Overview
First historical study examining how and why the British state has become one of the largest procurers of management consultancy services in the world
Features dozens of interviews with senior figures from some of the largest consultancy firms in the world
Offers detailed quantitative data on public sector expenditure on management consultancy services
Highlights the changing nature of how consultancy firms communicated with their clients during the period
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book traces the emergence and development of the relationship between management consultancies and the British state. It seeks to answer three questions: why were management consultants brought into the machinery of the state; how has state power been impacted by bringing profit-seeking actors into the machinery of the state; and how has the nature of management consultancy changed over time?
The book demonstrates the role consultants played in major developments in the postwar period. Specific case studies interrogate how consultancies influenced the policy fields of health service reform and social security benefits. This book will redefine debates amongst business historians and historians of the postwar British state about the nature of management consultancy and public sector reform.
Reviews
“Antonio Weiss, himself a management consultant with 2020 Delivery, points out in his new and important book, academics have hitherto had ‘relatively little to say about the use of management consultants by the state’. The few researchers who have strayed into this area have adopted a simplistic viewpoint rather than an enquiring mind. … Weiss has unearthed many more of the facts and turned his research into a compelling narrative.” (Alan Leaman, CSW Civil Service World, civilserviceworld.com, July 23, 2019)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Antonio E. Weiss is a management writer and advisor. He is a Director at 2020 Delivery, one of the United Kingdom’s leading public service management consultancy firms. He has written for a number of publications, including the Financial Times, Guardian, Prospect, and been featured on BBC Radio 4 and other international media. He received his PhD in History from Birkbeck, University of London. He is also an elected local government councillor in a London borough in the UK.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Management Consultancy and the British State
Book Subtitle: A Historical Analysis Since 1960
Authors: Antonio E. Weiss
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99876-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Business and Management, Business and Management (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-99875-6Published: 12 November 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-07640-5Published: 26 January 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-99876-3Published: 26 October 2018
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 355
Number of Illustrations: 20 b/w illustrations
Topics: Business Consulting, Management, History of Britain and Ireland, History of Modern Europe