Baldwin Bell Green

In the early 90‘s, a group of McKinsey consultants led by Thomas D. Steiner recognized an opportunity to serve clients on strategic issues with small focused teams. They left McKinsey and named their new firm the Mitchell Madison Group. Between 1992 and 1999 Mitchell Madison grew rapidly and established 16 offices in the U.S. and abroad with over 1,000 employees. It became a highly respected firm. Fortune magazine named it one of the top 50 firms to work for.

The partners sold the firm in 1999. In 2003 several former MMG founders, partners and consultants decided to form a new firm, Baldwin Bell Green. They have combined their regional consulting businesses and established offices in New York and London.

BBG’s approach to consulting reflects our work experience and our early training in classic strategic concepts.

Origins of Our Thinking

At McKinsey we learned the history of strategic thinking and contributed to the development of that thinking. We pay special attention to industry structure and conduct and how they determine overall industry performance. These ideas were best captured by University of California professor Joe Bain and others such as Mike Porter. These are the strategy basics. The key is to execute them well so that real insights emerge about why things are unfolding the way they are.

Two Links to the Present

Our basic thinking about strategy has been refined and extended by two developments.

·         The first is information technology. We have partners who have worked with clients on the role of IT in business strategy for over 30 years, starting with their work in financial services at McKinsey. (› See Our Point of View and the book "Banking and Technology, Creating Value, Destroying Profits)

·         The second is strategic sourcing.. We helped to start this new approach to operations and manufacturing with our work on strategic sourcing. We sought bigger wins or win-wins for our clients by reverse engineering their suppliers economics with the same attention to structure and conduct we used to work on strategic issues.

New Thrusts

Today our thinking and work tends to reflect three challenges.

·         The need for “third level” analysis of operating economics. Managers need a deep understanding of how their company makes money. Most internal strategy departments look at numbers, but not the real activities and forces that determine costs.  Finance departments and line managers frequently only understand their own domains.   Difficult problems require management to understand their business at the intersection of all three domains:  strategy, finance and operations.

·         Managing and limiting complexity. Too many companies get too complicated and ruin their competitiveness. Look at the American auto companies or the big financial institutions. The secret of Toyota has been the opposite—simplicity.

·         Operational execution is critical.  Developing insightful strategy and thoughtful solutions is not enough.  Well founded business initiatives—especially difficult, transformational ones—frequently fail in implementation, or aren’t even attempted because the path to making them an operational reality is unclear.  Detailed operational expertise should be continuously applied throughout the process to establish the right strategy, formulate realistic executional roadmap and implementing successfully.

We believe we offer a new model for consulting. Our flat structure - partner, manager, associate - means that our clients get more responsive, leaner and flexible service. Our “outside in" analyses of industry dynamics far exceeds what internal planning groups can create in both its comprehensiveness and depth. Yet we are trusted as if we were an internal but objective swat team reserved for the most critical issues. So our relationships last. We help our clients lead and succeed as individuals doing what is right for their companies. We go where they go in their careers.

Baldwin Bell Green is led by a Managing Board with all partners being shareholders of the firm. This ensures the entrepreneurial spirit of the firm is carried through to our client work.

Thomas D. Steiner, New York

Tom Steiner is the Managing Partner of Baldwin Bell Green. Mr. Steiner was the co-Founder and Managing Partner of Mitchell Madison Group for the five years until its sale to USWeb/CKS in 1999. Prior to founding Mitchell Madison Group in 1994, Mr. Steiner had established and led the Financial Service/Institutions Practice for A.T. Kearney following a long tenure as a partner of McKinsey & Company. In addition to his management roles, Mr. Steiner has been a practicing consultant for the past 30 years and has spent much of his time managing and directing a broad range of strategy, organization, operations and information technology studies for financial institutions, manufacturing, technology and telecommunications firms.

Mr. Steiner's focus for the past two decades has been on the impact of technology and other factors on the maturing process of industries. His particular emphasis has been on industry restructuring and shifting economic value as a result of technology and other factors.Over the past two decades he has spoken with approximately 90 firms in more than 20 countries on a wide range of general management issues. Mr. Steiner is co-author of the books, Technology and Banking: Creating Value and Destroying Profits published by Dow-Jones Irwin and The Banking Revolution: Salvation or Slaughter, published by FT/Pitman Publishing.

He is an honors graduate of Dartmouth College and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He has a JD from Harvard Law School and practiced law for three years in New York with Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander. Mr. Steiner also received an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a George F. Baker Scholar.

Steven Runin, New York

Steven Runin is a co-Founder and Partner of Baldwin Bell Green. He was a Partner and co-Founder of Mitchell Madison Group where he was the Partner responsible for managing the firm's infrastructure and systems while also serving a range of clients on consulting engagements. Mr. Runin has served clients in the telecommunications, media/entertainment, industrial and technology provider industries.

In his over 20 years as a management consultant, Mr. Runin has been involved in a variety of strategy, organization and operations engagements, primarily focusing on the uses of technology within the banking and securities industries. He has conducted a range of engagements focusing on cost management including addressing areas such as sourcing, expense MIS, and procurement organization design. He also played a leadership role in developing the firm’s Learning Services Practice following the merger of Mitchell Madison Group with USWeb/CKS in 1999. Prior to helping establish Mitchell Madison Group in 1994, Mr. Runin helped form the Financial Institutions/Services Practice of A.T. Kearney. Previously, Mr. Runin was a consultant with McKinsey & Company where he was an active member of both McKinsey’s Financial Institutions and Information Technology/Systems Practices.

Mr. Runin received an MBA from the Graduate School of Business of the University of Southern California and a joint BA in Film and Political Science from Syracuse University.

John Shuck, New York

John Shuck is a Partner with Baldwin Bell Green. Mr. Shuck has over 25 years of consulting experience and line management experieince at leading financial institutions, particularly within the insurance sector. He spent nine years in several senior executive roles at the Zurich Financial Services Group. He has extensive experience in technology, outsourcing of complex functions, global sourcing of labor costs, and business acquisition/disposition.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Shuck was a partner ay McKinsey & Company and led the Scandinavia financial services practice (including insurance). He was also part of the Firm's leadership group in its New York insurance practice. He also led the financial services practice for Everest Group, a boutique consultant focusing on advice for major outsourcing transactions. In this role he advised several major insurance companies on the outsourcing of IT infrastructure, applications development, procurement and human resources.

Mr. Shuck began his career as a lawyer with the Wall Street firm of Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett. Mr. Shuck received an MBA and a JD from the University of Chicago and a BA from Amherst College.