The World's Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century

In The World's Newest Profession, Christopher McKenna offers a history of management consulting in the twentieth century. While management consulting may not yet be a recognized profession, the leading consulting firms have been advising and reshaping the largest organizations in the world since the 1920s. This groundbreaking study details how the elite consulting firms, including McKinsey and Booz Allen, expanded after U.S. regulatory changes during the 1930s, how they changed giant corporations, nonprofits, and the state during the 1950s, and why consultants became so influential in the global economy after 1960. As they grew in numbers, consultants would introduce organizations to corporate culture and decentralization but they faced vilification for their role in the Enron crisis and for legitimating corporate blunders. Through detailed case studies based on unprecedented access to internal files and personal interviews, The World's Newest Profession explores how management consultants came to be so influential within our culture and explains exactly what consultants really do in the global economy.

Author: Christopher D. McKenna
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 06/19/2006
Pages: 394
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.44lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.32w x 1.07d
ISBN: 9780521810395

Review Citation(s):
Harvard Business Review 10/01/2006 pg. 34

About the Author
McKenna, Christopher D.: - Christopher D. McKenna is Reader in Business History and Strategy at the Said Business School, University of Oxford.