Before the term “management” referred to a multibillion-dollar industry with enormous influence over business practices, it applied to women’s skills overseeing their households. The first management best seller was “Beeton’s Book of Household Management,” a cookbook published in 1861.

Today, management advice is everywhere—taught in business schools, practiced by consulting firms, and disseminated by Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal. Even the Vatican engaged McKinsey & Co. and other consulting firms recently.

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