George_Albert_Smith,_Jr.
George Albert Smith Jr. (1905–1969) was a professor at Harvard Business School who wrote several books on management practice and other issues.
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Smith was the only son and third child of George Albert Smith, who would become the eighth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and his wife Lucy Woodruff. Lucy was the daughter of Wilford Woodruff Jr., a son of Wilford Woodruff, who was the fourth president of the LDS Church. At the time of George Albert Smith Jr.'s birth his father was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
As a young man, Smith was a missionary for the LDS Church in Switzerland and Germany.[1]
Smith received his bachelor's degree from the University of Utah and a graduate degree in business administration from Harvard University. He served as student body president of the Harvard Business School Association from 1933 to 1934. In 1934 he was appointed a member of the editorial board of the Harvard Business Review.[2]
From 1934, Smith was a professor at Harvard Business School. During the 1950s, he was one of the main proponents of sizing a business's competitive strategy in light of the general trends in its specific market.[3] Smith is also credited as one of the principal developers of SWOT analysis.[4]
In July 1935, Smith married Ruth Nowell in the Salt Lake Temple. They had three sons, who all attended Harvard Business School.
Smith wrote three books: Policy Formulation and Administration (1951), Managing Geographically Decentralized Companies (1958), and Business, Society, and the Individual (1962).