Bain & Bainies

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."
- Beverly Sills

Yea, yea yea. Nothing here, just getting your pictures up!

Yes, much like most of the other pages this is under construction but I wanted to get the pictures up here at least for your viewing pleasure, even if they currently lack the stories to accompany them. Until then, please enjoy.

Josh Baron and I climbing around in Colorado during the Summer of '96: Long before either of us had started. I was going to be "in the area" and Josh was kind enough to show me around the mountains in the summer.

    Jason McLinn & I in Boston.
My ACT Training Group taking a break in Martha's Vineyard.

The Bain Chicago ACs on our Ropes Course outing in the Fall of '96.

Josh Baron and I on a March '97 Skiing trip to his place in Colorado.

The "Perfect 1.0" Case Team - HBP. We know glue!

Going out to see Beauty & The Beast at the Chicago Theater with some of my close friends in early January.

Ammar Maraqa and I up on his roof looking out on Lake Michigan in late summer.

The HU2 case team. Nothing can beat 5:30am drives down to Jacksonville, IL. Jacksonville can be summarized by the clerk at the Amerihost Inn, replying to the questions "Are there any good restaurants around here," with "...Well... there is one." If you ever wanted to know anything about vegetable oil... Titre jokes and the winterizing room...

Our headquarters are in Boston, a great city I've been able to visit a few times on work-related trips.

Ever spend a winter in St. Paul? Better yet, a winter in the St. Paul airport? ALL this could be yours and more! ;)

My friends in Chicago put together a mock WSJ article for me before I left... They were great.
Fuller’ Stock Goes Down Under
St. Paul, Minnesota – Trading was temporarily suspended this week when Fuller’s took plummeted nearly 50% on the news of Stenning Schueppert’s announced move to Australia. Over the past nine months, Stenning, an Associate Consultant with the Chicago office of Bain & Company, has been involved in massive cost reduction activities with the St. Paul based adhesives company. Investors fear that Stenning’s move signals a change in priorities for the firm.

"I am shocked by the market’s reaction," said Fuller’s current CEO. "We are a global company. Stenning’s departure from North America should have minimal impact on our overall bottom line. With his relocation to Sydney, we are anticipating significantly improved results from our Asia/Pacific operation in the upcoming year." Reaction from other key managers was mixed. Fuller’s Director of Purchasing, was visibly distraught leaving the company’s world headquarters and was heard saying, "You bet your sweet bippies I’m upset. I don’t know how my department will be able to function without him." Meanwhile, the Director of Shared Services reportedly grinned as he said, "Does this mean we don’t have to outsource payroll after all?"

According to an unknown source, Fuller’s Board of Directors has been taking desperate measures to try to prevent the departure of young Schueppert from the country. In an unprecedented show of force, they reportedly when so far as to get airlines to cancel flights back to Chicago during several of Stenning’s recent trips to the Twin Cities. A spokesperson at United Airlines declined to comment.

In a brief statement to the press, Stenning stated, "Yea, we’re rockin!"

Bain Sydney

Dana, Rebecca, and I hangin' out in Melbourne for the Grand Prix in March.

© SS
Scott Crawford, Nick Talwar (Alumni) and I enjoying a nice weekend day overlooking Bondi Beach on Nick's visit to Sydney in April, 1998.

© SS
Australian Wallaby game with a Bain crowd in February, 1998.

© SS
Words to live by in front of a church in the Blue Mountains; July, 1998. (Left to Right: Chris Clark [Toronto], Rob Callahan [Dallas], Rebecca VanHazinga [San Fransisco], Ignacio Portela [Madrid], Steve Citron [Dallas], and myself.)

Paintball one weekend after the summer (winter) meeting.

My last night in Sydney at the Greenwood Inn - the bar at the base of Optus.

Back to Bain Chicago

Bain & Company - Chicago
Operating Principles

Treat Everyone with Respect & Dignity

• treat others as you would like to be treated

• recognized that we play discrete roles, and that each has value

• respect differences in backgrounds, personalities, viewpoints and goals

Open, Honest and Direct Communication

• no risk in asking or offering

• timely communication within and across levels

• involves speaking, listening, and responding

Pursue Positive Change

• identify problems and seek solutions

• create opportunities for personal and professional growth

Act with Integrity

• set and act with the highest ethical standards

Be Mindful that Bain is One Part of Our Lives

• recognize everyone's need to balance trade-offs in and out of the office

• value one another's time, feelings and privacy

Build Trust

• act such that you can be relied upon and confided in

• expect the same from your colleagues

Consider the 1% Possibility

• keep an open mind

• act with humility

• seek opportunities to learn from different perspectives

Have Fun

I got a call from a reporter doing a story on ex-consultants for Consulting Magazine in early 2000. I had talked to her before while at Bain and she was now looking for people to reflect on their old careers. It was fun to do the interview and was shocked to see the article in print - including a full-page photo. It's a small magazine and other than some jibes from my old friends at Bain it didn't get much press. Nonetheless, it was a fun second of my fifteen...

