Aligning the Stars



Star Man Executive Talent 10/1/00 Maryann Hedaa and Charlie Douglas Thomas J. Tierney, who recently stepped down as chief executive of Bain & Company, is an advocate of "constellation leadership." Tierney, who is credited with building Bain into a major consultancy, talks with Executive Editor Maryann Hedaa and Associate Editor Charles Douglas about how this leadership concept blends a firm's strategic direction with consensus-building around core values. Tierney's legacy is a firm rich in talent... In many respects, Tierney has set a new leadership standard for generating results through people. He has demonstrated that it is possible to get the countervailing forces right: to nurture and to care for individuals as well as to act strategically. Under his leadership, Bain’s revenues have grown in excess of 25% per annum for the last eight years, and the firm has been extremely successful at attracting some of the best talent in the world... Tom Tierney is a man with a mission. "Although it may sounds somewhat trite and idealistic," he says, "I want to make a difference. I'm an optimist, and I think that most people hold the right values. However, most of us too easily drift off our life's course." ...At the moment, his sights are set on the management of nonprofit enterprises and foundations that support community initiatives ranging from empowering the underprivileged to cleaning up the environment... Much of his attention will be devoted to building The Bridgespan Group, which he founded in 1999 and where he currently serves as chairman... Q&A - Tackling a Brave New World: Bain & Company's Tom Tierney Harvard Business School Bulletin 10/1/00 Peter K. Jacobs In January 2000, Thomas J. Tierney (MBA '80) announced that he would step aside as worldwide managing director of Bain & Company, a position he had held since 1992, and become chairman of The Bridgespan Group, a new Bain affiliate. Tierney's brainchild, The Bridgespan Group is an independent consulting practice designed to "bridge" the gap between the seemingly disparate worlds of corporate management consulting and nonprofit organizations worldwide. Creating Waves in Nonprofit Sea The New York Times 2/2/00 David Cay Johnston A big idea that started with sketches on the back of napkins... The Bridge[span] Group is something entirely new in the world of big league business consulting - a general-purpose strategic consulting firm that will help other nonprofit organizations for a fee... Its aim is to complement the piece meal, pro bono approach that Bain and others have long taken toward helping nonprofits solve management and logistical woes. The group will offer the consistent, sustained advice that has helped big business wring more profit out of each invested dollar... Mr. Tierney's vision is not just to help individual nonprofits, but to build a storehouse of knowledge that can be applied to common problems among nonprofits... Download full text as a PDF File Wealth of Opportunity in the Non-Profit Arena Financial Times (London) 2/7/01 Roger Cowe The Bridgespan Group is using its unique position as a spin-off of Bain & Co. to help the charitable sector by tapping into the consultancy's expertise. A small US consultancy has just celebrated its first year of operations. It is struggling to cope with demand and has an eye on international expansion... It is a familiar story, but this one is different. First, The Bridgespan Group is a non-profit company and works with charities and other non-profit organizations rather than Fortune 500 companies. Second, it was spun out of and remains linked to Bain & Co., one of the leading global strategy advisers to that elite group of companies. Third, this company is already the subject of a Harvard Business School case study... Mr. Tierney is the architect of The Bridgespan Group. He was formerly worldwide managing director of Bain and his commitment to the project is demonstrated by the fact he stepped down from that plum job to chair the new company... "The complexity of running even small non-profit organizations is quite a bit more challenging than most businesses" he says. This knowledge led Mr. Tierney to conclude that it was essential to have a dedicated, separate non-profit organization. But he wanted the best of both worlds - a non-profit consultancy with the expertise, tools and training typically only available to the corporate world, but at a price that is affordable by cash-strapped voluntary organizations... A Future That Lies With the Stars Financial Times 3/30/99 Tony Jackson Tom Tierney is a man with a mission ... As befits an evangelist, he teaches the subject at Harvard Business School. He also has a more direct interest; he is world-wide head of Bain & Co., the management consultants... He's Building a Reputation Marin Independent Journal 10/18/98 Marin native is CEO of global consulting firm ... Tom Tierney, president and CEO of Bain & Co., enjoys building things. ...Decades ago, he helped his parents build their home in Tiburon. After graduating from UC Davis, Tierney worked for Bechtel, constructing a liquefied natural gas plant in Algeria... Now, as the head of one of the world's largest strategic consulting firms, the 44-year old Marin native is helping build companies....