Henri Fayol and Adam Smith's biography

 Summary of Henri Fayol and Adam Smith’s biography

    Jules Henri Fayol was a French mining engineer and theorist of business administration who was born on 29 July 1841 in Constantinople which is now Istanbul. In 1860, he graduated from a mining academy in Saint-Étienn. In the same year, he joined the mining company named “Compagnie de Commentry Fourchambault Decazeville”. During that time, Fayol studied, learned, and acknowledged enormous problems and understood many sectors within the company, and specially developed new techniques and solutions to those problems. He became a member of the board of the Comité des forges and administrator of the Société de Commentry in 1900. Henri Fayol developed the concept of administration which is known as Fayolism in 1916 in the publication of “Administration industrielle et générale” which is his most memorable action. He came up with 5 functions and 14 principles of management. His impact made the company financially powerful and one of the largest industrial combines in Europe when he retired in 1918. One of his quotes states that “Management plays a very important part in the government of undertakings: of all undertakings, large or small, industrial, commercial, political, religious or other. I intend to set forth my ideas here on the way in which that part should be played.” After his retirement, he came to be the Director of the Centre of Administrative Studies in Paris. His death was recorded on November 19, 1925.

    Adam Smith was born on 5 June 1723, a Scottish philosopher, economist, and pioneer of political economy. He is also known as ''The Father of Capitalism'' or ''The Father of Economics''. At 14 years old, he attended and studied moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow. During that time, he discovered his passion for reason, liberty, and free speech. Smith was a graduate scholar at Balliol College in 1740. While at Oxford, Adam Smith taught himself by reading a lot of books at Bodleian Library about many different subjects. In 1746 before the end of his scholarship, he left Oxford University to pursue his interest and studies of economics because, at the time, the definition of economics was strongly described as the measurement of a country’s silver and gold. He advocated that a nation’s wealth should be judged by the gross domestic product and not by that dominated idea. He wrote two outstanding works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and The Wealth of Nations (1776) which were considered the first modern work of economics, most influential books ever written, and his far-reaching reputation. In his work, Adam Smith introduced his theory of absolute advantage and he states that free-market economies are the most productive and beneficial to their societies. He keeps on stating that an economic system based on individual self-interest which is known as the “invisible hand” would provide the greatest outcomes for everyone. In 1787, he became the rector of the University of Glasgow. He died at the age of 67 which was three years after that.

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