History

Our founder, B.W. Berenschot (1895) was a real entrepreneur who considered entrepreneurship to be the exact opposite of giving up. An impressive man with vision and a feeling for the things that would become important to the consulting profession in terms of skills as well as markets. His appointment as professor to the Delft University of Technology as well as the bestowal of the American Wallace Clark Award confirmed his national and international knowledge and skill.

Berenschot completed his civil engineering studies at the University of Delft in 1921. After this he worked for a short time for the Public Works Department in The Hague. In 1923, he subsequently joined Hijmans & Van Gogh, a consulting bureau for industrial organisation and metal working. At that point, the Netherlands counted approximately 15 persons professionally involved in advising companies in the area of industrial organisation. The knowledge concerning organisational issues was largely borrowed from the United States.

Various individuals employed by the Hijmans & Van Gogh Bureau started their own consulting bureau, either on their own or with others. This was true of Berenschot and J.M. Louwerse in 1925 as well. Their Adviesbureau voor Bedrijfsorganisatie Louwerse & Berenschot (Louwerse & Berenschot Consulting Bureau for Industrial Organisation) originally focused on industry, particularly the textile industry in the Twente region and the metals, clothing and confectionary industries. During this period they established the foundation for the knowledge of these market sectors.

In 1938, Louwerse and Berenschot terminated their collaboration due to a difference of opinion concerning how the profession should be exercised. Berenschot realised that a consulting bureau had to be more than the hobby of a number of individualistic specialists. Only a large bureau would be able to ensure its own continuity. In 1938 he established the Raadgevend Bureau Ir. B.W. Berenschot (Ir. B.W. Berenschot Consulting Bureau).

He died unexpectedly on 23 January 1964, at the age of 68.