Voices from the Life After
By Mina Landriscina
Source: Consulting Magazine, 05/00
Five former consultants reflect on the ups and downs of their new careers
Who hasn't heard the stories about the consultants who were snapped up by the hottest dot-coms and subsequently became millionaires?Consulting magazine tracked down five former management consultants and asked them what they gave up and what they gained by leaving the profession. Several said they missed the intellectual stimulation, but cherished the direct control that their new roles afforded them. Here are their stories ...

Stenning Schueppert, 26
Title Now: Senior Analyst, GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC, Chicago
Title Then: [Senior] Associate Consultant, Bain & Co.
Exit Date: February 1999
Gains: Deepening his financial background
Losses: His large peer group

As an associate consultant at Bain & Co., Stenning Schueppert was given the case of a lifetime. But, ultimately, it was not being able to duplicate that experience that drove him away from the profession. Schueppert was sent to Sidney, Australia, assigned to a fast-moving project and given 100 percent control over a part of it. He figured out a way to look at his piece of the puzzle and solve it. Everyone hailed him as a genius; Schueppert himself thought it was luck.

When he returned to Bain's Chicago office, he expected more of the same excitement. Instead, he was staffed on a project almost identical to the one he was on before Australia.

"The learning curve had flattened out," says Schueppert, who left Bain in February 1999 to become a senior analyst at private equity firm GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC - 17 floors above his old office. "When you really want to say, 'I want my independence. I want to be able to prove this,' you find that you can run with everything from one to eight, but numbers nine and 10 are still going to be done by the senior consultant and the manager."

While Schueppert believes that's indeed how it should be, it didn't make consulting any more fun or challenging for him. It was a matter of control, he says. "At the end of the day, the client will always have the last say."

At GTCR, he has a hand in both venture capital deals and leveraged buyouts, and is getting a financial background that he felt he would never get as a consultant. He initially took a pay cut, but his salary is now above what he would have been making as a consultant.

One thing he misses is the instant peer group - the 12 other people in his age group who were hired by Bain. There are only 17 people total working out of GTCR's Chicago office.

While he doesn't think he'd go back to consulting, Schueppert admits there is no other profession that attracts that kind of talent or provides the wealth of experience gained from the variety of clients and problems. "I would tell any of my friends and family that the best job out of school is a consulting job."

Rob Cunjak and I during a visit of his to Chicago during the summer of 1999.

I guess I found my way into their database because a year later a reporter, doing a cover-story on Bain, called me to get my thoughts. We talked for awhile and later, it was only later, when I saw the article in print, how completely outclassed I was. Orit Gadiesh, probably one of the smartest women on the planet, Mitt Romney, Tom Tierney, and John Donahoe were quoted. And there, on the last page, was a large quote from some unknown - me. I stand by my quote, but it was a little funny seeing it in the midst of a very serious cover story on an international consulting powerhouse...

"I don’t know if they created Orit, or one day the partners just said, ‘Hey, we have this kind of spunky, crazy, purple-haired woman, who’s incredibly smart and is the embodiment of what we are about — We’re not BCG, we’re not McKinsey, we’re Bain, dammit, and we’re proud of it!" says Stenning Schueppert, a former Bain & Co. consultant who echos the feelings shared today by many Bainies.

The article is actually a very good one and great for those hoping to understand a little more about Bain history... You can find it on Consulting Magazine's website. It's called Raising Bain by Jack Sweeney in their February, 2001 issue.

Ammar and I during my Admit Weekend visit in February, 2001. He played gracious host to Heather and I. Ammar will be at Cisco next year and I look forward to spending more time with him in California for the next few years!

**All photographs (unless otherwise noted) are the property of Stenning Schueppert and may not be distributed or circulated for any purposes (personal or commercial) without his express written consent. Questions or comments regarding selected photographs are, of course, welcome.
Last updated May 1, 2001.