Management and Henri

Born into a middle class French family in 1841 and educated at the Lycee at Lyons then at the national School of Mines at Saint-Etienne. Consider the father of Management Henri Fayol rose to succession quickly after entering the work force. At the ripe age of 19, Henri graduated from the National School of Mines at Saint-Etienne being named as of its outstanding students.

In 1861 Henri was employed by Commetry-Fourchambault Company to help solve the problem of underground fires as written by his son. (Focus on Management History). Henri remained at Commentry-Fourchambault Company until his retirement in 1918. He was considered a very successful man whilst working at Commetry, at the age of 25 Henri became manager of Commentry pits, then to manager of the group coal minds at the age of 31. At the age of 47 Henri gained the position of Managing director and remained as its chief executive until his retirement.

Throughout his time at Commentry he became critical of higher management’s practice of letting the sale of coal drive its production. Fayol sought to solve this problem by preparing sales and production plans with records of inventory that sales people could use to guide their selling. Henri was choosen by the board to oversee this dissolution. Accepting this Henri spent 4 months to develop a complete plan to present to the board. (Daniel A. Wren 2001, p. 477)

Retirement didn’t stop Fayol from continuing in succession. Moving on to further ventures, Henri set up a Centre for Administrative Studies (CAS). The centre held regular meetings attended by leaders from professional fields such as writers, philosophers, engineers, public-sector officials, the military and industrials. The centre helped in the overall effort for Henri to develop and popularize his theories of management. Through presentation of his key disciples through lecture, pamphlets and articles, Henri furthered on his principles by taking consultancies and investigations on behalf