How would Henry Ford react to today's automakers?

[TomServo92]

Link Edited June 21, 2009 by TomServo92

[jpd80]

I think HF would follow the golden rules:

1) Don't go broke

2) All products must be profitable

3) unprofitable lines mut be made profitable or done away with

4) Customer service and satisfaction is paramount

5) Quality and hard work gets point 4)

6) Stay good friends with your bankers and investors.

7) Tell people about your products

Edited June 21, 2009 by jpd80

[mackinaw]

And don't forget, build a vehicle that the average working stiff can afford to buy. The Model T was such a success mainly because it was the first car that could be bought by the people who built them. Up until this time, automobiles were only for the rich.

[Edstock]

IMHO, ol' Henry would be pushing direct alcohol fuel cells.

[J-150]

I think HF would follow the golden rules:

1) Don't go broke

2) All products must be profitable

3) unprofitable lines mut be made profitable or done away with

4) Customer service and satisfaction is paramount

5) Quality and hard work gets point 4)

6) Stay good friends with your bankers and investors.

7) Tell people about your products

 

 

sounds like Henry would have done the same thing as Trotman and Nasser. They did all of the above with the exception of #4

 

let's not forget, Henry did as much to sabotage his own company as make it grow.

[RangerM]

let's not forget, Henry did as much to sabotage his own company as make it grow.

Yeah, that whole antisemitic thing might not be good PR, for HF.

[J-150]

Yeah, that whole antisemitic thing might not be good PR, for HF.

 

 

and that whole "what's wrong with the Model T? Why can't we keep selling it for another 50 years"

 

 

and the most overlooked one is "shut up Edsel, people dont care what it looks like"

[RichardJensen]

Really depends on which Henry Ford you're talking about.....

 

The visionary with good ideas ($5 day), the visionary with weird ideas (square dances at Fordlandia), the visionary with antisemitic ideas ('Here, have a free copy of the "Elders of Zion"'), or the old crank ('Why couldn't you be more like Harry Bennett, Edsel')

[LSFan00]

The best of him was always a believer in himself and disruptive products. The "bet it all" types that won early built the industrial/engineering likes of Boeing, Ford, Douglas, Northrop, etc. for a reason.

[Mark B. Morrow]

I highly recommend Douglas Brinkley's book Wheels for the World. If you haven't read it you will enjoy it. The rough and tumble of the early days of the industry are simply fascinating. Brinkley does a great job of examining the Henry/Edsel relationship as well.

[RichardJensen]

Of course, for deeper reading, you can't beat Nevins & Hill's three volume set on Ford to 1950

 

Or Leo Levine's "Ford the Dust and the Glory" vols. 1 & 2

 

Or Robert Lacey's "Ford, the Men and the Machine"

 

Or David Halberstam's "The Reckoning"

 

Frankly, you could fill a bookshelf with exceptionally well written and well researched books about Ford--thanks to Henry Ford instilling the company with a culture of "don't throw it away---file it" Heck, the Henry Ford is like a junior version of the Smithsonian

Edited June 22, 2009 by RichardJensen

[mustangman9494]

henry would have hated the oil producing companies he warned of them eighty tears ago he wanted to see hemp oil running his cars and indeed ran all of his fords on it . the man was a prophet in this sense!!!!!

[7Mary3]

Really depends on which Henry Ford you're talking about.....

 

The visionary with good ideas ($5 day), the visionary with weird ideas (square dances at Fordlandia), the visionary with antisemitic ideas ('Here, have a free copy of the "Elders of Zion"'), or the old crank ('Why couldn't you be more like Harry Bennett, Edsel')

 

That's good! I think Henry Ford II would be a much better choice to run Ford today.

[J-150]

henry would have hated the oil producing companies he warned of them eighty tears ago he wanted to see hemp oil running his cars and indeed ran all of his fords on it . the man was a prophet in this sense!!!!!

 

 

I thought it was peanut oil he envisioned?

[RichardJensen]

That's good! I think Henry Ford II would be a much better choice to run Ford today.

That's fine...... as long as you got the guy who would listen to people smarter than him and not the guy who would fire them :D

[IsabelHotchins]

thanks. very helpful post. I read a few of your other posts and they all helped me.

[FordBuyer]

And don't forget, build a vehicle that the average working stiff can afford to buy. The Model T was such a success mainly because it was the first car that could be bought by the people who built them. Up until this time, automobiles were only for the rich.

