Armin Allmendinger on the history of the management consultancy.
Armin Allmendinger
Management consultants are often the salvation in person for companies. When it comes to restructuring operations, making personnel changes or bringing the IT department up to date, management consultants are often on hand to help companies with their trained and experienced outside perspective. The emergence and development of management consulting dates back to the late 19th century. During this time, various consultants began to offer their services to support companies in strategic decisions and the (general) improvement of their business practices. Here is an overview of the most important milestones and developments:
Contents:
– Where does the term “management consultancy” come from?
– How long has the profession of management consulting existed?
– The management consultancy in Europe
– Armin Allmendinger about the development of management consulting in Germany
– What does the job of a management consultant look like these days?
THE EARLY BEGINNINGS
According to Armin Allmendinger, the term “management consultancy” is derived from the English word “consulting”, which stands for advice per se. The management consultancy is basically just as old as the first companies, explains Armin Allmendinger. Because people who run a business have always sought advice from other people who have specific expertise. However, management consulting developed into a real profession around the 19th century in the USA.
Particularly in the USA in the late 19th century, suitably trained specialists such as engineers, lawyers or accountants began to offer their services to companies. The focus was often on technical or legal aspects. In the course of industrialization and the associated restructuring of owners and executives, scientific methods were developed for the first time to regulate business management. The first official consulting firm was founded in 1886 and named after Boston MIT professor Arthur D. Little. Little focused primarily on consulting in the field of technological research, but later expanded the scope of his consulting company to the implementation of management approaches.
With the advent of scientific management by Frederick Taylor and Henry Ford, a need arose for professionals who could help companies improve their operations and efficiencies. The term “management consulting” was coined, and the first well-known consulting firms such as McKinsey & Company (founded in 1926) emerged. With the economic crisis in 1929, there was a veritable boom in management consultancies in the USA, which helped their customers to restructure their businesses. With the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which prohibited banks from providing advice due to their bias, the trend towards external advisors increased further.
After the Second World War, the management consultancy experienced a great boom. Businesses needed support to restructure and adapt to changing economic conditions. Consultants helped with strategy development, organizational changes and the introduction of new technologies. In Europe, however, the field of consulting only slowly gained a foothold in the 1960s, says Armin Allmendinger.
BUSINESS CONSULTING IN EUROPE
In Europe, the management consultancy profession took a little longer to really catch on, explains Armin Allmendinger. Admittedly, a few consulting firms already existed, but there was talk of a real consulting market only in the late 1960s, when large American consulting firms ventured into Europe. In the 1970s, consulting firms began to specialize in specific fields and industries. Specialized consultancies emerged in areas such as finance, human resources, information technology, marketing and many others. This specialization trend continued into the 1980s. Initially, only strategy consulting was offered, but the portfolio of many companies later expanded to include the IT sector, continues Armin Allmendinger.
ARMIN ALLMENDINGER ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTING IN GERMANY
According to Armin Allmendinger’s research, the first management consulting agencies in Germany emerged in the early 1920s. The founders were a few students from Berlin, who with their agency devoted themselves primarily to production-related topics and the area of business organization. In 1954, the job title “management consultant” was officially introduced for the first time against the background of the founding of the Federal Association of German Management Consultants.
In the decades that followed, the profession eventually expanded to include other subject areas. In the 1960s, the focus shifted to sales problems and marketing, the 1970s were devoted to organizational and personnel development, and the first company computers in the 1980s were ultimately accompanied by the then IT consulting. With the increasing globalization of the economy, the demand for management consulting on an international level also grew – this of course also applied to the large German companies and groups. Consulting firms expanded into more and more countries, helping multinationals to expand, enter markets and solve global business problems.
WHAT DOES THE JOB OF A MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT LIKE TODAY?
A lot has happened in the world over the past few years, which is why the profession of management consultant is constantly changing, explains Armin Allmendinger. Advancing digitization and technological change have further developed management consulting. Consultants therefore still play an important role in the introduction of new technologies, such as e-business, data analysis, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation. Exactly how the orders look depends on the individual customer and their fields of activity, but to put it very broadly, the profession of management consultant includes consulting services that cover either the management area, IT, personnel issues, engineering services or business / include tax audit. Advisors or consultants are requested, for example, when it comes to mergers or takeovers of companies, internal restructuring is pending, new technologies are to be introduced or operating processes have to be optimized, according to the experience of Armin Allmendinger.
In recent years, new consulting approaches have also been developed or further developed in order to meet the constantly changing needs of companies. Agile methods, design thinking, sustainability consulting and innovation consulting are just a few examples of new fields of consulting that have become increasingly important in recent years. Today, management consulting has become an established and permanent part of business life, in which a large number of consulting companies with a wide variety of focuses and concepts are active.
Armin Allmendinger is familiar with the field of business consulting and knows what is important in this varied profession. More information on the topic: https://armin-allmendinger.de/ & https://armin-allmendinger-unternehmensberatung.de/
Contact
Armin Allmendinger
Armin Allmendinger
Waldowstr. 6
73479 Ellwangen
07965 73 22 41
https://unternehmensberatung-armin-allmendinger.de/