THE HISTORY OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT: 3 FUN FACTS

“What exactly do management consultant companies do?”

Since the act of consulting is more a line of thinking than a specific profession, people’s understanding of the term Management Consulting is often diluted. Consulting is the broad practice of helping organizations improve their performance.

More specifically, consulting services are applied to any industry offering a diverse range of services, from cost-control, to increasing operational or environmental efficiencies down to reorganization on the production line to improving a company’s business structure.

In 2010, Cambridge academic Christopher McKenna dubbed management consulting the “World’s Newest Profession,” yet the presence of a consultant-like mindset has existed for centuries.

Element Project Services is a constantly evolving management consultant business. We found these three historical facts interesting as they aid in understanding the roots of our value system.

 

THE FIRST MANAGEMENT CONSULTING FIRM IN HISTORY

Founded in 1883 in Philadelphia by Fredrick Winslow Taylor, he marketed himself as a “Consulting Engineer – systemizing shop management and manufacturing costs,” later to be called Taylor’s Method.

• He was later criticized for knowing too little about the companies he managed & that his method of consulting was nothing more than a “party trick.” This was to later be refuted.

 

A REVOLUTION IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

In 1910, Louis Brandeis, 53 year old Harvard grad and public reformist believes scientific management could bring “justice to an unjust world” by replacing rules of thumb with accurate measurements for businesses.

• By demonstrating that freight rates could be determined scientifically, he proved how rail and steel companies could charge their clients accurately

 

A FAST GROWING INDUSTRY

Today, management consulting is considered one of the fastest growing industries, expanding profits by 4% per year since 2009 and valued as a $165 billion industry in the US alone.

 

OUR VISION

EPS seeks to be a leader in project management. Like Fredrick Taylor, we are committed to client’s success. We deem safety and quality the main tenets of our work. Respect and teamwork are facets of our own company culture, and the future of our industry.