Chris Zook is a Director at Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm. At Bain Mr. Zook is co-head of the Worldwide Strategy Practice, and is a former member of Bain’s Management Committee and Investment Committee.
Chris has specialized in companies whose primary strategic concern is the search for new sources of profitable growth. He has worked in a range of industries including information, healthcare, computers and venture capital.
He is the author of the best-selling business books, Profit from the Core, Beyond the Core, and, most recently, Unstoppable published by Harvard Business Press. Profit from the Core provides a blueprint to finding new sources of growth from a core business, based on a three-year study of thousands of companies worldwide. Its findings are being implemented in many successful companies worldwide. Beyond the Core is a guide to making better decisions about new growth initiatives. Unstoppable deals with the reality that 2/3 of all companies, will face in the next decade: what to do when their growth formula of the past is approaching a limit.
The “growth trilogy” has received widespread critical support. Beyond the Core was recognized by The Economist as one of the top 5 business and economic books in the year it was published. Unstoppable was identified by The Financial Times as one of the notable business books of the year. Based on his work on how companies grow, Mr. Zook was recently included by the Times of London in its bi-annual list of the 50 Most Influential Global Business Thinkers.
Chris has written extensively in the business press, ranging from academic journals to columns in the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. He has been a guest on TV and Radio, including NPR, CNBC, and Bloomberg TV. He is a frequent speaker at a wide range of business forums including the Forbes CEO Conference, the Business Week CEO Conference, the Economist Summit, the Harvard Burning Issues Conference, and the Harvard Distinguished Speaker Series. He has repeatedly been a speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Chris received a B.A. in mathematics and economics from Williams College, an M.Phil. in economics from Exeter College, Oxford University, and holds Masters and Phd. degrees from Harvard University.
Chris currently is stationed in Europe. He has a wife and two sons, and splits his time between homes in Amsterdam and Boston.
