Consultant:
Business / Management / Finances

My Experience 

My roots in business consulting go back long before I joined Bain & Co.  My mother was my first case method teacher.  She got me started on my career of consulting by presenting me with difficult decisions my father was facing as General Director of the Mission or giving household problems to solve (See Finding A Path, p.34). 

Had I paid closer attention to my childhood daydreams, like the imaginary ranch I built after school (See Finding A Path, p.38), I´d have realized more quickly my real interest in business and management problems.  In Law School my thesis was on decision making in the Latin America Mission, not your typical law problem.  

In the Army in Germany in addition to my work as Registrar of the 5thGeneral Hospital, the commanding officer, Col. Miller´s used me as a consultant to solve some of his problems like the bankrupt Officer´s Club (See Finding A Path, p.76) or a Surgeon´s inappropriate behavior with enlisted men´s wives. 

At INCAE, professors were encouraged to use about 20% of their time for part-time business consulting. Naïve academics needed to be exposed to real-world problems and these were a great source for teaching cases.  It was the work I most enjoyed, not only for the extra income but for the challenges they presented.  

Successful consulting, I quickly learned, required identifying the root causes often buried under the apparent problems.  Also designing creative strategic or technical solutions, then helping clients implement the needed changes.  One summer I even created my own little consulting firm,  Strachan & Associates, with two or three young MBAs to help me serve four different clients. 

It was at Bain & Co, though, that I learned strategy consulting from top practitioners. When I joined the Bain & Co family in the summer of 1978, it had one office and about 50 professionals full time. In 2017 it had over 50 offices and more than 5000 professionals and a world-wide reputation as one of the top three business consulting firms. At Bain I progressed through many different roles – Consultant, Case Team Leader, Manager, Partner, EVP of a Group, Director, Chair of the Promotion and Compensation Committee, Founder and Director of our first Latin America office.    

Writings

2008 Bain Stories from the Early Years:  The education of a consultant.
A short book of stories from my experiences consulting with Bain & Co.
(44 pp)

2012 Case Method Management.  
Description of a CEO leading a meeting and his use of case method techniques in decision making with subordinates.  
(5 pp)

2008 Financial Models and Good Judgement
 Description of the structural profitability financial models I developed as a finance professor and later used in consulting.
(2 pp)

1975 Analisis de Instituciones Financieras. 
A INCAE teaching note in Spanish applying the structural profitability model to financial institutions. 
(7 pp)

2011 Money Management Paradigm. 
Articulation and advocacy of a superior personal financial management paradigm. 
(9 pp)

2011 Money Management 101: Paradigm and Practices.  Management of personal finances: a role model, a superior paradigm, budgeting and investing advice, and a case example with financial modeling.  
(33 pp)

Videos

Halo Legacy Sessions
An interview with Alejandro Egea

A video in Spanish. Alejandro uses an INCAE video to introduce Harry, then questions him on what he learned about leadership in crisis, an interview that for Halo Legacy Sessions that takes place in the middle of the Pademic on August 20, 2020 The original Facebook live stream can be found archived at ​https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=369988454015232&ref=watch_permalink

Press

Estrategia & Negocios