Retail sales to rise, but at what price?
The Wall Street Journal  5/7/2008
by Jennifer Saranow and Vanessa O'Connell
April retail sales reports out Thursday are likely to be far less dismal than in recent months. But the positive results will mask unusually deep discounts that chains are using to lure drained shoppers -- possibly at the expense of earnings. Frenzied discounting will continue as retailers look to grab consumer dollars temporarily buoyed by tax-rebate checks and comes as retailers face the worst spending crisis in years. "We're seeing earlier and deeper promotions," says Erika Serow, a Bain & Company retail partner.
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Big Mac's local flavor
Fortune 5/5/2008
by Peter Gumbel
Once vilified for pushing America on the world, McDonald's lets countries invent their own buns, bags, and business practices. But executives also have to share the findings and best practices from around the world. That's the true secret of the Big Tasty's success: Even though it wasn't invented at corporate headquarters, word spread throughout McDonald's, and individual markets adopted it as they saw fit. "It takes a high degree of sophistication to do something like that," says Till Vestring, who runs the Singapore office for consultants Bain & Company.
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Bookcase: The Breakthrough Imperative - How the best managers get outstanding results
Management Magazine 5/1/2008
US magazine Business Week wrote in 2007: "The brutal reality is that executives have less time than ever to prove their worth." No question, the same demand for fast-fix performance is happening here too. What to do about it? Two long-time partners at management consultancy Bain & Company think they, with some help from consultancy friends, have the answer. They spent 20 years analysing the results of more than 1500 interviews with successful and not-so-successful enterprises and executives to discover how general managers can achieve "breakthrough results" when running a business.
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April 2008

Crunch time for MBAs
The Times  4/24/2008
by Clare Dight
While enrolling on a prestigious MBA course is one way to ride out a dip in the economy, what is the job market like for MBA students who will graduate this year and are looking for a job right now? According to Nick Greenspan, a partner and head of Bain's European recruitment, "Bottom line, we are still hiring." Talent is a scarce resource so the firm is always on the lookout for the right people, he says. "If there is a change, it's that we now see more applicants from non-MBA students. We see more applicants from industry."
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Cut through the clutter
Investor's Business Daily 4/22/2008
by Cord Cooper
To boost sales and profit, top managers keep their business models simple, know their customers well and keep a tight rein on costs, say Bain & Company execs Mark Gottfredson and Steve Schaubert, authors of The Breakthrough Imperative.
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