Management Consulting Group

Management Consulting Group PLC

Company type	Public - London Stock Exchange(LSE) under symbol MMC
Industry	Management consulting services
Founded	Chicago, USA, 1946
Headquarters	2 offices globally (London and Atlanta)
Key people	R W H Stomber, Chairman Alan Barber, CEO
Revenue	£28 - £30 million (2010)
Number of employees	about 1500
Website	http://www.mcgplc.com

Management Consulting Group, PLC is a consulting company listed on the London Stock Exchange under the name MMC.

It has four sub-consultancies which go by the brand names:

• Ineum Consulting (acquired 2006)
• Parson Consulting (acquired 2002 - closed 2008)
• Alexander Proudfoot [2] - formerly known as Proudfoot Consulting [3] (name change 2009)
• Salzer Consulting - formerly The Salzer Group (acquired 51% interest in 2006 - closed 2008)
• Kurt Salmon Associates (KSA) (acquired 2007)

The company was originally named Alexander Proudfoot PLC, after its founder. In 1993 it shortened its name to Proudfoot PLC. In January, 2001 it changed its name to the current name of Management Consulting Group, PLC.

History

Alexander Proudfoot founded the Alexander Proudfoot Company in Chicago on 25 February 1946. Fascinated by the challenges of consulting but disenchanted by the way they operated, Proudfoot decided to create a new form of consulting service. He had two main criteria:

• sell a unique, proprietary product that would produce tangible results with benefits far exceeding the cost.
• only accept assignments for which the client made him responsible for installing the programme.

The emphasis on direct involvement is characterized by this quote describing Proudfoot in the 1980s:

At Proudfoot, Peter Isaac remembers feeling slightly insulted when Sir Ian McGregor, grappling with the mammoth task of restructuring British Steel in the early 1980s, told him that what distinguished him and his colleagues from other consultants was that they had dirt under their fingernails. It was a compliment, McGregor assured him: “You work at the coalface where things really happen, other consultants work in offices.

The founder also belonged to the tradition of consultancy that uses philosophy as a guide to best practice. The consulting approach he formulated for his company was particularly influenced by the philosophy of Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato. This philosophical approach governed both consulting engagements and internal management.

References