Case Reading Notes: Orit Gadiesh: Pride at Bain & Co.

Orit Gadiesh, Vice Chairman of Bain & Co. trying to find a way to renew company’s former “collective pride spirit and sense of community.” Management consulting had its ups and downs, and suffered a lot during recessions. Bigger companies merged a lot, and Economist predicts that the consulting companies that will suffer the most are those that can’t afford to merge with other companies that have the abilities they lack. Bain & Co. was founded by a guy who used to work at Boston Consulting Group, but then split to make Bain. Two policies helped make it a success: innovation in the strategy of “relationship consulting” making specific suggestions instead of huge books of info and research, and also promising not to work with the competitors rivals. Firm characterized as fun and hardworking place. But then Bain sold 30% of his company and then with financial demands too high had to lay off 10% of workforce.

- Gadiesh was put in charge of a task force to examine how to handle partners’ future compensation. At first she was reluctant, then she took it because both sides had trusted her

o She hired outside experts to help out, an example of distributing labor

- after another brief outturn, things got better

- the speech:

o she emphasized collective pride, felt that team wasn’t ready before for a pride turnaround because they were still undergoing a business turnaround

o she emphasized successes, not failures

o one person advised her not to speak from heart, but present facts and data and another