A Short History of Management Consulting
By 629be8dfa21198f120ba6247 · · 5 mins read
At Momentum Consulting Group, here in Dallas, we’ve been empowering firms and building powerful sales organizations for almost three decades. Our corporate history may be long, but many people are surprised when they learn that management consulting, as we know it today, has a history that stretches as far back as the 1800s. History is so important and as Theodore Roosevelt famously said:
“The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.”
So, let’s take a look at the building blocks of management consulting …
Where did Management Consulting start?
Our journey through the evolution of management consulting starts in Boston, Massachusetts, where an MIT chemist by the name of Arthur D. Little, established the first known management consulting firm – Arthur started his consulting firm in 1886 and formally incorporated it in 1909. Although Arthur is credited with starting the first management consultancy, the fact that he specialized in technical research for the first few years opened a window of opportunity for other budding management consultants …
Frederick Winslow Taylor was the man who, in 1893, established the first known general management consultancy. Taylor is credited with inventing Scientific Management or ‘Taylor’s Method’, the first way of effectively organizing work that was used by management consultants from around the world, until it was pushed to the side by a new innovator in the management consulting arena, W. Edwards Deming. Taylor’s Method led to an upsurge in the number of management consultants and truly paved the way for the full-spectrum management consulting firms that we know and love today.
- Edwards Deming was a statistician who brought us ‘Deming’s 14 Points’. Deming’s techniques were widely adopted as they were found to improve quality, decrease expenses, increase productivity and ultimately earn companies a greater market share. By implementing his philosophies, Deming is credited with helping companies including Toyota and Sony to massively improve the quality of their products, while simultaneously reducing their costs.
Management Consulting has truly evolved from its early technical research beginnings. The boom-times that the industry has experienced in the past century has shaped the management consulting services that we at Momentum Consulting in Dallas offer today. We wouldn’t be here without those early management consulting pioneers!
One thing we know for sure is that management consulting is here to stay and we are looking forward to being part of its evolution! You might ask why and the answer is quite simple. At Momentum, our consultants have extensive global experience across all industries and with that experience come specialized skills. Certain projects would have significant manpower and financial costs for you to achieve in-house, but thanks to our externality and economies of scale we can offer a more economical, quality solution.
Contact us today to arrange a complimentary consultation and discover what the Momentum Consulting Group in Dallas can do for your business.