Friday, September 9, 2011

Part III: A Look At Mitt Romney's Business Career

Yesterday, we looked at Mitt Romney's service in the LDS Church and how it helped learn leadership skills at a young age. Today, we will look at Mitt Romney's record as a businessman. 
A blogger named "Bosman" over at blog called RightSpeak (for whom I have also written articles for)  has given a nice summary of Mitt Romney's extensive career in business:
1977- 83 Bain & Company - Romney proved adept at learning the "Bain way", which consisted of immersing itself in each client's business, and not simply to issue recommendations, but to stay with the company until they were effectively changed for the better. With a record of success with clients such as the Monsanto Company, Outboard Marine Corporation, Burlington Industries, and Corning Incorporated, Romney became a vice president of the firm in 1978 and within a few years one of the its best consultants. Romney became a firm believer in Bain's methods; he later said, "The idea that consultancies should not measure themselves by the thickness of their reports, or even the elegance of their writing, by rather by whether or not the report was effectively implemented was an inflection point in the history of consulting.
1983 - 90 Bain Capital - A spinoff of Bain & Company, Romney founded the company with Bill Bain. At first, Bain Capital focused on venture capital opportunities. Their first big success came with a 1986 investment to help start Staples Inc., after founder Thomas G. Stemberg convinced Romney of the market size for office supplies; Bain Capital eventually reaped a nearly sevenfold return on its investment. The firm's successfully invested in or acquired many well-known companies such as Accuride, Brookstone, Domino's Pizza, Sealy Corporation, Sports Authority, and Artisan Entertainment, as well as lesser-known companies in the industrial and medical sectors. Bain also was involved in leveraged buyouts which sometimes led to layoffs. Of these, Romney later said, "Sometimes the medicine is a little bitter but it is necessary to save the life of the patient. My job was to try and make the enterprise successful, and in my view the best security a family can have is that the business they work for is strong."
1990 - 92 Bain & Company - Romney returned to Bain & Company which was facing collapse as a favor to his mentor Bill Bain and was named CEO taking only a symbolic salary of one dollar. Romney managed an effort to restructure the firm's employee stock-ownership plan, real-estate deals and bank loans, while rallying the firm's thousand employees, imposing a new governing structure that included Bain and the other founding partners giving up control, and increasing fiscal transparency. Within about a year, he had led Bain & Company through a highly successful turnaround and returned the firm to profitability without further layoffs or partner defections. He turned Bain & Company over to new leadership and returned to Bain Capital in December 1992.
1992 - 99 Bain Capital - Romney left Bain Capital in February 1999 to serve as the President and CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee. By that time, Bain Capital was on its way to being one of the top private equity firms in the nation, having increased its number of partners from 5 to 18, had 115 employees overall, and had $4 billion under its management. His experience at Bain & Company and Bain Capital gave Romney a world view that was business oriented – centering around a hate of waste and inefficiency.
Despite many years in the private sector, there are claims that Mitt Romney's business record shows that Mitt Romney was a not job creator as he claims. However, Mitt has created more jobs than was cut during his time as a businessman. He has created, at a minimum, 484,150 jobs but has probably created millions of jobs because Bain Captial has founded, funded or acquired hundreds of companies over the past 27 years. As a result, Mitt Romney has helped create hundreds of companies that provides services or products that have touched the lives of almost every American. 
Its one thing to create jobs, its another thing to create businesses that provide jobs and services that Americans use which makes the economy strong since not only are people working, but trade and commerce is happening too. The more people buy and sell things, the better our economy grows and expands which creates more jobs as well as new innovative products and services.
Another false claim about Mitt Romney's business experience is that he made a lot of money off of creatng businesses or turning them around so they can become more profitable. Once again, the blogger "Bosman," has written a great blog article refuting that claim. Mitt Romney could have made a lot of money from turning the struggling company in to a successful business but choose not to. Its an article worth reading.
Finally, there are claims that Mitt Romney intentionally purchased companies in order to close them down, or loot and pillage them or let businesses go bankrupt all while making a profit for himself.  All of those claims are false.
As you can see, Mitt Romney has a great business record. His record looks even better when you discover the truth behind the erroneous complaints of his time as a business man. However, Mitt Romney's record doesn't end with Bain & Co and Bain Capital. After Mitt Romney left Bain Capital in 1999, Mitt Romney was hired to be  the President and CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee. If you don't include the time Mitt Romney spent managing the 2002 Winter Olympics, he has  approximately 22 years of experiences as a businessman.
In the next article, I will focus on Mitt Romney's work with the 2002 Winter Olympics. There, you will learn more about Mitt Romney's impressive and amazing record in making that event a profitable enterprise for the Olympics Games which got him back into politics.

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