This man is often called one of the leading industrialists in the United States, who completely changed the whole principle of car assembly. At the dawn of the twentieth century, little was known about Henry Ford. He created famous Model T, which was planned for mass production as a car "for people". Ford wanted to make the design as cheap as possible so that it became available to everyone, and he succeeded.
The bottom line: he sold thousands and even hundreds of thousands of cars, and the brand continues to exist, and feel good these days. Few know how it was possible to come to such high results. What kind of person he was, how his fate turned out and what became the background of success - we will consider these and other questions about Ford today.
The indefatigable Henry Ford: biography of everyone's favorite
Cars that proudly bear the name of their creator and "progenitor" on the hood are found on almost every street in any city in our country and around the world. Who is Henry Ford, almost every second will answer. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he managed to abruptly turn history in a new direction. He gave people an easy-to-drive, reliable and beautiful, powerful, and most importantly, an inexpensive car. It was thanks to the ideas of this man that the conveyor became an integral part of any production, and they began to look at cars as a familiar means of transportation.
Interesting
From early childhood, little Henry loved to disassemble all sorts of mechanisms into their component parts. At the age of twelve he received a gift from his father pocket watch, which became the impetus in his formation as a mechanic and inventor. The boy took apart the gift and learned to assemble the mechanism almost with his eyes closed. After that, for several years, he became the "on duty" repairman of chronometers for all farmers in the area.
Henry Ford - an icon of the automotive industry
The story of Henry Ford is simple and unsightly, but in order to adequately walk his path, he had to make a lot of efforts. Parents saw in him the successor of their farming business, so he had to leave his father's house early. The young inventor respected agriculture, but preferred to limit himself to using its fruits. Being a native of the "people", he managed to make a real revolution in industry and earn a name for himself by painstaking and hard, but honest work.
Ford's legacy is rich and varied. He showed extraordinary scientific knowledge for proper organization labor. An eight-hour day, pay by the hour, not according to the work done, two days off with a five-day work week - for all this, “grandfather Henry” should be thanked. Reasonable use of personnel, division of labor and a conveyor belt that connects all stages of production - all this was thought out by him and even brought to life.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, even the concept arose - Fordism - a socio-economic trend nurtured by fans on the ideas of this great man. The main principle of the new direction was high wages. It was supposed to allow workers to buy the products they produce. In Henry's opinion, this was the main welfare of society as a whole, without "equalizing" with the consumer society.
The birth and early years of the future auto magnate
William Ford married a simple girl, Marie, also a farmer's daughter. On July 30, 1863, she gave birth to a baby, whom it was decided to name Henry in honor of his grandfather. From an early age, the father tried to inspire his offspring with love for agriculture. But no matter how hard the old man fought, the boy behaved on the farm like a prince of the blood, invited there by a strange accident. He did everything reluctantly under pressure, and he hated chickens and cows, which he often had to watch, sincerely and fiercely.
Carrying heavy buckets for his mother, Henry from early childhood began to think about the mechanization of labor. Of course, he did not know such terms then. However, it is not necessary to figure out how much easier it is to make plumbing once than to constantly carry water. The boy attended an ordinary rural school and did not make much progress in his studies. Ford's own book describes the moment when he first saw a locomobile, heading home from the market with his father. A puffing couple snarling huge car made an indelible impression on him. Most importantly, he knew where it was made, and decided that he would definitely work there.
The youth of the inventor
The father wanted the boy to become a farmer, but the "cowboy" future did not attract the future mechanic at all. What did Henry Ford do to get his way? He put two large loaves of bread in his bag, a bottle of milk, as much as the dollars earned for repairing chronometers, and set off on foot to meet his fate - to Detroit to a factory where horse-drawn wagons were produced. At that time, he was barely sixteen, and the mechanisms were already "unconditionally obeying" the slightest wave of his finger. Other workers envied the young man's ingenuity and framed him. He quit and moved to the Flower Brothers factory, where they made ships.
