October 2014
"Goodwill shunting: How to better manage write-downs," McKinsey & Company, June 2014
"Building a better income statement," McKinsey & Company, November 2013
Value: The Four Cornerstones of Corporate Finance, John Wiley & Sons, November 2010
Past experience
Stern Stewart & Company
Vice president
Education
University of Chicago
MBA
Loyola Marymount University
BS, economics and accounting
