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History


In the early 90‘s, a group of McKinsey consultants led by Thomas D. Steiner recognized an opportunity to serve clients on strategic issues with small focused teams. They left McKinsey and named their new firm the Mitchell Madison Group. Between 1992 and 1999 Mitchell Madison grew rapidly and established 16 offices in the U.S. and abroad with over 1,000 employees. It became a highly respected firm. Fortune magazine named it one of the top 50 firms to work for.

 

The partners sold the firm in 1999. In 2003 several former MMG founders, partners and consultants decided to form a new firm, Baldwin Bell Green. They have combined their regional consulting businesses and established offices in New York and London.

 

BBG’s approach to consulting reflects our work experience and our early training in classic strategic concepts.

 

 

Origins of Our Thinking


At McKinsey we learned the history of strategic thinking and contributed to the development of that thinking. We pay special attention to industry structure and conduct and how they determine overall industry performance. These ideas were best captured by University of California professor Joe Bain and others such as Mike Porter. These are the strategy basics. The key is to execute them well so that real insights emerge about why things are unfolding the way they are.

 

 

Two Links to the Present


Our basic thinking about strategy has been refined and extended by two developments.

 

·         The first is information technology. We have partners who have worked with clients on the role of IT in business strategy for over 30 years, starting with their work in financial services at McKinsey. (› See Our Point of View and the book "Banking and Technology, Creating Value, Destroying Profits)

·         The second is strategic sourcing.. We helped to start this new approach to operations and manufacturing with our work on strategic sourcing. We sought bigger wins or win-wins for our clients by reverse engineering their suppliers economics with the same attention to structure and conduct we used to work on strategic issues.

 

 

New Thrusts


Today our thinking and work tends to reflect three challenges.

 

·         The need for “third level” analysis of operating economics. Managers need a deep understanding of how their company makes money. Most internal strategy departments look at numbers, but not the real activities and forces that determine costs.  Finance departments and line managers frequently only understand their own domains.   Difficult problems require management to understand their business at the intersection of all three domains:  strategy, finance and operations.

·         Managing and limiting complexity. Too many companies get too complicated and ruin their competitiveness. Look at the American auto companies or the big financial institutions. The secret of Toyota has been the opposite—simplicity.

·         Operational execution is critical.  Developing insightful strategy and thoughtful solutions is not enough.  Well founded business initiatives—especially difficult, transformational ones—frequently fail in implementation, or aren’t even attempted because the path to making them an operational reality is unclear.  Detailed operational expertise should be continuously applied throughout the process to establish the right strategy, formulate realistic executional roadmap and implementing successfully.

 

We believe we offer a new model for consulting. Our flat structure - partner, manager, associate - means that our clients get more responsive, leaner and flexible service. Our “outside in" analyses of industry dynamics far exceeds what internal planning groups can create in both its comprehensiveness and depth. Yet we are trusted as if we were an internal but objective swat team reserved for the most critical issues. So our relationships last. We help our clients lead and succeed as individuals doing what is right for their companies. We go where they go in their careers.


Partnership

 

Baldwin Bell Green is led by a Managing Board with all partners being shareholders of the firm. This ensures the entrepreneurial spirit of the firm is carried through to our client work.

  

Thomas D. Steiner, New York

 

Tom Steiner is the Managing Partner of Baldwin Bell Green. Mr. Steiner was the co-Founder and Managing Partner of Mitchell Madison Group for the five years until its sale to USWeb/CKS in 1999. Prior to founding Mitchell Madison Group in 1994, Mr. Steiner had established and led the Financial Service/Institutions Practice for A.T. Kearney following a long tenure as a partner of McKinsey & Company. In addition to his management roles, Mr. Steiner has been a practicing consultant for the past 30 years and has spent much of his time managing and directing a broad range of strategy, organization, operations and information technology studies for financial institutions, manufacturing, technology and telecommunications firms.

 

Mr. Steiner's focus for the past two decades has been on the impact of technology and other factors on the maturing process of industries. His particular emphasis has been on industry restructuring and shifting economic value as a result of technology and other factors.Over the past two decades he has spoken with approximately 90 firms in more than 20 countries on a wide range of general management issues. Mr. Steiner is co-author of the books, Technology and Banking: Creating Value and Destroying Profits published by Dow-Jones Irwin and The Banking Revolution: Salvation or Slaughter, published by FT/Pitman Publishing.

 

He is an honors graduate of Dartmouth College and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He has a JD from Harvard Law School and practiced law for three years in New York with Mudge, Rose, Guthrie & Alexander. Mr. Steiner also received an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a George F. Baker Scholar.

 

    

Philip Warley, London

 

Philip Warley is Managing Partner of Baldwin Bell Green’s London Office. Alongside other BBG partners, he was a co-founder of the Mitchell Madison Group in 1992, leading the European practice. Following MMG’s acquisition by USWeb/CKS in 1999, he became Executive Director responsible for the Firm’s Consulting Practice in London. During this time he also established and ran the South Africa office and, on secondment, he joined the Board of FirstRand, a newly created Banking and Insurance Group in Johannesburg.

