This week was, in a word, fantastic – which also means my post this week is much longer than usual. Let’s not bury the leads, then: the major events of the week were the Executive Team Update on Tuesday and the three-day awesomefest that was Summer Meeting (Thursday through Saturday).
THE WORK
First things first: the Exec Meeting. Regular readers might remember that I’d mentioned a few weeks ago that I was working on a particular part of the deck for an Executive Team meeting. I wasn’t expecting to go, of course – I was just excited to actually complete analyses that would even eventually be seen by the CEO and his team. On Monday, though, I got the surprise of my life when the client map with whom I’d been working the closest said that she thought I should attend!
My thoughts ran something like this: “This is so great! But wait, I didn’t bring any business formal clothes because I wasn’t expecting to be able to go. But this is still so great! But won’t it be awkward if it’s one massive round table – SVP, SVP, SVP, CEO, SVP…me? Did I mention, though, that this is so GREAT?”
In the end, of course, I needn’t have worried so much. There were quite a few people from the Bain team there (including the Partners and Manager on my case) although it was in fact a massive round table. In addition, my business-formal clothes problem? Solved in one day: the original client map who asked that I attend also lent me a jacket. Talk about being on the same team!
The opportunity to attend meetings like this one was one that few ACIs get, and I was thrilled. I took copious notes (we had to decide next steps based on feedback from the meeting, after all) but I was mostly just engrossed in simply watching how the proceedings went – who spoke and when, the kinds of issues they raised given their own special knowledge of their part of the company, and the sense of purpose they seemed to have about the larger issues the company was facing. It was an excellent time, and I couldn’t have asked for more from the internship.
THE PLAY
Of course, a day later, I found out just how much more there was to come. It was SUMMER MEETING, baby!
Summer Meeting in the Boston office was at the Stoweflake Resort in Vermont – a fantastic (and usually) two-day meeting that brings every single person who works in the office together in the same place at the same time to hear from the Office Head and very Senior Partners who talk about how the company has done in the past year and where they see it going in the future.
It’s also a chance for everyone in the office to vote on who they think should win Bain’s annual Results Challenge – an award given to one team every year that demonstrates an exceptional relationship with the client (laying groundwork for future cases) while also demonstrating exceptional team bonding and very high case team scores/evaluations. We heard presentations from the three finalists – all of whom had amazing stories of client/team success to tell – and voted, and then it was time for the fun part of Summer Meeting.
The best parts of Summer Meeting – and, judging by my conversations with other Bainies, many people’s favorite parts – are the videos and the Bain Band. Every year, before Summer Meeting, a bunch of Bainies get together and write Bain-themed funny short videos that are shown to the entire office at Summer Meeting. The videos are filmed at the office, and a lot of office members get to be in them. I even had a cameo in one myself! [To see the video, though, you’ll just have to join Bain. ]
Then, the Bain Band performed. The Bain Band, as you might have guessed, is a band made up of Bainies who play accompaniment to vocalists who sing covers of the most popular and classic songs of the day…except with Bain-themed lyrics. The SAs (Summer Associates) perform at Summer Meeting every year and are expected to have a routine, but the ACIs apparently didn’t have the same tradition. Okay, we thought. Let’s start one now! 4 of the ACIs, including me, performed a cover of Last Friday Night by Katy Perry with Bain-themed lyrics, and it was an absolute riot. I can’t imagine having more fun than when the DJ came on afterwards and the entire place basically transitioned into one giant dance party, going till the wee hours of the night.
Most Bainies left on Friday morning – there were buses to take us back to the office – but a bunch of the ACIs had decided to stay an extra night in Stoweflake. Before everyone left, though, there was one more sign Summer Meeting wasn’t over yet, and that was the tent pitched outside near the pool, where people were handing out Bain and Company towels and putting up signup sheets for free massages and manicures.
After being thoroughly pampered for a couple days, chilling by the side of the pool, lounging in the sun, and playing Never Have I Ever in the evening with maybe a movie sounded like the perfect way to end off Summer Meeting week, and we proceeded to do just that for most of the next day…
…except for visiting the Ben and Jerry’s factory near Stowe, VT, as well. It was a fun experience – and not only because they gave us an ice cream sample at the end, although that helped too! Since Ben and Jerry’s opened for the very first time in Vermont, the tour included some historic details about the company as well as took us through the production process for the ice cream. There were no photo opportunities inside the tour, but there was an excellent hunger-inducing exhibit right outside.
Filed under: Case team experience, Internships, Outside the office, Week in the life
