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American Management Consulting Companies in Western Europe, 1920 to 1990: Products, Reputation, and Relationships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

Matthias Kipping
Affiliation:
MATTHIAS KIPPING is Reader in European Management and Director of the Centre for International Business History (CIBH) at theUniversity of Reading, U.K.
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Abstract

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This article surveys the expansion of American management consulting companies to Western Europe in the twentieth century. It focuses on the way these consultancies built and sustained activities outside their home country. A number of elements facilitated expansion abroad, including the creation of new and distinctive “products,” or approaches to management, and the use of domestic multinational clients as “bridges” to foreign countries. But to be successful in the long run, American consulting companies needed to create relationships with clients in the host country. In this respect, social and, sometimes, political contacts with the local elite, usually established through a few well-connected individuals, proved a crucial advantage.

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Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1999