The Mc Kinsey Mystique

American Express. IBM. Westinghouse. They're three of America's corporate titans--and all three have new chief executives at the helm. All three chiefs, in turn, share something on their resum s: they've worked for the world's most prestigious management consulting firm, McKinsey & Co.

McKinsey consultants have been moving into executive suites ever since James O. McKinsey left the firm he founded in 1926 to head retailer Marshall Field & Co. But in the past year, the McKinsey Mafia, as some call it, has really scaled the heights. Besides IBM's Louis V. Gerstner Jr., there's Harvey Golub, who won the top job at American Express Co. in February, Michael H. Jordan, who took over at Westinghouse Electric Corp. in June, and Philip Purcell, CEO of the recently spun-off Dean Witter unit of Sears, Roebuck & Co.