Thanks to briefer for posting this opposition research document from McCain's 2008 campaign.
This document is highly interesting for its summarizing of Bain Capital's pattern of layoffs and outsourcing of jobs in its US portfolio companies.
But "holy war?" "the KGB?" "Moonies?" Apparently Bain & Company, the parent firm of which Romney's Bain Capital (fd. 1884) was a spin-off, seems to have been a secret society, a quasi-religious sect with its own songs, its uniform or habit, a Gospel or ideology and an intense zeal for its predatory mission. Business, for Bain, was "a holy war."
Bain Culture: “Possessed By A Mission To Increase The ‘Total Economic Value’ Of Their Clients.”
“Notoriously secretive about itself and its work for clients, Bain has over the years been labeled the ‘KGB of Consulting’ … Bain consultants seem possessed by a mission to increase the ‘total economic value’ of their clients. Like religious zealots, they single-mindedly dedicate themselves to improving their customer’s competitive position. Business is a holy war that the client must win and the competition must lose.” (Nancy Perry, “A Consulting Firm Too Hot To Handle?” Fortune, 4/27/87)
People in outside firms regarded Bain culture as creating maximally indoctrinated (or brainwashed) types similar to the "Moonies" of the Unification Church:
“Bainies” Were Known For Company Songs And Secrecy, Compared To KGB. “Bain & Co. also was known for the strict discipline, team spirit - including company songs - and relentless work ethic of its troops. With their uniforms of white shirts and red power ties, the clean-cut Bain consultants were known as ‘Bainies,’ a knockoff of the term ‘Moonies’ for followers of Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Bain & Co. also was known for its secrecy, earning sobriquets like ‘the KGB of consulting.’” (Mitchell Zuckoff and Ben Bradlee Jr., “Romney’s Business Record Gives Larger Picture,” The Boston Globe, 8/8/94)
"The Bainies" had code names for members--signifying the employee's rebaptism in the Bain faith?
Code Names And More: “From the beginning, Bain cultivated a mystique around the secretive firm, which was once dubbed ‘the KGB of consulting.’ Partners didn’t carry business cards and referred to clients by code names. … And it inculcated in the recruits such a sense of mission that young consultants became known as Bainies, a reference to the Unification Church’s Moonies.” (Paul Hemp, “Did Greed Destroy Bain & Co.?” The Boston
Globe, 2/26/91)
Note: The Boston consulting firm Bain & Co. and Bain Capital are separate entities. Mitt Romney was employed by Bain & Co from the late seventies until 1984, when he formed the spin-off company Bain Capital. Romney returned to Bain & Co. for a brief term in the early 1990s but left long before the "period of interest" 1999 to 2002.
9:20 AM PT: This is actually a very slipshod diary, as a commenter has pointed out, and Ii apologize for originally mixing up Bain & Co.(which these cultlike allegations refer to) with Bain Capital. I realized my goofs just as it made the rec list. Pride goeth before a fall. Now I wish I had simply posted a diary of silly Bain songs which is my real metier, not economic or political reportage