At night, the guy had to repair other people's watches, otherwise the salary was not enough even to pay for housing, not to mention food. Then the father decided for the last time to try to return his son to the path of farming. He gave him forty acres of land completely free of charge in exchange for a promise never to use the word "car" again. Cunning Henry took the land, gave his word, but did not fulfill it. He built a cozy house on a donated plot, got married, and then unexpectedly ran away to enter the factory " Electric company Edison" (Edison Illuminating Company). At first he was just a worker, then he became a mechanical engineer, and then the chief engineer of the entire large production.
Managing your own company
While I had to work in different places where brute physical strength was needed, the young man nurtured in his head the idea of creating self-propelled stroller or a horseless carriage of an individual type. Henry Ford's years were steadily approaching thirty, when in a shed behind the house he assembled and even launched his first creation - the Ford Quadricycle. Three years later, having brought his car to the ideal, in the ninety-sixth he presented it to Thomas Edison, who was delighted with the invention.
Worth knowing
While still living on a farm donated by his father, Henry Ford assembled a special thresher for grain from improvised means, which ran on gasoline. After meeting Edison, he decided to sell him a patent for this invention. Thus, it was possible to gain enough funds to create their own, new company.
Organization of Ford Motor Company
Already by the ninety-ninth year, Henry bought out part of the shares of the Detroit Automobile Company and became its actual co-owner. However, other owners did not share his ideas and saw no future in creating a “car for the people”. They believed that they should be engaged in more substantial and costly projects, and not "toil nonsense." The man persistently went around all the "circles of hell." He personally traveled on the first car ford A of all potential clients, but in the end received only the insulting nickname "crazy from Begley Street."
At the dawn of a new century, he manages to make a really great advertisement for his creation. On a self-propelled cart, he took part in auto racing and managed to seriously get ahead of the American champion. In his book, he later writes that if he had four dollars at that time, he would have given three to an advertising campaign. There are investors and those who just want to support the idea - "Henry Ford cars for everyone." After that, the inventor leaves the company, withdraws his funds. In 1903, the inventor organizes a completely new company- Ford Motor Company, which still exists today.
In 1903, a scandal broke out - the inventor Henry Ford and his company were sued for copyright infringement by J. B. Selden. Twenty years earlier, he allegedly patented the invention "car", but never made a single working copy. Litigation lasted eight years, after which it was officially recognized by the authorities that the plaintiff could not claim any compensation due to the fact that Ford used a completely different type of engine design.
All the while the courts dragged on, Ford did not stop the production of its products for a second, assuring consumers that it was safe to purchase a car. In the eighth year, the first copies of the new Ford T model rolled off the assembly line, which became his hallmark for many years.
Two years later, Henry completes the construction of the new Highland Park facility. It was a real leap forward for the automotive industry, as the new factory featured excellent lighting and high-performance ventilation, allowing for a significant increase in productivity. It was at this plant that the conveyor was first introduced, which made it possible to significantly reduce labor costs for the manufacture of each structural element.
After the First World War broke out, Ford tried to reason with the Europeans and even went there personally, but came across misunderstanding and ridicule. Perhaps for this reason, by the seventeenth year, when the revolution was already raging in our country, the factories of the pacifist Henry Ford began to fulfill military orders. The assembly line made it possible to quickly transform production, because now gas masks, ambulances and even engines for aircraft, submarines and light tanks were produced here.
Henry announced that all profits from the state order would be returned to the country's treasury, this added to his popularity and authority among fellow citizens. It is not known for certain whether he fulfilled his promise, but he managed to make an impression, he certainly knew a lot about this. In the twenty-fifth year was created new company Ford Airways, where they began to produce aircraft. became the most famous ford model 3-AT Air Pullman.
Ford's eye control vision
When organizing labor at its own enterprises, Ford was guided primarily by efficiency. He also owns the so-called idea of welfare capitalism (welfare capitalism). At the same time, all steps were aimed at significantly improving the living conditions of employees in order to reduce staff turnover as much as possible, and ideally, eliminate it altogether. Retaining trained employees has become the main objective of the organizer's new vision.
- By 1914, a simple worker in his factory could not earn less than five dollars a day, which today is approximately one hundred and twenty American "rubles."
- The working week was first reduced to forty-eight hours, and then to exactly forty. As a result, we got the usual five working days with two days off.
- Ford completely abolished statistics at his enterprises, not wanting to keep unnecessary documentation. He reduced the administration as much as possible, eliminated ties between departments, and offered all the dismissed "bureaucrats" to return to the machine.
