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John C. W. Parsons

Senior PartnerCalgary

Transforms large industrial sites and organizations by implementing the latest performance-based approaches and leveraging the core principles of organizational health to ensure sustainable change.

John is a leader in our Global Energy and Materials and People & Organizational Performance Practices.

John brings extensive experience to serving oil-and-gas, petrochemical, mining, and power-generation companies, with a focus on overall operations and organizational-performance transformation. An expert in change management and culture change, he has helped executives in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa get the most out of their organizational investments.

Since joining McKinsey, John has led or participated in more than 30 corporate-wide or large manufacturing site performance transformations in a variety of industries. He is a graduate of McKinsey’s Lean Operations Academy.

Examples of his recent client work include the following:

  • leading an effort to reorganize the maintenance and engineering functions at a global petrochemicals company
  • directing support for a large-scale merger integration between two leading oil-and-gas companies
  • guiding a performance and organizational-health transformation for a global utilities company
  • leading a performance-transformation initiative for a major manufacturer, including engineering, product development, and supplier management
  • directing a broad operations transformation for an oil-sands operator, including significant changes to the operating model and contractor-management practices
  • directing cost-reduction and lean-transformation programs across multiple refining and petrochemical locations for both integrated and independent oil-and-gas companies

Before joining the firm, John worked at a global aviation-products-and-services company, where he addressed a variety of challenges, including optimizing manufacturing processes, boosting fleet reliability, improving spare-part planning, and pursuing new business development. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

John is on the advisory board for the faculty of business administration at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is a long-serving member of the faculty for the McKinsey Change Leaders Forum.

Published work

Going all in: Why employee ‘will’ can make or break transformations,” McKinsey & Company, September 2024

More uptime, lower cost: Boosting organizational health in maintenance,” McKinsey & Company, February 2024

Three actions to boost frontline engagement and retention,” blog entry, McKinsey & Company, October 2022

Social capital: Build back better relationships at work,” McKinsey & Company, October 2022

Network effects: How to rebuild social capital and improve corporate performance,” McKinsey & Company, August 2022

The importance of talent and culture in tech-enabled transformations,” McKinsey & Company, February 2020

The missing link in mining-company productivity: People,” McKinsey & Company, May 2018

What it takes to be successful: Three hallmarks of a healthy oil and gas organization,” McKinsey & Company, September 2017

Past experience

Bombardier Aerospace
Business-development analyst

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MEng, logistics

Memorial University of Newfoundland
BComm, co-op