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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.
List of contents
1. Introduction.- 2. Planning, 1960s-1970s.- 3. Reorganising, 1970s: The 1974 National Health Service Reorganisation and McKinsey & Company.- 4. Automating, 1980s: Arthur Andersen and the Operational Strategy.- 5. Delivering, 1990s-2000s.- 6. Conclusions.
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.
Summary
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.
Additional text
“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)
Report
"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)
