For those used to serious-minded and humorless, focused consultants, Mark Daniell washes over like a wave to change your mindset. Here is a waterfall of ideas that keeps rushing on, a current of fast chatter, tossing up sprays of ideas with such enthusiasm you can't help but be swept away in its momentum and current of encyclopedic knowledge.

Despite his silver hair and sagacious position as the man responsible for global strategy consultants Bain & Company's Asian activities, Daniell has a youthful disposition, which makes him immediately endearing. His megawatt smile lights up readily, and he's ever ready to break into big, seismic laughs which is infectious, no matter how serious the discussion topic may be. Bubbling with enthusiasm and ever watchful for a chance to shoot a witty observation from the hip, Daniell's a man of many talents.

Under the suit and enthusiastic demeanor, Daniell takes his involvement beyond the realms of hard business. Gifted with the ability to juggle an array of responsibilities and activities, Daniell, who has worked in 50 countries, has scaled the Bain hierarchy with a potent combination of capability, wit, charisma and drive. His energetic stride often leaves many in his wake, though his is the kind of personality, which lends a human aspect to the serious business of global consulting. His athletic frame and powers of concentration could be just as comfortable hurling the shot putt close to the Singapore national record, as he could be probing and discovering where a company failed to realize its potential.

Perched high on the 50th floor of Temasek Tower, overlooking the Port of Singapore's container yard, Daniell and his team have been working hard to maximize the potential of various companies. The egalitarian company functions on a very level playing field.

"Everybody's office is the same size," he says of the well-appointed facility, which used to house Minister Lee Hsien Loong's office. His rumbling voice, flowing like a brook over pebbles, often slips over words, as he opens up the throttle and lets out a current of knowledge, observations, jokes, and information. His positive style rubs off to good effect in this people-oriented company, which employs 50 in Singapore (250 in Asia) with experience in a variety of disciplines following stellar academic performances.

Daniell is himself a prime example of the value to be had from a good education. Fluent in Italian, English and French, he has a string of degrees from the Sorbonn (Universite de Paris - IV; Diplome d'Etudes Francaises in modern literature -- First and Second degrees, 1976), Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Certificat d'Etudes Politiques in politics and economics with high honors, 1976), Amherst College (B.A., Sumner and Turgeon prizes, PhiBeta Kappa, magna cum laude, 1977), Oxford University (BA/MA, Marshall Scholar, 1979), Harvard Law School (Juris Doctor, Taft Scholar, 1981).

He achieved all his degrees in eight years, instead of the 11 it would have taken mere mortals, and still found time to don the Oxford Blues in athletics and water polo; sport the varsity letters at Amherst in the same sports; and strap on a karate brown belt. Talk about the perfect balancing act any mother would have loved...

In the school of life, Daniell spent nine years at Bain & Co., rising to the rank of partner, before leaving, in 1989, to become the Director of the merchant bank Wasserstein Perella and Co., based in London but with responsibility for South-east Asia, Eastern Europe and European business development; a portfolio, which set him up nicely for Bain's involvement in this part of the world. When he returned to Bain in mid-1993, he worked out of the London office, and had responsibility as a director for the Moscow office. Building upon his expertise in developing markets, and mergers and acquisitions, his track record included dealing in excess of US$50 billion in completed transactions in Europe, Asia, and the US.

Since mid-1997 Daniell has been in Singapore -- actually he's on the road so much, his lovely black-and-white house where his Italian ex-ballerina wife, Ivana, and their two sons, Vinci and Christian, are to be found, is more of a pit-stop. The company has grown in size and stature over the years.

"I am here for the long term," he emphasizes, presumably linking Bain in the process. With some 15 nationalities working together, Bain brings to the table well-thought-out and client-led solutions to problems.

"We work together at putting up a balanced strategy; the best possible path forward which is fully endorsed by the organization. We are very thorough in our analysis, working it through two or three times until all the wrinkles have been ironed out.

"We bring experience to the business, understand the organization's competitive position, look at different models using honest information. We navigate by 'True North' (a phrase Bain & Co.'s Chairman, Orit Gadiesh steers the company by) making the right recommendations and doing what's right for all our clients' shareholders. We have an obligation to tell the client the full picture, good or bad," Daniell avers.

This often entails being up-to-speed on information and technology, which is used extensively for analyzing situations and deriving the best results. "We don't believe in seagull strategy, where you fly around and crap on the heads of everyone," Daniell explains, chuckling at the thought.

"Working with our clients creates a special kind of synergy -- it's like two different learning curves coming together," he comments. "Our focus is on getting results for the organizations we represent. We sometimes put our fees at risk," he adds, taking a positive turn on Bill Bain's motto when he founded the company -- 'We sell profit at a discount'.

"We shoot for a minimum of 10 times return on our fees, but frequently get 20 to 50 times. One of our biggest was a $10 billion return when a computer client went from $9 to $93 over three years and became the best-performing stock on the NYSE." No names mentioned, but you can guess who.

