Chris Zook is a partner at Bain & Company and was a coleader of the firm’s Global Strategy practice for twenty years. The Times (London) has named him one of the world’s fifty most-influential global business thinkers.
In his work with clients, Zook focuses on helping companies find their next wave of profitable growth. He has worked in a range of industries, including information, health care, computers, and venture capital. He is a frequent speaker at global forums, including the World Economic Forum at Davos.
Zook is the author of the bestselling books Profit from the Core, Beyond the Core, Repeatability, and Unstoppable, published by Harvard Business Review Press, and has written extensively for publications such as the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. He has been a guest on NPR, CNBC, and Bloomberg TV and is a frequent speaker at a wide range of business forums, including the Forbes Global CEO Conference, the BusinessWeek CEO Summit, the Economist Summit, and the Harvard Distinguished Speaker Series.
A graduate of Williams College with advanced degrees in economics from Exeter College, Oxford University, and Harvard University, Zook has a wife and family and divides his time between homes in Amsterdam and Boston.
James Allen is a partner in Bain & Company’s London office and a coleader of Bain’s Global Strategy practice. He has served in a variety of leadership roles at Bain and is the founder of the Bain Founder’s Mentality 100, a global network of high-growth companies mostly led by their founders.
Allen has more than twenty-five years of consulting experience and has worked extensively for global companies in consumer products, oil and gas, technology and telecommunications, health care, and other industries. He has advised clients on the development of global growth strategies, emerging market entry strategies, and turnaround strategies.
Allen is a coauthor of the bestselling books Profit from the Core and Repeatability and has written numerous articles on the topics of growth strategy, customer strategy, and the consumer of 2020. He is a frequent speaker at the World Economic Forum and other conferences and has been writing for Bain’s The Founder’s Mentality blog for the last three years.
A graduate of Kenyon College, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Harvard Business School, Allen lives in London with his wife and their three children.