Henry Ford: Inspiration from the past...
Learning from the greatest business leaders of the world
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863-April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist and a business magnate and the founder of Ford Motor Company.
Ford did not invent the automobile. He didn’t even invent the assembly line. But he was responsible for transforming the automobile from an invention of unknown utility into an innovation that profoundly shaped the 20th century.
Ford had all the characteristics of an innovator, which would make him successful and famous one day. When he was young, he organised other boys to build rudimentary water wheels and steam engines. He learned about full-sized steam engines by becoming friends with the men who ran them. He taught himself to fix watches. Thus, young Ford demonstrated mechanical ability and a preference for learning by trial-and-error.
In 1879, he left home to become an apprentice at Michigan Car Company, a manufacturer of railroad cars in Detroit. Over the next two-and-one-half years, he moved to several jobs when he thought he could learn more somewhere else. He returned home three years later and began to operate and service portable steam engines used by farmers.
In 1888, Ford married and moved to Detroit where Ford took a job as night engineer for Edison Electric Company. He saw the job in part as an opportunity to learn. Within five years, Ford had risen to Chief Engineer of the company.
But he had other interests. He tried to build horseless carriages with a team of friends. In 1896, he created a self-propelled Quadricycle to be steered with a tiller like a boat with two speeds. A second carriage followed two years later.
He persuaded a group of businessmen to back him in the biggest risk of his life – a company to make and sell horseless carriages. The company failed. To revive his fortunes, Ford began to build racing cars. And, that became a success. When Ford wanted to incorporate Ford Motor Company in 1903, financial backers willingly came in.
He hired young, able men who believed in his vision and would make Ford Motor Company into a great industrial enterprise. The new company’s first car, called the Model A, was followed by a variety of improved models. It was a moderate success. But when in 1907, he introduced his four-cylinder, Model N; it became the best-selling car in the country.
Still Ford had a bigger vision: a better, cheaper motorcar for the great multitude. Working with a hand-picked group of employees, he came up with the Model T, introduced on October 1, 1908. It was easy to operate, maintain and handle on rough roads.
It immediately became a huge success. In 1910, the company moved into a huge new plant in Michigan. There Ford Motor Company began a relentless drive to increase production and lower costs. Henry and his team borrowed concepts from many small businessmen and mixed them with their own ideas and by late 1913, they had developed a moving assembly line for automobiles.
The turnover was so high that the company had to hire 53,000 people a year to keep 14,000 jobs filled. Henry responded with his boldest innovation ever – in January 1914,
he virtually doubled wages to US $ 5 per day. At a stroke, he stabilised his workforce and gave workers the ability to buy the very cars they made. Model T sales rose steadily as the price dropped.
In 1919, Ford bought off the shares of all stakeholders except a few. The result was several new Detroit millionaires and Ford were the sole owners of the world’s largest automobile company.
He continued to believe that the Model T was the car most people wanted. He ignored the growing popularity of more expensive but more stylish and comfortable cars like the Chevrolet and would not listen to Ford executives when they said it was time for a new model.
By the late 1920s, even Henry Ford could no longer ignore the declining sales figures. In 1927, he reluctantly shut down the Model T assembly lines and began designing an allnew car. It appeared in December of 1927 and – they called it the Model A.
The Model A was competitive for only four years before being replaced by a newer design. In 1932, at age 69, Ford introduced his last great automotive innovation, the lightweight, inexpensive V8 engine. Even this was not enough to halt his company’s decline. By 1936, Ford Motor Company had fallen to third place in the US market, behind both General Motors and Chrysler Corporation.
When World War II began in 1939, Ford became one of the major US military contractors, supplying airplanes, engines, jeeps and tanks. In 1943, Ford officially turned over the control of the company to Henry II, his brother’s son. Ford retired to his estate where he died on April 7, 1947, at age 83.
Henry Ford took inspiration from the past, saw opportunities for the future and believed in technology as a force for improving people’s lives. To him, technology wasn’t just a source of profits, it was a way to harness new ideas and ultimately, further democratise American life.
Life lessons from Henry Ford 1. Seek advice from others
One of the faults of Ford made was not listening to some of his most trusted advisers. Many people, his son included, warned him about the rising popularity of other cars, yet Henry Ford did not adapt well to these changes. Had Ford kept up with innovations as advised, he could have remained the number one leader in the industry. However, by the end of his life he was third.
2. Invest in what works
What makes Henry Ford so successful is that he took his business idea and made it bigger. Had he stayed with his original small factory, he wouldn’t be the business icon that we know today. Even though all of these changes were cost intensive, Henry Ford was willing to take the risk and invest in what worked.
3. Create for everyone
Ford created products that appealed to everyone. He even raised the salary of his factory workers to the point where they could actually afford the cars they were making.
4. “Don’t find fault; find a remedy”
The above is one of Ford quotes. He added, “Even better, take it one step further and find a solution to the problem.”
5. Always produce high-quality work
Ford once said, “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” We should all be at our best at all times, not only when our boss is watching.
6. Have passion for what you do
If you don’t have enthusiasm for your work, then it’s time to find a new job. While you won’t have a perfect work day every day, having a passion for what you do will make everything more worthwhile. It might take some time to find this passion but Ford’s life lessons show us that they are worth fighting for.
7. Anything is possible
Ford showed the world that anything is possible. He built an iconic company from the ground up, running it himself, buying out investors and making it bigger and better every year. He did his research, learned from great business owners who were using assembly lines and adapted it to fit his product. He was an innovator and someone who championed personal growth. He encouraged others to do the same. Like any person, he was not perfect but his story offers some great life lessons that can still be used to this day.