Guy joined Bain in October 2003. Guy graduated in 1997 as an MSc in Civil Engineering at Ghent University, where he was also the president of the Engineering Students Union VTK (Vlaamse Technische Kring) from 1995 till 1997. After graduating, Guy worked one year as Vice-President of BEST International (Board of European Students of Technology) before starting his professional career at Procter&Gamble. Guy started at P&G in Rotterdam working on Benelux Marketing. He then moved to Geneva and worked for 3.5 years in the Global Strategic Purchases division.
"After 5 interesting years at P&G, I decided to make a change in my career and join Bain & Company in Brussels. The main reason to change was my desire to get a much broader understanding of business life. Although a big multinational gives you a lot of responsibilities, fact is that you are limited in one type of industry or activity. I wanted to get a much broader scope and understand better how other industries and organisations work.
The step to give up a prospering career in a big multinational in return for a life as a consultant isn't an easy one to make. But Bain is offering the right tools and trainings to quickly integrate and contribute.
Getting more variety in my job was what I expected to get out of Bain and I can say that so far reality has surpassed my wildest expectations. The range of topics I worked on and the type of clients I worked with is simply amazing. But, as varied as the business issues and the clients' corporate cultures have been, all projects I have done at Bain have one thing in common: they always deal with things that are on the top of our client's senior managers' minds. It's the strategic questions they struggle with and don't manage to answer alone.
I have also experienced what Bain's focus on 'creating value' means. It surely isn't just another buzz-word; it's something that is deeply routed in the attitude of every Bainee. All of us strive to 'make a difference' for the client. We are not satisfied until we hear our clients say "waw, I never realised that", or "I never looked at things in that way", or "you really helped our whole team to get aligned on the direction and priorities we have to pursue", or -yet another- "we could have never come to these conclusions without your help". All of this is not just wishful thinking from our part; it is phrases actual clients told me over the last 2 years I have spend at Bain.
Thinking about strategic issues is always interesting and challenging; but on top, it becomes fun and rewarding when you see that you actually make an impact. That's what working at Bain is all about."
