Atsushi Shimada

Atsushi

Graduated from Keio University Faculty of Economics and worked for several years with Mitsui & Co., focusing on strategy planning in Iron and Steel dept.  MBA from University of Oxford, prior to Bain. Various project experiences specialized in cooperate strategy and customer strategy mainly in consumer products and retail industry. 

"Enormous opportunities for professional development"

I can assure you that Bain offers the best environment to grow as a businessperson.

The first reason is that our projects exert significant impact. A majority of our projects involves helping the top managements of leading companies solve highly complex and challenging business issues that they face. It takes hard work and effort, and sometimes we struggle, but we pursuit the right answers to their complex issues side by side with our clients. This process is extremely challenging, but at the same time, it gives me an opportunity to learn so much. As we collaborate with the top managements of major companies, it’s very inspiring to experience firsthand their decision-making process and leadership style.

Second, Bain has not only clear performance assessment criteria, but also a wide range of support programs to help you fulfill the performance criteria, leading to faster advancement. Required capabilities and skills are well-defined for each position, and individuals are assessed by evaluating whether or not s/he has achieved the expected performance level based on the criteria. Having very clear and detailed criteria allows you to understand what capability you need to develop and what areas and/or activities you should focus on, to ensure you make progress towards the clear direction during your day-to-day work. Additionally, we have PD (Professional Development) chat sessions on a regular basis to receive objective feedback and advice about our performance from our supervisor and colleagues. In my case, I schedule PD chat sessions with the project manager at least every two weeks to discuss about my strengths and weakness and what actions I need to take to improve my performance so that I can make steady progress going forward.

The last point I’d like to highlight is, I believe working with talented people and challenging each other helps me grow as a consultant. At Bain Tokyo, we have intelligent consultants with diverse backgrounds (different nationality/ business experience/academic achievement), and we learn from each other. Consultants are assigned on different cases at regular intervals and work with new team members, and this creates a learning environment where we can interact with and learn from various colleagues.

Because of these reasons, I firmly believe that Bain is the best workplace that helps you grow as a businessperson. I strive to improve myself under this excellent environment, aiming to better contribute in increasing corporate value for clients through our consulting services.