He introduced special bonuses to wages, thereby, as it were, dividing the profit between all employees. However, later troubles also “came out”. Released in the early seventies, the Ford Pinto turned out to be almost the most worst car of the year. The safety of passengers and the driver during its development was practically not taken into account, which led to almost two hundred deaths. As a result, after a long trial, the car was recalled, and then completely discontinued. But at that time, the successes of Henry Ford were evident - then everyone wanted to work at his automobile plant, and kilometer-long queues lined up at the personnel department.
Against the unions and the conveyor of hatred
Despite such a loyal attitude towards people, he did not allow the creation of trade unions of workers at the enterprise. for a long time. They wanted to cut productivity in order to provide jobs, and he did not recognize this approach to business. Active assistants in the fight against trade unions became Harry Bennet, a ruthless representative of the gangster world, who served as Ford's bodyguard. He solved uncomfortable issues quietly and radically, creating a whole army of thugs who dealt with objectionable ones.
However, the moral aspects of the case interested his owner almost last turn. It was his henchmen who dealt with the participants of the hunger march in Detroit in the thirty-second. He created assault troops that made a bloody massacre with dozens of wounded on the River Rouge in the thirty-seventh. Only in the forty-first year, after the notorious sit-in at the same enterprise, the founder of Ford decided to turn his anger to mercy and fired Bennett. It was rumored that he did not listen to the arguments of reason, but to his beloved wife, who feared for the safety of the family.
In the eighteenth year, Ford purchased a publication (newspaper) called The Dearborn Independent. Starting in 1920, articles of clearly anti-Semitic content began to be published in it, although at that time few people paid attention to this. But a year later, a wide resonance in society and the press forced the man to apologize publicly. But did Henry repent? All the time of the birth of Nazism, and its total development, the magnate provided powerful support to the notorious NSDAP, and his portrait was seen on the wall in Hitler's office. As a result, the plant in Poissy began to supply the Wehrmacht with cars, aircraft engines and tractors in the fortieth year. Writer Neil Baldwin talks about this in more detail in his book Henry Ford and the Jews: The Conveyor of Hate.
It doesn’t matter who, the main thing is again with Clara: the end of the life of a self-taught billionaire
Despite the semi-ascetic lifestyle, and Ford was little interested in the material side of his personal existence, he did not forget to take care of procreation. There was only one woman in his life and that was his wife. When journalists asked what he would like to become if reincarnation existed, he replied that he was ready to be anyone, if only next to Clara.
Wife, son and grandson
When his father offered young Henry land in exchange for inventions, he agreed for a reason. In 1887, he met the farmer's daughter Clara Bryant and fell head over heels in love. In the same year, the couple got married and settled on their own plot in a newly built house. However, when he arrived there a few months later, Ford's father discovered cozy nest abandoned: the son took his wife, supporting him in everything, and went to look for better fate to the Edison factory.
In November 1893, their first and only child, Edsel Bryant Ford, was born, who died in forty-three from stomach cancer. But before giving his soul to God, Edsel also managed to become a father. His son, Henry Ford II, took over the colossal capacity of the Ford factories after the end of World War II. The achievements of Henry Ford Jr. are not inferior to his illustrious ancestors.
Cause of death and funeral
In 1945, Henry Ford retired completely, handing over the reins to his grandson. He always saw potential in this boy, so he did not worry and did not double-check his progress either. At that moment, he decided to return to a cozy house in Dearborn, in order to live out his life in peace and quiet.
On April 7, 1947, at his Fair Lane estate, he died of a stroke (brain hemorrhage). They say that the day before he watched a documentary newsreel about the atrocities of the Nazis, and she was so impressed that he simply could not survive it. He was buried modestly at the local cemetery.
Statements of the inventor
The best car in the world is a new car!
Physical education and gymnastics is a complete nonsense. It is absolutely useless for healthy people, and it is even contraindicated for sick people.
Of those who started any business, there are many more who have given up than truly defeated.
Time does not forgive if it is wasted.
Any business can be done better than it was done before.
I will never tell you, "Do it." I say, "I'm wondering if you can do it."
