Figure 1 Demand for Strategy Consulting

The Tools of the trade

Between 1950 and 1995, strategy was a fast growing branch of ‘scientific management’. It grew to fill a need.
Over the period of the 20^th Century, the industrial revolution accelerated not only the economic growth rate but:

• The growth of capital markets
• The number of businesses
• The size of businesses
• The geographic reach of competition and
• The spending power of consumers

These businesses needed more experienced people than were available to lead, organize and operate them.
The same economic growth also drove increased competition and the opportunities taken up by businesses needed to enable them to both avoid loosing business to competitors as well as improve shareholder returns. The expertise required to perform consistently was also growing. A “skills” crisis in management had arisen. To accelerate the supply of skilled management labour, business schools grew up.

But, what would they teach?

These business schools lead research into why some businesses performed better than others opening up lines of enquiry, case study, theorizing and analysis that grew into a vast body of work…and a vast body of specialist advisors.
By 1980 supply was catching demand and the business schools and the consulting firms they helped spawn, were producing advice at a prodigious rate. The management consulting industry had become one of the “tools of trade” in strategy development.

Between 1965 (where ‘strategy’, as a branch of scientific management took off) and 2000, thousands of cases had been studied, theories advanced, evidence collected, efficacy evaluated, the non performers discarded and a rising quality of strategic thinking tools became both known and helpful.

The table pictured here chronologically lists the various tools that have developed to inform strategy development. TMG is constantly adding to its resource base of concepts, frameworks and tools.
Because each client situation is different, the combination of resources most appropriate for you is a matter for discussion early in any engagement. To request a link to this table (which in turn is linked to descriptions or applications of the tools) please email The next update to this resource base is scheduled for June 2008.

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