 

Mr. Warley began his consulting career at McKinsey and Co and has over 20 years consulting and line experience. He has also led A.T. Kearney’s Financial Services Practice in the UK, and consulted independently for many years.  He is an experienced board director and consulting partner focusing primarily on the banking, financial services and IT sectors. His practice spans corporate and business unit strategy to large-scale transformational operational performance improvements, including outsourcing and off-shoring. He was a pioneer of MMG’s sourcing and outsourcing techniques for service industries. He holds an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School and BA in Economics from the University of Exeter.

 

 

Steven Runin, New York

 

Steven Runin is a co-Founder and Partner of Baldwin Bell Green. He was a Partner and co-Founder of Mitchell Madison Group where he was the Partner responsible for managing the firm's infrastructure and systems while also serving a range of clients on consulting engagements. Mr. Runin has served clients in the telecommunications, media/entertainment, industrial and technology provider industries.

 

In his over 20 years as a management consultant, Mr. Runin has been involved in a variety of strategy, organization and operations engagements, primarily focusing on the uses of technology within the banking and securities industries. He has conducted a range of engagements focusing on cost management including addressing areas such as sourcing, expense MIS, and procurement organization design. He also played a leadership role in developing the firm’s Learning Services Practice following the merger of Mitchell Madison Group with USWeb/CKS in 1999. Prior to helping establish Mitchell Madison Group in 1994, Mr. Runin helped form the Financial Institutions/Services Practice of A.T. Kearney. Previously, Mr. Runin was a consultant with McKinsey & Company where he was an active member of both McKinsey’s Financial Institutions and Information Technology/Systems Practices.

 

Mr. Runin received an MBA from the Graduate School of Business of the University of Southern California and a joint BA in Film and Political Science from Syracuse University.

 

 


John J. Hogan, New York

 

John Hogan is a partner of Baldwin Bell Green. Mr. Hogan’s background is in finance as a consultant, chief financial officer and an investment banker. As a consultant at Mitchell Madison Group, A.T. Kearney and McKinsey & Company, Mr. Hogan focused on financial institutions and finance companies emphasizing strategy, operational management and acquisitions/divestitures. As a chief financial officer, he has twice sold companies and has also led the acquisitions group for a large public institution. Finally, as a banker, he has been involved in financing and restructuring activities of both financial and non-financial clients.

 

Mr. Hogan was a founding Partner of Mitchell Madison Group (MMG), one of the fastest growing management consulting firms internationally.  He was its Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer for five years from the time of its inception until its sale in 1999, and served on its Board of Directors throughout this period. Prior to helping found MMG, John was a Partner with A.T. Kearney’s Financial Institutions / Services practice and a consultant for five years in the Financial Institutions Group at McKinsey & Company, both in New York.

 

Mr. Hogan also has extensive corporate finance and banking experience and over the past 25 years has worked as a banker in commercial banking, investment banking and other diversified financial service institutions – including JP Morgan, Bankers Trust and Bank of America where he was global head of the Financial Institutions Group responsible for all correspondent banking.

 

Mr. Hogan holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Harvard College.



John Shuck, New York


John Shuck is a Partner with Baldwin Bell Green. Mr. Shuck has over 25 years of consulting experience and line management experieince at leading financial institutions, particularly within the insurance sector. He spent nine years in several senior executive roles at the Zurich Financial Services Group. He has extensive experience in technology, outsourcing of complex functions, global sourcing of labor costs, and business acquisition/disposition.


Earlier in his career, Mr. Shuck was a partner ay McKinsey & Company and led the Scandinavia financial services practice (including insurance). He was also part of the Firm's leadership group in its New York insurance practice. He also led the financial services practice for Everest Group, a boutique consultant focusing on advice for major outsourcing transactions. In this role he advised several major insurance companies on the outsourcing of IT infrastructure, applications development, procurement and human resources.


Mr. Shuck began his career as a lawyer with the Wall Street firm of Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett. Mr. Shuck received an MBA and a JD from the University of Chicago and a BA from Amherst College.


  

 

Thomas Wisniewski, New York

 

Thomas Wisniewski is a Partner of Baldwin Bell Green where he focuses on Health Plans, Financial Services and Private Equity. Prior to joining BBG, Mr. Wisniewski was Managing Director of Venture Advisors, a boutique consulting firm advising Private Equity firms in strategy and operations.  Prior to starting Venture Advisors, Mr. Wisniewski was a Partner with management consulting firm Mitchell Madison Group.  His client engagements were focused on Fortune 500 companies throughout the financial services, technology, and private equity.

 

Prior to business school, Mr. Wisniewski worked at Morgan Stanley in technology development and investment banking. Mr. Wisniewski brings substantial experience in strategy and operations. In over 20 years of consulting and management experience he has helped clients achieve significant cost reductions and performance improvements.  Tom has developed detailed expertise in assisting Health Plans with strategy, operational reengineering and cost reduction. He has assisted financial services firms in retail banking, private banking and credit card services direct a broad range of strategy, organization, and operations studies.  

 

Mr. Wisniewski received his MBA from The Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and is a graduate of Clark University.


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