Marvin Bower
Marvin Bower | |
|---|---|
| Born | Template:Birth date Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | January 22, 2003 (aged 99) |
| Occupation(s) | Management consultant, business theorist |
| Known for | Transforming McKinsey & Company; father of modern management consulting |
Marvin Bower (August 1, 1903 – January 22, 2003) was a prominent American management consultant and business theorist closely associated with McKinsey & Company. Under his guidance, McKinsey transformed from a modest engineering and accounting firm into a dominant force within the consulting sector. Together with Edwin G. Booz, Bower played a pivotal role in the post-World War II expansion of management consulting and is frequently hailed as the "father" of contemporary consulting practices.
Biography
Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Bower completed his undergraduate studies in Economics and Psychology at Brown University in 1925. Following his father’s advice to pursue law, he earned a degree from Harvard Law School in 1928, then advanced his education by obtaining an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1930. His early career included work at the Cleveland law firm Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue.
In 1933, Bower became head of the New York office for James O. McKinsey & Company. After McKinsey passed away in 1937 and the firm split, Bower resurrected the New York branch as McKinsey & Company in 1939. He served as managing director between 1950 and 1967 and continued to influence the firm’s direction until 1992.
Harvard Business School credits Bower as the "father of modern management consulting" due to his transformative leadership at McKinsey. Notably, at age 60, he chose to sell his shares back to the company at their book value rather than market value—a decision that surprised many.
Bower’s son described this unexpected choice: "It felt unbelievable... But that was Marvin for you."
Bower is widely acknowledged for setting global standards in management consulting grounded in ethical conduct, professionalism, and nurturing talent within the firm. Despite being recognized by BusinessWeek as one of the leading business figures of the twentieth century, he rejected this label, emphasizing that he considered himself a professional rather than a businessman.
Publications
His significant contributions to business literature include:
- The Will to Manage: Corporate Success Through Programmed Management (McGraw-Hill, 1966)
- The Will to Lead: Running a Business With a Network of Leaders (Harvard Business School Press, 1997)
- Perspective on McKinsey – an internal publication by McKinsey
Further reading
- Edersheim, Elizabeth Haas. McKinsey’s Marvin Bower: Vision, Leadership and the Creation of Management Consulting (2006), regarded as an authoritative biography
- McDonald, Duff. The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business (2014)
External links
- Articles with short description
- Articles with hCards
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- 1903 births
- 2003 deaths
- American business theorists
- American consultants
- 20th-century American lawyers
- Brown University alumni
- Businesspeople from Cincinnati
- Businesspeople from Cleveland
- Glenville High School alumni
- Harvard Business School alumni
- Harvard Law School alumni
- Jones Day people
- McKinsey & Company people
- 20th-century American businesspeople