Bain & Company
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Bain & Company is a management consulting firm, headquartered in Boston, MA, recognized as one of the leading firms in the consulting industry, along with McKinsey & Company, the Boston Consulting Group, and Booz Allen Hamilton. It has been named by Consulting Magazine as one of the Best Firms to Work For in 2005. Its slogan, "Helping make companies more valuable," speaks to its results-oriented mindset.
History
Begun in 1973 by seven former partners of the Boston Consulting Group, the firm carries the name of founder Bill Bain who had been a VP at BCG.In 1983-84, an investment fund, Bain Capital, was spun-off by three partners -- Mitt Romney, T. Coleman Andrews, and Eric Kriss -- that subsequently grew to become one of the world's leading private investment firms with over $27 billion in assets under management.
In 1991, Bill Bain led a failed management buyout effort which resulted in his ouster by a turnaround team. In 1993, Orit Gadiesh, a Harvard MBA originally from Israel, was elected chairman. Bain & Company employs over 3,200 professionals and operates 32 offices with a concentration in the United States, Europe, and the Far East, notably in Japan and China.
The company does not have a non-profit consulting practice. Instead, it incubated and spun off [The Bridgespan Group] in 2000, which is itself a consulting firm whose client base is exclusively non-profit organizations and foundations. Though Bridgespan is a separate entity from Bain & Company, it is common for Bain consultants to spend six months working for Bridgespan.
Bain alumni include: Greg Brenneman, private equity financier and former CEO of the Burger King Corporation; Roger Brown, President of the Berklee College of Music; Ken Chenault, CEO of American Express; Scott Cook, founder of Intuit (Quicken software); Kevin Rollins, CEO of Dell, Inc., Mitt Romney, Governor of Massachusetts; Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay; Sam Rovit, CEO of Swift & Company.
Recruiting
The two main entry points for Bain & Company are as an Associate Consultant and a Consultant.The Associate Consultant (AC) is typically a recent college graduate and is expected to have an enthusiasm for problem-solving and an analytical skill-set. No specific major is required, though a demonstrated interest in economics and business can be valuable. The AC role lasts for two years, after which outstanding ACs are invited to stay for a third year and become a Senior Associate Consultant (SAC). This third year can be spent at a Bain office abroad ("transfer"), or working for a client ("externship").
Demand is high for the AC position. In 2005, the U.S. offices in the Northeast received a combined 10,000 applications, from which 50 ACs were hired. Bain offers an internship ("Associate Consultant Intern") for undergraduates in between their junior and senior years.
The Consultant role is for graduate students, typically MBAs. In some cases, Consultants are former Bain ACs who went to business school and are returning to Bain. Like the AC role, the Consultant role is typically a two-year position and offers great flexibility in terms of six-month transfers and other opportunities. Also like the AC role, demand is quite high and Bain typically draws the bulk of its consultants from top-tier schools like Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School, the Wharton School, the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and the Kellogg School of Management. Not all newly-hired Consultants have MBAs, some may have a J.D. or a PhD.
Publications
Senior Bain consultants have written a number of books and articles. The most recent, Fred Reichheld's "The Ultimate Question" was published in 2005 by Harvard Business School Press and states that asking the simple question "How likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?" is the key to assessing firm performance. More books and articles can be found at "http://www.bain.com/bainweb/publications/publications_overview.asp".External links
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