Bain, Jayne strike again
Pokies and liquor giant Endeavour needs radical surgery. Send in the consultants!
Warren Buffett once said that "When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact." Shareholders in pubs and pokies business Endeavour Group are now praying that the Oracle of Omaha is wrong for once.
Endeavour Group – formerly known as Australian Leisure and Hospitality – is fabled for its bad economics. And it has just hired Jayne Hrdlicka, polarising company turnaround specialist, to "deliver the company's next phase of growth".
In her trademark opening gambit, Hrdlicka has let it be known she'll be bringing in a team of management consultants, almost certainly Bain & Company. The words Hrdlicka and Bain are synonymous. Hrdlicka cut her teeth with Bain in the US, then Australia, before being poached by Qantas to run discount airline Jetstar. Later, when she was appointed CEO of A2 Milk in New Zealand, Bain surfaced again, causing extreme fee shock for some A2 board members. Hrdlicka then arrived at Virgin Australia, whose Brisbane office veritably crawled with Bain consultants.
Hrdlicka is now the (outgoing) chair of Tennis Australia, where her hand-picked successor is Chris Harrop of – you guessed it – Bain & Company. Bain should have Hrdlicka busts on plinths in the lobbies of its offices globally.