On the receiving end of the fiscal and/or physical rewards are the likes of Investcorp, for whom Daniell played an active role in the Gucci IPO in 1995 (so much so he was bestowed the moniker "guru of luxury goods" which doesn't quite jive with his wardrobe).

"Continental Airlines and Del Monte have also recently published acknowledgements of Bain's role in their turn-around programs. Del Monte just posted a 70 per cent increase in earnings as a result of their successful turnaround in Europe. Continental Airlines soared to new heights of profitability and share price in the USA.

"As Michael Dell himself describes it in his recent book, Direct From Dell, Bain & Co was his selected advisor to help drive the business from a difficult transitional phase to greater focus and into the valuable hypergrowth period which has characterized the business over the last decade.

"The CEO of Optus also recently unveiled our role in his Operation Breakthrough -- an A$300-plus-million cost reduction and $9 billion IPO program," Daniell recounts.

There are many such stories, but Bain believes in client confidentiality in a big way. This "secrecy" has endeared Bain & Co. to its influential client list, and which has, in turn, allowed Bain to register double-digit growth, despite the tough times; or is it because of them?

Regardless of the motive, Daniell finds it gratifying to be in a position to render assistance capable of lifting a wounded company and helping it soar again, or strengthening a company, which could go the extra mile. "It's very rewarding to sit across the table from people who have personally benefited from the work we have done," Daniell explains the satisfaction of his chosen vocation. "That's why I love this business. I'm constantly learning, and I enjoy working and learning with clients."

As Good As Its Clients.

The client determines success. Since its establishment in 1973, Bain & Co. has built up a network of 25 offices in 18 countries across six continents. Having worked with over 1,500 major multinational corporations in every economic sector, the company has learnt that a global strategy consulting firm is only as good as its results. Adopting an outside-in, fact-based method, which results in practical perspectives and projections, Bain works hand-in-hand with its clients to determine emerging customer needs, competitor vulnerabilities and opportunities to build upon key capabilities. Bain is owned by its officers and employees, and measures its success by its clients' achievements. "Even in the stratospheric markets of 1999, our clients systematically continue to outperform their competitors, which is, for us, our greatest reward," Daniell reckons.

On The Road To Recovery?

Mark Daniell's thoughts on the future confidence in this region's economy: "The sense we are receiving globally is that the recovery is still in early stages and still fragile. In the absence of a US stock market meltdown or new catastrophic event in the region, Asia seems to have reached the end of a period of volatility and decline, and is expected to plateau for a while before recovering to sustainable and interesting growth rates. Future growth rates are seen to be more in the 4 - 6% bracket rather than 8 - 10% due to more constrained lending practices and an overhang of industrial capacity in some sectors. Although full recovery, however you define it, is still some years away, many companies are entering a second stage of crisis-related strategy. The first stage was built around cost reduction, asset redeployment and restructuring. This restructuring included major changes in many business portfolios, management teams, operating structures and balance sheets. The second stage of strategy will be more about corporate transformation, responding to global competition, restructuring to achieve sustainable long-term results, profitable growth, focused investment, alliances and acquisitions.

In particular, global competition, regional consolidation and building winning positions to maximize shareholder value in the era of prosperity after the crisis are emerging again as leading concerns for senior management teams in Asian companies and MNCs. Our advice for companies interested in returning to the region and to those who have ridden out the crisis is to look deeply at business fundamentals -- the strategic laws of gravity have been brought to bear with a vengeance over the last two years and will need to be respected in the future. Market share, customer segmentation, effective and efficient organizations are important. Mergers and acquisitions continue to be high-risk activities. Acquirers in Asia are, as always, advised to proceed with caution and to invest appropriately in pre-closure due diligence, even in a small transaction.

Cultural issues and differences in the ways of doing business will continue to be significant -- the crisis has not transformed this region into a fully Anglo-Saxon operating environment despite the relatively stronger capital and operating position of MNCs and suppliers of international capital at the moment."

A Capital Idea

Bill Bain, founder of Bain & Co., decided to "put our money where our mouth is" and set up Bain Capital, in 1984, with a number of former Bain & Co. partners. A unique phenomenon in the consulting world, this independent venture capital firm, Bain Capital, has grown to become one of the nation's leading private equity investment firms, basing its investment philosophy on similar strategies employed by Bain & Co., though there is no sharing of information or of management between the two separate companies.

Virtual U!

To keep Bain & Co. employees up-to-speed with training tools, and to enable full sharing of information throughout the organization, the Bain Virtual University (BVU) was set up. If you can have virtual reality and virtual games, why not a mix of the two? The BVU is a 24-hour campus out in cyberspace, which 2,500 Bain employees in 25 offices in 20 countries can access to supplement their formal training. It also allows for customized training, allowing individuals to focus on mastering critical skills. "It keeps our people in the state-of-art thinking mode; a means of harvesting intellectual capacity. It's a thinking tool utilizing state-of-the-art shareware programs to improve the quality of thought," Daniell explains. BVU includes modules on analysis, communications, team process and computer skills, all in keeping with its motto, 'Discere Perpetue... Continuous Learning.'