Isaac Guzmán Valdivia: biography of this management expert.

A summary of the life of Isaac Guzmán Valdivia, influential Mexican businessman and author.

Isaac Guzmán Valdivia is a character of 20th century Mexico. Although he was trained in law, he has contributed a lot to the field of philosophy, sociology and the Mexican business world, especially in the field of administration.

His ideas were somewhat contrary to those of the businessmen of his time, but he was able to change the course of the business sector in his country from within, that is to say, as a member of the employers' association.

We will now take a closer look at who he was through a biography of Isaac Guzmán Valdiviain which we will know his life and the ideas of his main works.

Brief biography of Isaac Guzmán Valdivia

Isaac Guzmán Valdivia was a Mexican philosopher, sociologist and businessman who stood out for having contributed a new social approach to business administration. Through his works he gave importance to the influence of foreign administrative thought in the development of administration as a practical science in Mexico.

His works covered concepts related to both economic and political aspects of Mexican society.He also emphasized what freedoms people should have as citizens of their country and workers in organizations.

Early years

Isaac Guzmán Valdivia was born on October 22, 1905 in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico.His parents were Gilberto Guzmán Venegas and Josefina Valdivia de Guzmán, both also natives of Guanajuato. He attended all his elementary schooling in public institutions.

He continued studying in his native region, completing his university studies at the Colegio del Estado, now the University of Guanajuato, where he received his degree in Law and Notary Public on October 20, 1928. After graduating in 1930, he began teaching social sciences at the same institution.

Teaching years

He began teaching General Theory of the State at his Alma Mater and, later, he would teach History of Economic Doctrines and Philosophy of Law until 1936, year in which he became a professor. until 1936, when he stopped teaching at the Colegio del Estado.

Although he was comfortable in Guanajuato, Isaac Guzmán Valdivia saw opportunities in the city of Torreón in the state of Coahuila. He decided to embark on a new direction in his life, leaving his wife Adela Bustamante Dueñas in Guanajuato and visiting both the state of Coahuila and neighboring states.

Around this time Guzmán Valdivia would begin to work with the Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana and, in 1938, he would found the Carlos Pereyra High School in Torreón, Coahuila, in 1938 he founded the Carlos Pereyra High School in Torreón, Coahuila.. Later, in 1944, he would move to the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.

In 1946 he moved to Mexico City, where he taught sociology at the Centro Cultural Universitario, and Introduction to Philosophy at the Centro Universitario de México from 1948 to 1955. He then went on to teach Sociology at the Escuela Libre de Derecho from 1950 to 1986.

In 1947 he wrote his book "Para una metafísica social" (For a Social Metaphysics)a text in which he analyzes the Mexican social phenomenon but approaching it from a metaphysical perspective. In this work he tries to explain and determine the causes of his existence of the social processes that Mexico in the first half of the twentieth century was living, a work with an important Christian influence, faith that Isaac Guzmán Valdivia kept alive throughout all his works and his life.

In 1949 he participated in the signing of the Mexican Collective Contract, which is considered by many to be Guzmán Valdivia's first great participation in the economic sphere of his country, acting as a member of the Technical Commission. This event would lead him to become concerned about the social cause, something that would later motivate him to write his work "El destino de México", with certain nationalistic and patriotic touches.

Representative of Mexico

As we have already mentioned, Isaac Guzmán Valdivia was part of the Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana or COPARMEX, originally in Torreón, Coahuila, although it would later be transferred to Mexico City in 1945.

In 1947 he published his first work really related to the world of administration, "La Organización Patronal en México" (The Employers' Organization in Mexico).. This text exposes several works presented in the National Conventions organized by the Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana between 1945 and 1946.

He himself commented in relation to this publication that he was in the business sector, a very fertile place for his work, although it was not easy to carry it out. Businessmen at that time were very closed-minded and their behavior was very individualistic, radical and intransigent, making the business world very recalcitrant.

