1880-1899
Arthur D. Little is founded. The company emphasizes science, engineering and invention.
1890, Frederick W. Taylor, a former engineer, takes his emerging theory of Scientific Management and works as an active management consultant.
1898, The firm that later becomes Coopers & Lybrand and then PriceWaterhouseCoopers is founded with a focus on accounting practice.
1900-1919
1908, Harvard Business School is founded as a "delicate experiment" in the field of professional management training.
1914, Edwin G. Booz graduates from Northwestern and goes into business for himself, performing statistical studies
1920-1939
1926, James O. McKinsey, an accounting professor at Northwestern University, founds McKinsey.
1940-1959
1943, A British firm, PA Consultants, is started by Ernest Butten in 1943 with six consultants. |  | 1960-1969
1963, Bruce Henderson founds Boston Consulting Group. 1965, Professor Eric Rhenman of the Stockholm School of Economics and several colleagues found SIAR as a research institute for the study of organizational behavior.
1970-1979
1973, William W. Bain Jr. leaves BCG to found Bain & Co. Where BCG specialized in strategic planning and writing reports on theories. This heavy client focus and relationship building was very new at the time and allows Bain to grow very rapidly.
1980-1989
1980, Michael Porter publishes Competitive Strategy followed by Competitive Advantage in 1985. These become the most influential business books of the day.
1982, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman publish In Search of Excellence,
1990-2001
1995: Linda Yates and Gary Hamel found Strategos, a consultancy with a strong presence in Europe and the West Coast. Many members join from Gemini Consulting which was created by a merger of United Research and the MAC Group.
2000: Great Internet Crash brings tough times to the IT consultants such as Cambridge Technologies, Organic, Scient and Viant. |
