The work of Bain International is all over the now infamous Telstra briefing document to the PM.

Bain International have a set of standards around the way presentations are
‘built’ including font, graph type etc. Needless to say the document “Telstra:
The Path Forward” is straight out of the Bain handbook; at least to page 15,
then two pages of Telstra standard font etc, then back to Bain for the rest of
the document.

One key feature of any Bain work is a purchase of the shares in the company
they are working. This purchase isn’t by Bain but through an investment vehicle,
theoretically to avoid a conflict of interest but considering Bain work directly
with the CEO’s of the companies. It would be very
interesting to know if they have now or previously purchased shares in Telstra;
or are waiting for the bottom of the bad news.

Stephen Mayne writes:

This would not be at all surprising given that Sol has brought Bain in
to be his hard-nosed management consultants reviewing every facet of
Telstra’s business. The Telstra cardigan set haven’t made an aggressive
statement to government in years, so the business wouldn’t have that
sort of capability in-house.

This makes it quite amusing watching normally reticent Telstra mouth
pieces suddenly getting all bolshie after years of mealy mouthed
statements. How must Kate McKenzie have felt fronting Friday’s Senate
hearings because her boss Phil Burgess has been sent to purgatory for
his statements about not putting his mother into Telstra stock. Go to
page 66 of Friday’s transcript to see how McKenzie handled herself playing all tough after years of not saying anything too provocative at all.