Bain Capital; good? or bad?

Has anyone asked anyone from these companies Bain has taken over?

Why, yes! They have…

Meet Senor Hayler… He ran a photo book shop for Bain in South Carolina.

“They’re somewhat cutthroat. I’ve worked for a lot of managers over my years but they were almost an angry bunch….They were yellers. They were screamers. There were just huge demands.”

So how does Bain achieve its turnaround profits?

“One of their ways to cut costs was not to pay bills,” said Hayler, who was ultimately fired and moved to North Carolina. “There were raw materials we couldn’t get because they hadn’t paid for the last bunch….A lot of stuff was coming in C.O.D. [cash on delivery]. I had to meet people on the loading dock with petty cash. It had deteriorated in my view to a very sad operation.”

“Bain was big on consultants. I remember entertaining a lot of consultants who would come in, create stacks of paper, and leave.”

Managers from Bain sent Hayler, a vice president for manufacturing at Holson Burnes, to run the new Gaffney factory soon after it opened. He was under orders to cut the unit costs of production, either by ramping up volume or by reducing labor costs.

“My job was to get rid of some people down there — either make it more productive or cut labor,” Hayler said.

A few months later, according to Hayler, Bain abruptly cut off the year’s severance pay he was entitled to under his contract. “They said I’d had enough time to look for a new job,” he said, leading him to sue and eventually win a settlement.

To the uninitiated, this may sound horribly immoral. However, that is how most business is done in America… Bills don’t get paid, people get cut for no reason, and contracts don’t get fulfilled until a court of law requires them to… I would say 99% of America’s business is handled that way. It is our dirty little secret.

That may be a way to run a business, where if you get fired, you can always go to another… But, America seriously needs to understand what will happen to it, if it decides to be run the way of Bain Capital Enterprises…..

It may seem nice for a couple of hours, but the herpes last forever…….