2.1A historical perspective

A historical perspective will help us to understand the present scope, strengths and limitations of management consulting. Where does management consulting have its historical roots? How far back can they be traced? What principal events and personalities have given the consulting business its current shape?1 Management consulting has its origins in the Industrial Revolution, the advent of the modern factory, and the related institutional and social transformations. Its

roots are the same as those of management as a distinct area of human activity and a field of learning. Consulting in or for management becomes possible when the process of generalizing and structuring management experience attains a relatively advanced stage. Methods and principles applicable to various organizations and situations have to be identified and described, and the entrepreneur must be pressed – and motivated – to seek a better way of running and controlling the business. These conditions were not fulfilled until the latter part of the nineteenth century, a period which saw the birth of the “scientific management” movement.

The pioneers of scientific management

There were a number of predecessors of scientific management. One of them was the American manufacturer Charles T. Sampson, who in 1870 reorganized the whole production process in his shoe-making factory in order to be able to staff it with unskilled Chinese workers. One year later, acting in a consulting capacity, Sampson passed on his experience to an owner of a laundry, who accepted the advice and applied the approach previously used by Sampson.

The pioneers of scientific management, including Frederick W. Taylor, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Henry L. Gantt and Harrington Emerson, gave a major impetus to the development of consulting. Their technical and methodological approaches to simplifying work processes and raising the productivity