Henry Ford is usually credited as the creator of the "industry of industries" of the 20th century. And the man who brought the Industrial Revolution to its climax. His company produced and assembled almost all components of the cars produced, using a constantly moving belt of the main assembly line and numerous auxiliary lines supplying it with parts, as well as applying the principle of vertical integration of interacting departments. The money and efforts of people were spent in such a way as to ensure significant volumes of production: since 1914.
Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863 in Michigan on his father's farm near the village of Dearborn. USA.
The Ford family - an ideal find for moralizing biographies - lived a working life, enjoying a modest, hard-to-find prosperity.
Henry spent his entire childhood on a farm helping his parents, and also began his education at a rural school in Dearborn, Michigan.
In addition to Henry, the family had six more children.
Even in his youth, at the age of twelve, Henry built a small workshop in which he spent all his free time. A few years later, Henry had already created his first engine, which was powered by steam.
When one of the children was presented with a wind-up toy, the young Fords squealed in six voices: "Just don't give Henry!" They knew that he would take it apart to the screw, and after assembly, half of the parts would be superfluous. This bright image arises from the memoirs of Ford himself: in one hand, young Henry held a broken alarm clock, in the other - a screwdriver, and a small flashlight, the only source of light, was squeezed by his knees.
In 1879 he was sixteen years old, and one fine day, without saying a word to anyone, he folded the bundle and went to Detroit. After walking nine miles, Henry took a room there and got a job as an apprentice in a mechanical workshop as an assistant machinist.
In 1887, having gone to a congress in Atlantic City, where experts in the field of electrical engineering meet, he meets Thomas Edison, already famous and rich at that time, with whom he communicates for a long time and tells him about his achievements and ideas in the field of creating new engines. . business manager ford management
Ford's assistants were struck by the fact that Henry, always saving on the wages of workers, doubled his salary with the onset of the Great Depression (1929-1932). And the Henry family had their own reasons for concern: the way he treated his only son, Edsel, defied any explanation.
Edsel was always a good boy: he received only excellent grades, obeyed his father, was respectful to his employees and really wanted to lead the Ford Motor - in a word, he did what he was supposed to. Henry did not want to let his son go to the First World War - and Edsel appeared at the recruiting station and demanded that he be given a reservation as the organizer of military production; Henry was suspicious of higher education - and the excellent student Edsel immediately after school came to Ford Corporation, at 21 he got a seat on the board of directors. Edsel caught his father's instructions on the fly and disappeared for hours in the design bureau: his father made the most reliable car in the world, he dreamed of making the most beautiful.
In the late thirties, Edsel began to complain of abdominal pain. He was prescribed a barium diet, but he considered himself a sophisticated person and did not want to be treated in this way. When doctors diagnosed stomach cancer, it was too late to do anything. Ford Jr. was cut out half of the stomach and asked the family to prepare for the worst, but Henry decided that doctors, as usual, were doing nonsense. He was absolutely sure that his son could deal with his problems on his own: his secretary handed Edsel a lengthy memorandum in which Henry outlined all his claims. His father told him to work harder, ordered him to break off relations with the "slobbers" from the rich families of Detroit, offered to make friends with good, reliable, trusted people, a list of which Henry attached to his letter. It ended with a pathetic appeal: "Restore your health by partnering with Henry Ford!"- Edsel burst into tears at this phrase, wrote a letter of resignation and went home.
Henry never believed that his son was dying; during the funeral, the older Ford looked less broken than confused. Walking behind the coffin, he repeated: "There's nothing you can do, you need to work harder."
Harry Bennet, Henry's new right-hand man, became chief executive of Ford Motor. He began his career as a sailor, then became a professional boxer, and then got into Ford's bodyguards, liked him and managed to break out to the very top. Bennett turned out to be a useless manager: together with Henry, who had completely lost his mind, they almost brought the company to bankruptcy: under the onslaught of competitors, Ford Motor sales fell every year.
Henry was actively out of his mind - recently the old man often called aside unfamiliar people and shared his innermost with them: "You know, I'm sure that Edsel is not dead!" He became more and more manageable, and power in the family passed to women. The old man became more and more strange, he really wanted to celebrate his centenary, but fate did not want to show Ford the elder last favor. He died in 1947 at the age of 84. Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law entered into a temporary alliance.
