Tell us about your work journey.
After graduating from the University of Tokyo with a degree in Economics in 2021, I joined Bain as a new graduate. Since I joined Bain, I have worked on projects in various industries such as manufacturing, real estate and PE, focusing on project themes such as new business creation, sales strategy, and due diligence. Outside of project work, I help our new graduate recruiting as a member of recruiting team.
Why Bain? To what do you credit your success here?
I got to know about Bain well when Bain was helping a NPO that I was involved in during my college years. Bain’s commitment to social value in a broader sense rather than merely maximizing economic value resonated with me. I was also attracted by Bain’s support for obtaining MBA degree. It was Bain’s culture I experienced through the interviews and internship that led me to join Bain, and it is still the reason why I spend fulfilling days here.
How has the diverse, inclusive environment that Bain endeavors to uphold supported you specifically?
"A Bainie never lets another Bainie fail." Without this culture of helping our colleagues, I don’t think we would have been able to accomplish the project se have. Whenever I had a problem with a project, someone was always there to help. Whenever I struggled to perform on a project, the advice of my PDA (Professional Development Advisor) was a great support. In a project related to reorganization, we found similarities with a previous case in an overseas office, and the manager and partner in charge at the time shared their knowledge with our team, even though they had never met each other before. Bain's culture of helping each other, regardless of tenure or project, helps us every day.
Tell us the Bain project you were involved in that makes you the proudest.
I remember a manufacturing company's due diligence project very fondly. The target company operated globally, so the project team consisted of members from the Shanghai and Beijing offices, and the Tokyo office. I remember feeling very anxious since this was my first time working in a cross-office team. On the other hand, I also strongly felt that Bain is "One Bain" throughout the project. Not only was there a certain commonality in the approach of project operation across offices, but I was also surprised to find that even the infrastructure was unified across offices, such as the "PD chat" for flat discussions with supervisors on areas for improvement and the "CTM (case team meeting)" for a weekly review of the team's work style.
Although it was only for a relatively short period of about two months, it gave me confidence in my ability to work in a cross-office team structure, as I had not had much experience in a global environment before, and it gave me an opportunity to think about the breadth of my career from a broader perspective.