Did you know that Boston Consulting Group was started by a former Bible salesman? Or that Bain was really a trade school of sorts?

Yes, all that and more about the origins of the top consulting firms in this fascinating piece on Mitt Romney in the New Yorker. Romney, famous for his fame and fortune from Bain Capital, actually joined another consulting firm first — BCG in 1975.

“[BCG] … had been founded by a former Bible salesman named Bruce Henderson, one of the industry’s conceptual pioneers. In the insular world of consulting, B.C.G. had a reputation as the intellectual shop, seen not just as a hands-on consultancy but also as a think tank, and it popularized the concept of business strategy, or organizing a company around its goals—an idea that swept boardrooms in the seventies. ‘B.C.G.’s idea was: We don’t need to understand your industry; we need to understand a few important principles that we can apply to all of our clients,’ Christopher McKenna, the author of ‘The World’s Newest Profession,’ a history of the consulting industry, told me.”

Then came Bain, with a new idea in the consulting space — to work exclusively for certain clients.

“The year before Romney joined B.C.G., William Bain, one of the company’s stars, had left to start his own firm, Bain & Company, which he promised would be a radical new consulting business. If B.C.G. was like an ivory tower, Bain was a trade school. The tradition best exemplified by McKinsey, one of the oldest firms, had consultants acting like pollinating bees, moving valuable information from one company to another, even within the same industry… Bain’s idea was to create a more exclusive and mutually beneficial arrangement with his clients. He promised not to work for the competition, and, instead of simply devising a new strategy, he would stick around and help implement it.”

And finally, the genesis of the consulting industry-ego explained, and consequently irresistible appeal to MBAs:

“Bain also demanded that his consultants work with top-level management, so that decisions could be executed quickly. The approach ‘was revolutionary,’ said Bob White, a Bain alumnus and a longtime Romney friend … By 1978, Fortune had declared consulting ‘the current glamour industry for the newest M.B.A.s,’ and noted that Harvard graduates were moving into management consulting at a record pace.”

Bain was quite the place to work. Sounds like an old-school Google, except preppier:

“Bain’s brand of ‘relationship consulting’ bred a unique culture at the company’s headquarters, in Copley Square. Since Bain didn’t work for business rivals, companies were more willing to share sensitive data. It was there that Romney developed his passion for collecting huge amounts of information. The company soon earned a reputation for extreme secrecy—it was dubbed the K.G.B. of management consulting. It’s been reported that, initially, employees didn’t use business cards, and they spoke in code when discussing clients in public … Employees read ‘Dress for Success’ and were sent on Outward Bound-style leadership retreats. Business reporters wondered why Bain consultants all seemed to wear the same red ties. Romney and his colleagues were called Bainies, and, not surprisingly, there were accounts of insufferable young Bainies swarming into a company and confidently reorganizing it as middle managers were brushed aside. As the consulting business grew, competition for the brightest M.B.A.s intensified, and Bain became an aggressive recruiter. Harvard once kicked the company off campus, temporarily, because the firm offered graduates ‘exploding bonuses,’ payments that declined each day the student dithered about a decision to join Bain.” [emphasis added]

Curious about Bainies and red ties, I Googled the terms. The following is what I found — two pieces from the late 1980s — a gem of an NYT article from 1989 and a CNN article from 1987. So it appears that the red tie thing was still happening:

“Bainies are a homogenous bunch. Monogrammed shirts and red ties prevail. Manners are impeccable. ”Each one of them is cut out of the same cloth,’ says Vernon Loucks, C.E.O. of Baxter Travenol Laboratories, a longtime client. ‘If you don’t like the cloth, don’t hire Bain. If you do, though, you know what you’ll get for years.’” (CNN)

and

“Standing at the white board, John Flanigan, the team manager, attired like most Bainies in dark suit, blue shirt and red suspenders” (NYT)

So red seems to have been a critical part of the consulting KGB, at least back then. Anyone care to comment on what Bainies are like now — dress or otherwise?