Arthur D. Little, Inc. is the name of the world's first management consulting firm. Founded in 1886 by Arthur Dehon Little , an MIT chemist who discovered acetate, and co-worker Roger Griffin, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Arthur D. Little pioneered the concept of contracted research. The company played key roles in the development of operations research, the word processor, the first synthetic penicillin, and NASDAQ.
ADL, as it is sometimes called, never grew as quickly as its more famous competitors, such as McKinsey and Company and the Boston Consulting Group. By 2001, however, it had 2000 employees around the world, but a failure to spin-off a telecom consulting arm doomed the company. In 2002, it declared bankruptcy, but its name was sold to a management company. ADL survives today, but in a reduced form.
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