One of my favorite quotes is approximately 2500 years old. It suggests that the notion of management systems has been around for quite a while.

Mo-Tze (a.k.a. Miscius) Approximately 500 B.C.E.

"Whoever pursues a business in this world must have a system. A business which has attained success without a system does not exist. From ministers and generals down to the hundreds of craftsmen, everyone of them has a system. The craftsmen employ the ruler to make a square and the compass to make a circle. All of them, both skilled and unskilled, use this system. The skilled may at times accomplish a circle and a square by their own dexterity. But with a system, even the unskilled may achieve the same result, though dexterity they have none. Hence, every craftsman possesses a system as a model. Now, if we govern the empire, or a large state, without a system as a model, are we not even less intelligent than a common craftsman?"

Photo by Savita Chand (c) 2008

Reference:

Wu, Kuo-Cheng. (1928). Ancient Chinese political theories. Shanghai, China: The Commercial Press, Limited.