"Ford Motor" is still owned by the heirs of the founder. But the Fords no longer run the company - hired managers run the business.
Henry's grandson, at the insistence of his relatives, was named Henry II. He still cannot read and does not know that his name is written on tens of millions of cars.
MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS OF HENRY FORD
While Ford is often credited with inventing the assembly line and the highly efficient mass production, most of his ideas and practical innovations, which brought prosperity and fame to both the entrepreneur and the company, were known for many decades, and sometimes centuries. Except engine internal combustion and the automobile as such, these inventions and ideas included scientific management methods that required the study of labor movements. As well as the systematic use of wages as an incentive to work; use of interchangeable parts; planning and standard procedures for inventory control, production and maintenance accounting; application of assembly and production lines; and even continuously moving assembly line production.
However, Ford did develop systems of production, assembly, and transportation that proved to be unprecedented in their mobility and size and anticipated the advent of the late 20th century. Just in time methods. Henry Ford's main dream of mass motorization of the population was, in fact, purely American, based on his sympathies for equality, mobility, change, realism, directness and simplicity.
- In 1908, he created the "Ford T" - a car of all times and peoples, with minor changes produced until 1928. Light, compact, cheap, simple: farmers went shopping in it, bootleggers smuggled whiskey, gangsters got away from the police - and they all could not praise the Ford T.
- · Wrote several books that have become cult classics for many business owners and fans around the world.
- · Creator of one of the first charitable foundations founded by industrialists.
- · Became a laureate of the American Petroleum Institute's award for services to the country and society.
By the age of fifty, Ford has become a multimillionaire, and his car has become one of the national symbols of America. After that, he forever abandoned the invention: "Ford T" was to remain his masterpiece. The strongest quality of H. Ford as a creator automotive industry The US had an understanding of the meaning of "performance". One of the main results of this understanding was the desire of H. Ford to provide his company with the greatest possible autonomy, the other was the belief in the possibility of "abundance for all" or in accordance with his motto: "High wages to create large markets." He was not the inventor of mass production (although in many ways he symbolized it), time-based inventory control, vertical integration, a slightly crude but effective version of the marketing concept, a large automobile company as a multinational corporation, human resource management or corporate philanthropy. But he was the first to put some of these ideas into practice, greatly improve others, and effectively combine most of them together.
However, his main achievement was that he made the car a mass means of transportation for Americans and at the same time contributed to improving the well-being of the population and saving millions of people from the need for hard physical labor. He was also ahead of his time in putting the interests of buyers and workers ahead of the interests of shareholders.
Henry Ford was indeed one of the great managers of the 20th century. All his hard life, the struggle with it, all his shortcomings, which he tried to turn into advantages, all his perseverance and ability to achieve goals, were the excellent products of his company, known throughout the world.
I believe that only one who has achieved exactly what he wanted, while bringing benefit to the people, can be called a great manager.
Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947), American industrialist, owner of automobile factories around the world, inventor.
Henry Ford was born in Springfield, Michigan on July 30, 1863. He was the eldest of six children of William and Mary Ford. Henry spent his childhood on his parents' farm, where he helped his family and attended a regular rural school. A huge interest in technology, which Henry showed at a very young age, and allowed him to become one of the most famous industrialists in the world.
At the age of 12, Henry equipped a small workshop. In 1879, Henry Ford moved to Detroit, where he got a job as an assistant machinist. Three years later, Ford moved to Dearborn and spent five years designing and repairing steam engines, moonlighting from time to time at a plant in Detroit. In 1888 he married Clara Bryant and soon took up a job as manager of a sawmill.
In 1891, Ford became an engineer for the Edison Illuminating Company, and two years later was appointed the company's chief engineer.
Ford assembled the first internal combustion engine in the kitchen of his home. Soon he decided to put the engine on a frame with four bicycle wheels. So in 1896, a quad bike appeared - vehicle which was the first Ford car.
After leaving the Edison Illuminating Company in 1899, Henry Ford founded own firm Detroit Automobile. Despite the fact that a year later the company went bankrupt, Ford managed to collect several racing cars. Ford himself took part in motor racing and in October 1901 managed to defeat the American champion Alexander Winton.
