Interviews
- »One on One with Ed Hess
Grow or Die. It’s probably the most common business axiom, and the least accurate, according to the new book “Smart Growth: Building an Enduring Business by Managing the Risks of Growth” (Columbia Business School Publishing). To better understand the book’s implications for firms, Consulting’s One-on-One sat down with the book’s author, Ed Hess, a former Arthur Andersen strategy consultant and current professor at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business.
- »One on One with Summit's David Litherland
When prospective employees interview for a job, they obsess over making a good, lasting impression. Firms should do the same. To learn how firms can avoid typical pitfalls, Consulting’s One on One sat down with David Litherland, managing partner of Summit Search Group, an executive search firm specializing in placing professionals within professional service firms.
- »One on One with PwC's Tom Craren
Senior executives are becoming immune to traditional marketing. Marketing consultants tell us that to pierce through the white noise of corporate communication, firms should consider “content marketing”. Instead of more traditional marketing, providing valuable insight and perspective in a blog or electronic newsletter can serve as a more effective door opener. One of the best examples is PricewaterhouseCoopers’ “10-Minute” series. For almost three years, PwC has boiled down complex thought leadership into small electronic pieces an executive can read in about ten minutes. To learn more about PwC’s marketing efforts, Consulting’s One-on-One sat down with Tom Craren, the firm’s brand strategy and thought leadership leader. His team of 20 writers produces between two to three 10-minute pieces each month, along with more detailed white papers.
- »One on One with Stanford Hospital's Kate Surman
Transitioning healthcare companies from paper to electronic records presents huge consulting opportunities.
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2009
»2009 Best Firms to Work For: Bain & Co. (No. 1)
 When trying to sum up Bain & Company’s incredible run of seven consecutive years as the Best Firm to Work For, perhaps one survey question captures the essence of the firm. When asked if their firm fosters a team-oriented culture, Bain consultants overwhelmingly agreed—to the tune of 4.9 out of a possible 5.
“We’re a global team that lives by this principal of a ‘Bainie’ never lets another ‘Bainie’ fail,” says Steve Ellis, worldwide managing director of Bain & Company. “This is true across geographies, cultures, languages, and over time and through generations. This is one thing that virtually every partner reflects on.”
Ellis says the term itself came from a partner who came to Bain from another firm who said Bain doesn’t realize how special that attribute is to a firm’s culture. “I think like any good recipe it’s not any one ingredient, but rather it’s a combination of many different things. And it’s the way they’re mixed that creates what’s really unique about the Bain culture itself.”
Perhaps even more impressive in this year and this economy, the firm also scored a 4.9 out of 5 when asked if they believe their firm does everything it possibly can before reducing headcount.
“First and foremost, what we’ve done in light of this recession is not only maintain our commitment and investments in making Bain a great place to work, but we’ve actually tried to double down in several areas moving against the general current to really emphasize for our people just how important it is to us that people feel Bain is an exceptional place to work,” Ellis says. “We don’t manage our business quarter to quarter, we don’t get too worked up about fluctuations even on an annual basis. We’re focused on a multi-year mission. While this recession has been a severe one, it hasn’t dampened our confidence a bit. I think our people feel that.”
 Staying Invested
Ellis says the firm has stayed the course on the investment it made in its people, despite the lackluster economy. “We’ve maintained all of our global training programs. There are a lot less expensive ways to train people than flying everybody to global training programs, but we think that’s so important to maintaining our culture and consistency around the world,” Ellis says.
“We’ve also maintained heavy investments in international transfer programs—again, an expensive thing to do, but it’s so vital to what actually reinforces the development of our people and the continued evolution of our culture. We’ve maintained our recruiting on campus, not as just a recruiting ploy, but keeping our people focused on fine tuning our value proposition, feeling confident and aggressive about communicating and selling a message.”
It’s this type of commitment that has scored the firm such high marks on the survey in the area of Career Development. In 2009, Bain & Company was the top ranked firm in the area. “We’ll always do our formalized training programs, but another important part is the mentorship and coaching culture that every member of our team from the most senior partner down to a second-year analyst has some responsibility for guiding and coaching people who are reporting in to them,” Ellis says.
