1981: Avoiding the one-eyed technician syndrome
During the 1920s and 1930s a growing interest in organisational theory and rationalisation of production began to emerge within the business sector in general. However, only very few of the Danish consulting engineer companies had any real experience with this new way of organising a company in 1981.
This was also the case for Rambøll & Hannemann – until one day when an interesting suggestion landed on the two partners’ desks: A proposal from the well-established PLS Consult – an acronym for Planning, Logistics and Systems development – asking to be bought up by Rambøll & Hannemann.
This was unprecedented: An engineering company merging with something as foreign as a company consisting of economists, business developers etc. But Rambøll and Hannemann saw a potential that few other people recognised: the possibility of establishing a holistic, multidisciplinary company that did not suffer from what they called the “one-eyed technicians syndrome”. Future challenges, they thought, will be complex and require technical specialist know-how combined with a broader understanding of the societal impacts of our way of living and organizing.
Thus, Rambøll & Hannemann accepted the offer. PLS Consult (now Ramboll Management Consulting) started out as a separate daughter company, but later on became an integrated business unit working alongside the company’s other markets.