The 2017 Global Leaders in Consulting: James Allen

Over the last year, he's worked on Bain's Micro-battles, which is all about how large complex companies rediscover the art of "getting stuff done fast," which has been a source of pride.

"The Micro-battles concept came directly from our deep work with company founders on what sets of skills and behaviours led them to create successful insurgent companies," Allen says. "Having worked with these founders in writing our most recent book, Founder's Mentality, we continued to meet with them through over 35 global forums and co-created the Micro-battle System."

Aside from Founder's Mentality, Allen is a recognized leading expert in developing global corporate and business unit strategy and has worked closely with Bain's Chris Zook on two other books on strategy:  Profit From the Core and Repeatability.

In fact, ask Allen about the biggest factor to his success and he'll say Chris Zook, who kept him from being fired as a Summer Associate 30 years ago and has been his Paul, John and George ever since. "I'm a very lucky Ringo."

Much like the real Ringo, Allen credits his music—and his family—for his success. "About 15 years ago, I benefited from an executive coach, who was helping me with those classic work-life balance issues. Her insight was simple—you'll never get the work bit under control unless you let the life bit explode," he says. "I've always loved music, and from that piece of advice I founded two separate companies: a music label with studios in London and Spain, as well a charity, Singing Wells, focused on recording, archiving and sharing the traditional music of East Africa."

Because family and music were always a great source of energy, he found it easy to throw a lot of that energy back into Bain and his clients. "I love being a tiny piece of a CEO's transformation story," he says. "And, if you're in a great professional services firm, each year your leagues get better in all things." Over the last several years, he says he has loved working with founders, from Jaipur to New Jersey, from Johannesburg to Sao Paulo. "They've created something from nothing and most have sacrificed so much of themselves to create great companies. It's humbling."

Q&A:  What does being recognized as a Global Leader in Consulting mean to you? Your firm? Your clients?

Allen: "For me, it means I am lucky. I had the opportunity to work with a lot of great clients and Bain colleagues, who have created great things. I've been fortunate in that I got to hang my name on some of it. But it is really all about the team. Maybe it will inspire the next generation of Bainies to collect lifelong lessons and fun stories. For clients? I hope they never know.  When you work with a client it is all about them, their success and the company's success."