After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a young man called Tex Thornton was appointed to manage a statistical control group for the US Air Force. Thornton recruited a group of individuals like himself – smart, self-confident and very numerate – who were nicknamed the “Whiz Kids”. They brought order to the chaos of US military logistics.

The Whiz Kids went on to deploy these methods across American corporate life. Their activities would change the ways people thought about both business and public policy, although not always in the ways they intended. The most famous Whiz Kid was Robert McNamara, who died last week.