ABSTRACT
The economic crisis has prompted many to call for a greater emphasis on studying the history of business and management. Morgen Witzel looks at the lessons that could be learned and why they are so important. Fads and fancies in organisations come and go but the basic principles of what an organisation is and what it should do were understood by St Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century when he wrote the rule of the Benedictine Order of monks. One of the fundamental concepts of marketing that it is the consumer the producer who defines value was set out by the theologian St Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century. Lyndall Urwick, regarded by some as the founder of management consultancy in Britain, wrote in 1933 that the origins of modern marketing could be traced back at least to the 17th century.