Company " Ford motor appeared in 1903. Its founders were twelve businessmen from Michigan, led by Henry Ford. Under car factory converted a former van factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit. Brigades, consisting of two to three workers, under the direct supervision of Ford, assembled cars from spare parts that were made to order by other enterprises.
The company's first car was sold on July 23, 1903. In 1906, Henry Ford became the company's president and principal owner.
In 1919, Henry Ford and his son Edsel bought the company's shares from other shareholders for 105.5 million US dollars and became the sole owners of the company. In the same year, Edsel inherited from his father the presidency of the company, which he held until his death in 1943. After the sudden death of his son Henry Ford again had to stand at the helm of the company.
In September 1945, Henry Ford transferred powers to his eldest grandson, Henry Ford II. In May 1946, Henry Ford Sr. was awarded an honorary award for services to the auto industry, and at the end of that year, the American Petroleum Institute presented him with gold medal for services to society.
Henry Ford died at the age of 83 at his home in Dearborn on April 7, 1947. Thus ended an era in history. Ford Motor, which, despite the death of its founder, continued to develop actively.
14.05.2012
Biography of Henry Ford for many is the standard of success. This greatest engineer and inventor was born in Dearborn, Michigan.
Henry Ford was born in big family with eight children. His father was from Ireland and was a farmer. Henry attended a village school in Dearborn, but this school was of such quality that he wrote with spelling errors for the rest of his life.
Already at the age of 16, he left home and headed to the city of Detroit, where he became very interested in mechanics. In 1888-1899 he worked as a mechanical engineer in the Edison Electric Company.
In 1893, after several experiments on his farm, in a completely converted barn, he assembled the first car. Outwardly, it looked like a large box with wheels.
Meanwhile, Henry never spoke like that to his offspring, on the contrary, he improved it more and more. Already in 1895, he assembled the first car with a gasoline engine, and in 1898 he improved the same car, giving it such qualities as lightness and reliability.
In 1899, with some of his like-minded people, he founded the Detroit Automobile Company. Soon this company broke up, the point was that Henry did not allow his partners to inflate the price of this car.
At that time it cost only 850 dollars, however, tires and the chassis had to be bought in addition. Yet until 1902, this company managed to produce up to 25 of these cars. Henry's specially designed sports model, simply called “999”, won first place in racing competitions more than once, glorifying Ford throughout America.
In 1903 biography of Henry Ford supplemented very important fact founding a company called Ford motor company. Almost immediately after the founding of the company, he launched the “A” model into production.
Things were going well for Henry, but then Ford had to endure the first lawsuit in his life. Some smart lawyer decided to "cheat" Ford. He argued that he allegedly owned a patent for Gas engine. However, in 1909 Henry lost the lawsuit, but in 1911 his appeal was heard and he won the case.
Meanwhile, Henry did not get tired of improving his offspring, and soon he launched the Model “T”, also called “Tin Lizzy”. At that moment, the lives of millions of people in America changed in better side. According to statistics, every second car in the world at that time was made by Henry Ford. This model was produced for 19 years, in total 16 million copies were produced.
Henry finally realized that the most weak point in work is a man. Therefore, in 1913, he introduced the world's first assembly line method, which increased labor productivity by 4,000%. The salary was about 5 dollars per hour, and the working day was reduced to 8 hours. But even here there were those who did not like what Henry Ford was doing.
After World War I, Henry realized another important thing. All sources of raw materials must be controlled. Already by 1927, the Ford company controls the production process of every detail. It seemed that everything was fine with Henry, but it was not so. The company's business was deteriorating every day, consumers were not enough of one primitive model.
They demanded new improved and, meanwhile, cheap cars. After several conflicts, he passes the management of his company to his only son, Edsel. He did not enjoy due authority in society, and even was dependent.
The biography of Henry Ford is truly a biography of a legendary man who will remain in the memory of all people for centuries. During the First World War, he tried to make at least some peacekeeping efforts, but they were in vain. He was also worried about the event that took place in Russia, in particular the Bolshevik coup.
