Question: OD IN PRACTICE: BAIN & CO.15
Bain & Co., a management consulting firm founded by Bill Bain in 1973, is one of the major consulting firms worldwide. Bain's consultants have worked with more than 2,500 major corporations in all parts of the world. It has more than 2,100 people in 30 offices in 19 countries. Bain consultants work with governments and businesses alike. Industry sectors that Bain works with include retail, financial services, medical, entertainment, technology, and environmental services. The firm's clients have included the governments of Japan and Korea. It also provides pro bono consulting services to nonprofit organizations, such as San Francisco's efforts to address homelessness and the National Resources Defense Council's objective of dealing with global warming and climate change. Bain has recently created the Bridgespan Group as a subsidiary dedicated to serving the nonprofit sector.
THE BAIN CONSULTANT Bain is known for the shrewd, suave people it employs. The Bain consultant tends to be articulate, meticulously groomed, well-mannered, and exceedingly charming. Bain employees are notoriously secretive about their organization and their clients, and dedicate themselves to improving their customers' competitive position. Business is a war their clients must win. NEW TYPES OF CONSULTANTS In 1973 William W. "Bill" Bain created a new type of management consultant role-a quasi-insider who is privy to the client's secrets and works directly with the CEO to implement the strategy. Bill Bain is known as the creator of "relationship consulting."The consultants build their business on the close relationship they develop with clients. Bain focuses on the total system, and on the profitability of the entire organization.
Such knowledge demands lots of data gathering and a great deal of time for analysis. Bain consultants insist on working directly with the chief executive, because they feel that the CEO is the key to a firm's success. Other consultants may come in and study a situation, write up a report with recommendations, and then leave. This is not Bain's approach. Bain consultants work collaboratively with the client to study, define, and assist in the implementation of the solution. And because Bain's consultants have experience working with such a wide group of clients, they tend not to have the tunnel vision that too often afflicts employees within an organization The company CEOs may know their organization and their industry, but may not be able to bring in new ideas from across a multitude of industries and countries. WHY BAIN IS DIFFERENT According to Bain, some of the things that make this consulting company unique are:
• Rejecting the old advice model to focus on strategy and implementation.
• Accepting equity in lieu of fees to align incentives with client results.
• Founding the Bridge span Group, the first major nonprofit strategy consulting firm.
• Sharing client, incubated, and private capital coinvestments among all professional staff.
1. Do you agree with the relationship-consulting approach?
2. Visit Bain's Web site (www.bain.com) and explore the firm's current approaches to consulting.
3. Contrast the approach of a company trying to solve its own problems versus bringing in outside consultants. What are the pros and cons of the two approaches?