The CONSULTANT'S ROLE AND METHODS: The WORK OF The ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT

The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited was established in 1946 as a department of the Economist Newspaper. The Economist itself was founded in 1843 under the rather elaborate name The Economist, Weekly Commercial Times, Bankers Gazette and Railway Monitor, The Political, Literary and General Newspaper and the Intelligence Unit was its first offspring in over a hundred years. The Unit was designed to be a vehicle by which the experience, skills and knowledge of the staff of The Economist could be used to provide information and advice on the complex problems of doing business in the postwar world and to do this for fees. The Unit was to have a small staff of its own to supplement the talents of the existing Economist staff.