At that time, as leader of the Mexican employers' association, Guzmán Valdivia had the means and authority to initiate changes in the sector. He contributed to the training of officials, personnel managers and industrial relations directors, who had the power to solve the problems of labor union relations.He contributed to the training of officials, personnel managers and directors of industrial relations, who had the power to solve the problems of relations between unions and employers.

While still in COPARMEX, Guzmán Valdivia would reach the position of national president of the institution and, thanks to this, he represented Mexico in Geneva, Switzerland, before the International Labor Office (ILO). He would also represent his country at the International Management Congress in Paris and White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia in 1957 and 1958.

Since 1957 he directed the Mexican Association of Scientific Administration, an organization he founded to train the executives of Mexican companies of his time.. During eight years at that institution, he taught courses to more than seven thousand Mexican civil servants. In addition, during this period he institutionalized the career of Industrial Relations in Mexico.

Main works

Isaac Guzmán Valdivia shows influences from foreign administrative culture, although he always based his work on the Mexican way of thinking and acting and related it to the business environment to create his own theories. Also, and as we have commented before, his works receive Christian influences attributed to various American authors, especially Argentinean, Mexican and American.

Throughout his life, he wrote 24 texts, of which 19 were published and 5 were never published after his death, which took place on October 22, 1988 at the age of 83. We will now take a closer look at the works that have given him most renown in the administrative area: "Reflections on Administration", "The Science of Administration" and "Our Reconquest, Religion and Nationality".

1. Reflections on Administration (1961)

In "Reflections on administration" Guzmán Valdivia tries to make the business world understand how important administration is as a fundamental basis for the management of a society, although he also stresses that it is not an absolute science. The reason why it is not an exact science is that, since it is linked to the social, it must be adapted to the principles and beliefs of each person, that is, to his or her way of thinking.that is, to his or her way of behaving, being and system of beliefs and thinking.

For this reason, he claims that it is a serious mistake to give a single approach to administration, since the population is not homogeneous and the same solution will not work for everyone, far from it. While it is important to have certain structural bases as a standard model, there must be a certain flexibility, which can be adapted to each person's way of being and acting.

2. The Science of Management (1963)

In "The Science of Management", the author talks about a widely discussed and quite controversial topic in Latin America, which is the foreign influences of businessmen. In this book the beliefs of business leaders are linked to the administrative processes and how they influence the life of the company. and how they influence the lives of Mexicans.

One of Isaac Guzmán Valdivia's main contributions to administration were his arguments in favor of considering it a science, although, as we have mentioned, not as exact as chemistry or physics. Even so, the author compares several areas and characteristics of the administration of that time with other characteristics possessed by the more exact sciences, reaching the conclusion that administration is a practical science.

3. Our Reconquest, Religion and Nationality (1941)

In his book "Nuestra Reconquista, Religión y Nacionalidad" (Our Reconquest, Religion and Nationality) he addresses, as its title suggests, aspects related to Mexican nationality, its cultural and ethnic identity, as well as the religious importance for him and the rest of the Mexican people. Here he explains his ideological doctrineof which we can highlight the following points:

• The nation, as a unit, is above classes or groups.
• The person must have security and freedom to be able to fulfill his or her desires with dignity.
• The State must strive for the common good and apply justice, security and defend the collective interest.
• Order in the nation will serve to avoid poverty and ignorance.
• The freedom of man demands that the State not control consciences.
• The State is obliged to provide education, but it should not have a monopoly in this matter.
• Human labor is not merchandise; workers have rights.
• Private initiative must be promoted and guaranteed by the State.
• Private property ensures national production and guarantees human dignity.
• Peasants must have full ownership of their land.
• The State has authority but not ownership in the national economy.
• The municipality should be autonomous, responsible and subject to the will of its governed.
• Through law the State exercises justice.
• Political life should be exercised through the will of the people, and be the result of their intelligent decisions.

Bibliographical references:

• Angles-Chávez, A. L. (n.d.) Brief biography of Isaac Guzmán Valdivia.
• Guzmán-Valdivia, I. (1949) Notas para una teoría de las ciencias sociales. Proceedings of the First National Congress of Philosophy, Mendoza, Argentina.