“What drives the successful career development is the real-time training and guidance people get in their day-to-day jobs. We take that seriously—it’s such an important part of what we expect of every person and leadership position in our firm. We monitor and train for it, we compensate for it, and that’s one of the things that probably contributes to our performance on that particular aspect of the survey.”
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Leadership is another area of the survey where Bain excels each year, and this year is no different. Leading through the good times is, of course, much easier than leading through a prolonged recession. Ellis says leading in a downturn can be difficult, but the golden rule is to communicate with your team—constantly.
“In an environment like the one today, communication has such a huge premium. We’ve taken a pretty robust communications program and really accelerated it—both the depth and frequency of communication at all levels of the organization,” he says. “I’ve probably doubled the amount of time I spend in pure communication to keep all levels of the organization informed.”
Ellis says very early in the economic crisis, he was communicating very frequently and openly with his entire staff about how severe he expected the downturn to be, and how Bain would maintain appropriate levels of investment through what could well be a very extended period of meaningful economic headwind in most—if not all—of Bain’s major markets.
“Our staff really responded well to that because we were clear about how we were going to manage this turbulent period, and we had to be more thoughtful about managing costs,” Ellis says. “I think our people realized we had a clear path and were going to make choices consistent with our values and our strategies that we had been articulating for years.”
Client Facing
Of course, being a great place to work doesn’t amount to anything if it doesn’t translate to the client side of the business. Ellis says he gets thorough feedback from clients—much of it concerning what’s unique about working with the people at Bain versus the competitors.
“Our clients reference things like the value of our results orientation, the pragmatism, the passion our people bring to the work; how they are highly collaborative,” Ellis says. “These are things that are incredibly important in the hearts and minds of our clients, but don’t show up in proposals.”
Clients understand, Ellis says, that a firm can’t attract, retain and continue to develop exceptional teams of people unless it really is an extraordinary place to work. “When we talk to people about the fact that Bain has won this award for seven years in a row, they’re generally impressed but they almost expect it,” he says.
“Clients become real believers in it. They get it—they see the proof in the pudding, which is the actual experience of working side-by-side with our people.”
And what about an eighth year?
Ellis says Bain is never completely satisfied. “I would say we’re almost paranoid about constantly improving and enhancing our people’s value propositions and never resting on our laurels,” Ellis says. “It’s so vital to who we are that it’s sort of a continuous journey. We’re never, ever satisfied—even with the great results we’ve had seven years in a row.”
—Joe Kornik
PRACTICE SPOTLIGHT
Financial Services
In a year when consulting in financial services has been a challenge, to say the least, Bain & Company’s financial services practice was one of the many highlights for the firm. Welcome news indeed, to both Alan Colberg, global head of financial services for Bain, and Andrew Schwedel, head of financial services in North America. “The news of a particularly strong and passionate response in the survey by members of our global financial services team was particularly encouraging,” Colberg says. “Financial services is a key strategic sector and priority for Bain, and we’ve made a tremendous amount of investment.”
And the investment has paid off. The firm has seen 20 percent year-over-year growth in the practice since 2003. “It’s great to see that growth coupled with the excitement that our financial services consultants are showing for the practice, and for the client work they’re doing in some of the largest game-changing sector transformations currently underway around the globe,” Colberg says. “This convergence of passions—for client work and for the Bain team and mission—is critical as we continue to be called upon by major financial institutions around the world to help them rebuild their business models and capabilities and to come out of this recession in positions of strength. It’s really an exciting time for our practice and for our consultants.”
Companies are looking for a “clean break” with old business models and strategies that led—in part— to the current situations that many organization find themselves in right now, says Schwedel. “They are coming to Bain for forward-thinking yet practical strategies that can help transform their businesses for the post-recession world and help them win in the marketplace,” he says. “We are working with clients on far-reaching strategic changes and how profit pools are shifting and what industry landscapes will look like. These unprecedented times present not only daunting challenges but also tremendous opportunities for our consultants to create real, measureable results for our clients so that they come out of this downturn in positions of strength.”
As far as keeping that positive culture through such tumultuous times, Schwedel says the “financial services practice doesn’t have a culture that is different from our global Bain culture. We pride ourselves on a ‘one Bain’ philosophy and approach worldwide. A Bainie never lets another Bainie fail, anywhere in the world. We view this shared philosophy and focus as a competitive advantage for Bain.” —J.K. |
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