In 1943, his only son, Edsel, died unexpectedly. Henry had to return to the management of the company, but he soon handed over the management to his grandson Henry II. His huge fortune, estimated at 600-700 million dollars,
Henry Ford was born in 1863 in the USA, on a farm in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Henry somehow completed the eighth grade, showing good aptitude for mathematics. At the age of 16, he left for Detroit, with difficulty, not the first time, found a job as a mechanic in the Thomas Alva Edison Electric Company. Henry, having inherited the land after the death of his father, built a sawmill, which brought him income, which allowed him to marry his beloved Clara, and also to engage in inventions.
In June 1893, in a brick shed behind his house, Henry Ford finished building the first experimental automobile. The inventor called his creation "ATV". He weighed only five hundred pounds and moved on four bicycle tires. "I made a carriage that moves without a horse!" Henry Ford said.
At Thomas Alva Edison's Electric Company, Henry's career took off. But when he was offered the position of manager and demanded to quit his inventions, Henry quit. And he continued to create his dream.
A few years later, entrepreneur Henry Ford demonstrated a second prototype, driving it from Detroit to Pontiac. In 1901, with $15,000 raised by shareholders, Henry Ford opened his first business, the Detroit Automobile Company. But the company lasted only two years. Henry had very little business experience, in contrast to the ideas that he continued to implement.
Malcomson, a friend from the days of the Electric Company who had made his fortune in the coal trade, suggested to Henry Ford that he form the Ford Motor Company. They divided fifty-one percent of its shares among themselves, which gave the friends control of the company. Soon they recruited more shareholders. The Ford Motor Company started with a capital of $28,000 and opened in 1908 in a small workshop. A year later, the profit was almost 400,000, with a revenue of 1,500,000 dollars. The first car cost $850.
Henry raised the price of every new model car. Shareholders were very unhappy with this policy. Gradually, Ford bought shares until he acquired a controlling stake. He asked everyone dissatisfied with his policy to leave the company immediately.
Later, the company began to produce cars cheaper, the most expensive of which cost $750. Profits rose sharply, because at such a price, innovations, vehicles without a horse, were sold more cheerfully. Henry began to get really rich.
Cars were in demand, Henry day and night thought about how to improve the quality of products. He organized courses for mechanics right at the Ford Motor Company. A real breakthrough was the introduction of a lighter alloy into the production of spare parts - vanadium steel.
Despite the crisis of 1907, which left millions of unemployed on the streets of America, the Ford company managed to stay afloat. The range has even been expanded. The cars were spelled out: model A, F, N, etc.
Over time, Henry Ford built a real empire, consisting of a steel mill, his own forges, mines, railways and much more. And one owner of it all was Henry.
At the beginning of 1912 Fordowskaya car company already produced more than two hundred cars a day. Production was now conveyor. Henry surrounded himself good specialists and always "kept his nose to the wind" in order not to miss various technical and entrepreneurial innovations, which was so rich in the 20th century, especially its beginning.
The company raised wages and established control over the workers. There was almost no staff turnover at the Ford factories. And this brought its additional fruits into the pockets of the creator. They also monitored the moral character of the workers. The work was hard, with little break.
Henry was approaching the goal of 2,000,000 cars a year. Now 45 thousand various machines worked manufacturing Ford cars at sixty factories that were scattered across the United States. Ford's own steamboats transported individual parts across assembly plants located in twenty-eight foreign countries. Ford's "Model T" was assembled in Yokohama and Buenos Aires, and its parts were interchangeable. Wherever you drove this car, there was a person everywhere who knew how to service and fix it. This was taken care of by the founder of the megaconcern, Henry Ford.
Henry was aging and in the 1940s handed over the company to his son Edzel. But the son failed to lead the father's business. Firstly, he died, and secondly, a cunning man named Harry Bennett, who served with the boss for many years, gained more and more influence on the old Ford and alienated him from the family. The Ford Motor Company almost fell into the wrong hands. But still, the grandson and namesake of the creator, Henry, became president.
Ford was aging, acquiring many oddities and quirks. He died on April 7, 1947 at the age of 84.
“If I had to start all over again, then I would again find some urgent need of people that has not yet been satisfied and the satisfaction of which could be put on a wide stream. And rest assured, I would satisfy her much better than others and in a short time (five to ten years) I would again become a millionaire. Henry Ford.
