By the late 1990s, management consulting had become one of the most desired professions for those earning MBA degrees. This global industry was led by giants such as McKinsey, Bain Capital, or Deloitte. In the following video, Chris McKenna (Oxford University) author of the award-winning book The World’s Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) explains the origins and growth of this influential sector of the economy.
More on Chris McKenna
Learn about the Global History of Capitalism project, created by Chris McKenna at Oxford University’s Center for Global History
A basic bibliography on the history of management consulting
Ferguson, Michael. The Rise of Management Consulting in Britain. New York: Routledge, 2019
Kipping, Matthias and Lars Engwall (eds.). Management Consulting: Emergence and Dynamics of a Knowledge Industry(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)
McKenna, Christopher. The World’s Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010)
Weiss, Antonio. Management Consultancy and the British State: A Historical Analysis Since 1960 (New York: Palgrave, 2019)