35 Under 35: Erika Serow, Partner, Bain & Company, Global Retail Services
by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)
Erika Serow joined Bain out of college, looking to consulting to help her figure out what she really wanted to do with her life. Bain sent her to work in London, Sydney, and then Milan, which ultimately allowed her to put her Italian major to good use.
After several years, she left to get her MBA from Stanford Business School, fully expecting to do something other than consulting when she came out; however, it was during school that she realized that she could advance faster in consulting than in any other industry and thus decided to return to Bain after graduation.
While working in Italy, as the only American woman on the client side, she learned what she recalls as one of her most important career lessons. “I spent some of time waiting for other people to make my life better. I expected that everyone would be looking out for me and that making sure I was OK would be one of the top priorities. [But] other people can’t fix it for you. Your boss can’t go demand that people be nice to you. And that is my career advice to young women – you won’t succeed if you are waiting for someone to give you a pat on back. You really have to own what you are doing. I learned a lot from figuring out how to steer my own ship.”
Promoted to manager at age 29 and then to partner at age 32, Serow attributes her extraordinary success before age 35 to four things: “One, I am an absolute perfectionist, a trait that will sometimes drive people crazy. We are in a business where our job is to deliver incremental returns, and that’s a very high hurdle. Two, I take a serious approach to problems, believing that asking a second or third question will almost always get better answers and get to the root of the issue. Three, I don’t take myself particularly seriously. And four, I’ve always been someone who manages my own mentoring and coaching relationships.”
That proactive approach to seeking out mentors is, in her opinion, extremely important. “You don’t get great mentors assigned to you; you have to build relationships. I believe that young women should make every effort to reach out to people and open themselves up, and, most importantly, be willing to take the advice.” She also talked of the benefit of seeing women at the top levels in the company. “Bain does a good job making being women a non-issue. There are women at every level of the firm. There are more female partners than ever before.”
Serow emphasized the importance of the people with whom one works over the industry in which one works, adding that it is essential to find something you are passionate about. “I worked in energy financial services, private equity until 6 years ago, when I found that the work that energized the most was retail/consumer goods. I spent 6 months doing IP development to get my hands and feet dirty so I could transition.”
She stressed the importance of relationships with clients as well. When describing a pivotal moment in her career, she said, “I had a mind meld with a client. It was the first time I invested in building a relationship with the client, and our relationship extended beyond the literal scope of project to become a friendship.” Serow only realized the true impact of the time invested when the client got choked up when describing how it was working with her. “It was a turning point in how I spend my time in my job.”
Asked for her advice to young women entering the consulting field, she counseled that they should learn as much about the company as they can. “It is so important to understand how the company you are working for operates. You should understand the business model. Training is important but not nearly as important as the work that is getting done for clients. This is a learn on the job thing, and you learn by doing great work for your clients.”
Serow also talked of her learning curve with regard to balancing competing work and life obligations. “I spent half of my time for a year doing an internal, administrative role which limited my travel and gave me more control of my schedule. The biggest challenges I faced were remembering that I had made the choice to take a partial break from client work, and, more importantly, learning to zealously guard the time I gained by having an internal role. The discipline that I gained during that year in managing my own time—and understanding the explicit trade offs I’m making—was as a tremendous lesson for me and is definitely something I continue to rely on to keep the challenges of the job in check.”
In her found off-time, Serow is a foodie and an avid traveler. “I am religious about taking a 2-week trip to someplace exotic every year with a group of friends. This year I took a once-in-a-lifetime extended vacation to Africa, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, relaxing on the spectacular beaches of Zanzibar, and then doing a safari with my mom. The travel inevitably causes a crunch for me on both ends—things get busy—but it keeps me fresh, and definitely makes me a more interesting person!”