 

I think many including Ford are forgetting this. When Heny Ford was asked about the Model T in the late 30's, he said that the Model T didn't end because people quit buying them, they ended because Ford quit making them. Not accurate with the facts entirely, but accurate in that to be successful in this business you have to make affordable vehicles and that will be your bottom line. I don't think Henry would be happy with $22,000 Focuses, $32,000 Fusions, and $50,000 F-150s in dire times let alone good times. Now we are going to have $20,000 Fiestas. I know I'm using hyperbole here, but loaded up these above vehicles can be priced that high. And the stickers blow you away even for the vehicles with moderate features. With these prices, I don't know that we will ever see a 13 million auto sales market ever again unless they do 30 year mortgages to sell new vehicles. A loaded up F-150 could literally cost as much as someone's home after the latest housing implosion and that mess isn't finished yet with foreclosures still exploding. Now we are going to have $40,000 Chevy Volts, and so on.

 

IMO, the auto manufacturer or manufacturers who understand Henry Ford's philosophy and the philosophy behind VW's Beetle success back in the 50's through the 70's will do best in the future. Those who don't are going to be saddled with very low volume sales requiring ever higher sticker prices since economies of scale are absent.

[grbeck]

That's fine...... as long as you got the guy who would listen to people smarter than him and not the guy who would fire them :D

 

If you are referring to Iacocca, he deserved to be fired. For one thing, he let quality deteriorate far too much in the 1970s.

[FordBuyer]

Really depends on which Henry Ford you're talking about.....

 

The visionary with good ideas ($5 day), the visionary with weird ideas (square dances at Fordlandia), the visionary with antisemitic ideas ('Here, have a free copy of the "Elders of Zion"'), or the old crank ('Why couldn't you be more like Harry Bennett, Edsel')

 

Yep, there were two sides to complex Henry. The brilliant, good side that invented, produced, and marketed the ogiginal Model T, and the dark side that tormented his son, produced a bigoted newspaper, hired mobsters to beat back the union movement, and otherwise almost killed his company. I would imagine the dark side was always there, and just became more pronounced as he aged and eventually took over to the extent that Henry Ford ll and everyone else in the family hated him by the time WW2 came around. Henry Ford ll had some of the old Henry dark side in him also with his mistresses and cruel ways he treated his brothers.

[jpd80]

As the old man's company grew, he found it harder and harder to personally control (interfere)

with all aspects of the company. Handing over power and trusting people to run the company

properly was the big hurdle faced by HF1 and HFII. If that had not happened then Ford would

have vanished instead of becoming a major corporation.

 

There were many steps along the way and it took leaders with vision for what was needed

given the circumstances of the day. In that respect, I think none of them would have been

ready for the Asian growth and market share contraction the Detroit three have suffered

over the past twenty years or so. All of those past leaders were lucky enough to have

expanding markets to work with where todays leaders deal with a saturated market

and buyers that have a plethora of brands to choose from.

Edited December 7, 2009 by jpd80

[FordBuyer]

As the old man's company grew, he found it harder and harder to personally control (interfere)

with all aspects of the company. Handing over power and trusting people to run the company

properly was the big hurdle faced by HF1 and HFII. If that had not happened then Ford would

have vanished instead of becoming a major corporation.

 

There were many steps along the way and it took leaders with vision for what was needed

given the circumstances of the day. In that respect, I think none of them would have been

ready for the Asian growth and market share contraction the Detroit three have suffered

over the past twenty years or so. All of those past leaders were lucky enough to have

expanding markets to work with where todays leaders deal with a saturated market

and buyers that have a plethora of brands to choose from.

 

Homework assignment for you guys:

 

 

Which auto company(s) are doing the best right now and WHY?

[grbeck]

Yep, there were two sides to complex Henry. The brilliant, good side that invented, produced, and marketed the ogiginal Model T, and the dark side that tormented his son, produced a bigoted newspaper, hired mobsters to beat back the union movement, and otherwise almost killed his company. I would imagine the dark side was always there, and just became more pronounced as he aged and eventually took over to the extent that Henry Ford ll and everyone else in the family hated him by the time WW2 came around. Henry Ford ll had some of the old Henry dark side in him also with his mistresses and cruel ways he treated his brothers.

 

Most people believe that Henry Ford I had suffered a series of small strokes in the 1930s. This can harden the victim's personality. At that time, there was no real way to treat the symptoms and aftermath. If the person was able to function on a day-to-day basis, he or she was considered to have "recovered," even if he or she wasn't quite the same.

 

If this had happened today, Ford would either receive effective medical treatment, or his family would force the issue earlier and make him turn over control to another family member.

[jpd80]

Homework assignment for you guys:

 

 

Which auto company(s) are doing the best right now and WHY?

Those that are reducing internal costs and not playing the incentive game.

[J-150]

Those that are reducing internal costs and not playing the incentive game.

 

 

and those not afraid to have the establisment (family, lifers, long time board members) take a back seat and let professional managers come in the fix things.

[J-150]

I would also suggest the HF would fit in quite well with the current GM. Thinking you have a great product and putting on blinders to everything else.