Bain & Company

The overview

Bain & Company is a business consulting firm that works with clients across all industries worldwide. It offers a range of ‘capability’ services revolving around strategy, marketing, performance improvement, organisation, IT, and mergers and acquisitions.

Established in 1973, Bain’s founders aimed to redefine the consultancy industry, which they felt to be focused too much on making recommendations and not enough on implementing these to produce results for clients. In line with this belief, Bain practises ‘tied economics’ arrangements with its clients, meaning that the consultancy’s financial reward depends upon successful outcomes.

Bain practises ‘tied economics’ arrangements with its clients, meaning that the consultancy’s financial reward depends upon successful outcomes.

The firm now has 44 offices in 29 countries. It employs 4,800 people, including 3,500 consultants, worldwide. Bain claims to have devised and implemented business strategy for the majority of the Global 500 (the world’s top corporations by revenue, compiled by Fortune magazine), and thousands of major regional and local companies.

Business areas

Bain describes ‘strategy’ as its core business. Its strategic services aim to enhance a client’s core business and help develop a new portfolio where profitable.

The firm helps clients to devise a strategy when entering emerging markets, such as Asia, Latin and Eastern Europe, and to compete with multinationals and local companies. Additionally, its sustainability division works to develop clients’ ethical business practices.

Bain has a number of other divisions aside from strategy.

Customer strategy and marketing offers services such as:

• Customer insights and segmentation (understanding who an organisation’s clients are, what their needs are and how they break down into different groups with different needs)
• Product and category management (ensuring that new product development work leads to growth)
• Pricing
• Sales and channel effectiveness (improving the effectiveness of a company’s sales activities)
• Marketing and brand strategy.

Performance improvement covers a number of areas, including:

• Cash and capital management
• Business process redesign
• Capability sourcing (outsourcing)
• Supply chain management
• Manufacturing
• Purchasing.

IT provides options such as:

• IT full potential strategy (ensuring businesses harness the full potential of their IT investments)
• IT capability sourcing (outsourcing)
• IT project turnaround (ensuring that IT investments result in benefits for the business).

Mergers & acquisitions deals with areas including:

• due diligence (investigating a company that a business is considering buying)
• merger integration
• joint ventures and alliances
• divestitures (selling off parts of the business).

Bain also offers turnaround services specifically for companies in crisis through its ‘corporate renewal’ group, while its ‘organisation’ arm of the business aims to help clients to develop effective organisational models.

It was the first consulting firm to work within private equity; the company now has a group of 400 staff dedicated to this area, based in offices across four continents. The group serves European, US and Asian private equity clients.

Clients

Bain has worked across a wide range of industries including:

• Consumer goods
• Industrial goods and services
• Retail
• Healthcare
• Social and public sector
• Financial services
• Media
• Technology
• Telecommunications
• Financial services
• Private equity
• Airlines and transportation
• Metals and mining
• Oil and gas
• Utilities and alternative energy

Within these sectors Bain works with clients ranging from large multinationals and leading private equity firms to mid-size and small start-up companies. It claims to work with a greater number of small and medium-sized businesses, and private equity clients, than its competitors, offering its consultants opportunities to gain diverse sector knowledge.

Bain claims to work with a greater number of small and medium-sized businesses, offering its consultants opportunities to gain diverse sector knowledge.

New offices worldwide

In 2007 offices were opened in Frankfurt, Moscow, Dubai and Kiev. In 2008 the firm established a presence in Copenhagen and Buenos Aires, and in 2009 set up in Mumbai and Oslo. In 2010 it opened a new office in Houston.

The firm has also made a mark in south-east Asia, with offices in Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

In June 2011 Bain announced the opening of office number 45 in Rio de Janeiro, in response to multinationals’ interest in offshore oil and gas discoveries in Brazil. The office will be Bain’s second in the country and its third in South America.

Rankings and awards

• Ranked number 1 for the ninth year in a row in Consulting Magazine’s ‘Best Firm to Work For’ survey in 2011, in which employees of surveyed firms do the voting.
• Ranked number 1 in career website Vault’s ‘Consulting 50’, ‘Best Consulting Firms for Diversity’ and ‘Best Consulting Firms for Culture’ surveys, all in 2011.
• Ranked number 3 by glassdoor.com in its ‘Employees’ Choice: Best Places to Work’ survey in 2011.

Salary and benefits

There is a culture of discretion at Bain regarding salary, which is stated as ‘competitive’. However, a typical starting salary for the management consulting sector would be roughly in the region of £30,000.

Its benefits package includes performance bonuses, plus a signing bonus and relocation expense reimbursement for new starters.

Time out

Bain offers part-time and job sharing options after an employee has completed a year with the company, as well as sabbatical leaves and absences needed for personal reasons.

Additionally, the company has developed a ‘Take two’ initiative that enables employees who have worked for ten consecutive months to take an extended period of unpaid leave (usually two months) to rejuvenate or fulfil personal goals.