ABSTRACT

General opinion tends to date the commencement of management consulting services in Britain as being sometime during the 1920s. The period of 1869-1925 in industrial and economic history lay in the wake of Britain's loss of position as the 'workshop of the world'. In order to review this period, and some of the early pioneers and the types of services that they provided, a structured approach is used, through two time-frames: 1869-1914 and 1914-1925, to break down the first fifty or so years into logical manageable chunks. The pioneers of consultancy improved on and formalised techniques that had been utilised by others before them. The emphasis on the financial aspects of businesses at that time causes problems in identifying early pioneers of management consultancy because both professional accountants and management consultants offered services in relation to the financial dealings of firms. This is emphasised by examples of some accountants that appeared to conduct advisory services in support of management.