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Kevin Sachs

Senior PartnerDenver

Drives strategic and operational performance transformations to help advanced industrial and high-tech companies find cost savings while pursuing efficiency and growth

Kevin guides strategic and operational transformations, helping executives take stock of their performance in core functions and find ways to achieve sustainable cost and efficiency gains. He advises companies in industries where operational efficiency is a crucial competitive advantage, particularly high tech, aerospace, defense, and industrial manufacturing. With deep expertise in evaluating organizations and moving them swiftly along the performance curve, he is a valued advisor to private equity investors—whether conducting due diligence or turning around portfolio companies.

With McKinsey, Kevin has more than a decade of experience developing and implementing approaches to reduce costs and increase efficiency, while pursing growth and investment objectives.

Examples of his work:

  • leading a design-to-value initiative for a specialty-vehicle manufacturer to deliver 8 percent savings across the full product line while investing in features most valued by customers
  • driving a full-cost transformation of an aerospace company to reduce engineering, procurement, and manufacturing expenditures by 12 percent through pilot-and-scale improvement programs in each area
  • reducing the procurement costs of a high-tech company by 15 percent in its most critical product line through a combination of design improvements and commercial negotiations
  • developing a growth strategy for an industrial client, including dealer-network performance improvement, product enhancements, diversification into adjacent markets, and targeted acquisitions
  • leading more than 25 strategic and operational due diligence efforts in a range of businesses, including high tech, industrials, and consumer goods

After 6 years with McKinsey (in New York, Eastern Europe, and California), Kevin took a 5-year leave to serve as an executive at an electronics-manufacturing-service company, where his roles included leading strategy, account management, program management, and supply chain solutions. He rejoined the firm in 2008 in Silicon Valley and is now based in our Denver office, where his local leadership includes serving on the board of directors for the Junior Achievement organization in the Rocky Mountain region.

Published work

The power of private-label brands in distribution,” McKinsey & Company, January 2024

Operational efficiency A clear path to outperformance in distribution,” McKinsey & Company, May 2023

Lessons from transformers: How some distributors reset and won,” McKinsey & Company, February 2023

Taking off: Scaling complex manufacturing in the aerospace industry,” McKinsey & Company, February 2023

How distributors can build momentum in a slowdown,” McKinsey & Company, September 2022

How distributors can self-disrupt to win in the new digital world,” McKinsey & Company, March 2022

Labor-intensive factories—analytics-intensive productivity,” McKinsey & Company, April 2021

Industrial ‘lighthouses’ for tech-enabled transformations,” McKinsey & Company, January 2020

"Excellence in cost management, A new era for aerospace" (PDF–796 KB), McKinsey and Company, August 2013

Past experience

Flextronics International
Vice President

Education

Stanford University
MBA (Arjay Miller Scholar)

Williams College
BA, political economy