Henry Ford is one of the most famous business leaders and founded the Ford Motor Company.Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford automobile company and inventor of the famous Model T car, was born to William Ford and Mary Ford, on July 30, 1863, in Michigan. William Ford and his father John Ford immigrated from Ireland and settled in Dearborn.His mother, Mary Litogot Ford, died when Henry was 13 years old, a big shock for the entire family. Henry had four siblings; Jane Ford, Robert Ford, Margaret Ford, and William Ford Jr.Ford was married to Clara Bryant on April 11, 1888, and Edsel Ford was his only child. Henry Ford II was his grandchild.This article about Henry Ford will give many facts about the rollercoaster ride of a small-town Michigan boy to the revolutionary invention of the Model T car and implementation of the Fordism concept. Let’s find out about Henry Ford, an enthusiastic common American citizen who brought about a revolution in the auto industry and changed the face of the motor car industry.Best Henry Ford BiographyThere have been several books published about the life of Henry Ford, which provide information about his journey. The writers who did the most significant research on Henry Ford’s life are Steven Watts and Sidney Olson. If you want to know Henry Ford’s journey, we would suggest the books written by these authors.The two famous biography books about Henry Ford’s life journey are Steven Watts’, ‘The People’s Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century’, and Sidney Olson’s, ‘Young Henry Ford: A Picture History of the First Forty Years’. These books are on display in the Henry Ford Museum.Since his early childhood days, Henry Ford was eager to observe machines working and would assemble and disassemble the parts.He was an enthusiastic learner and used to help people repair timepieces in his teenage years and gained popularity as a quick fixer.The biography of Henry Ford gives us an insight into his life. After the death of his mother at a very young age, he was completely devasted and started working on a farm owned by his father. He became efficient in working with Westinghouse’s portable steam engine.Later he joined the Westinghouse company as a mechanic and repaired steam engines.In 1891, he joined as an engineer at Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit.He was later promoted to chief engineer, where Thomas Edison became a close companion and great influencer after meeting with him.His passion for internal combustion engines led to the invention of a small gasoline model single cylinder in 1893. This was the first gasoline engine used in automobiles.In June 1896, the first car emerged, a Quadricycle, which was a self-propelled vehicle.He later resigned from the Edison Illuminating Company. With the help of other employees and capital support from business magnate William H. Murphy and Thomas Edison’s encouragement, he established the Detroit Automobile Company.But in 1901, all his supporters dispersed and the Detroit Automobile Company went into bankruptcy as they wanted to build a good passenger car and release it to the market.At the same time, Ford kept innovating and improving his existing models and felt that his models were not yet fit to be passenger cars.He innovated many racing cars in the meantime. With the help of C. Harold Wills, a 26 horsepower automobile was designed by Henry and used in racing.He eventually became so successful that Ford, with the help of Murphy and other stakeholders, founded the Henry Ford Company in 1901.But because of internal conflicts, Ford left the company. Later Murphy renamed the Ford company to the Cadillac Automobile Company.He teamed up with Tom Cooper and created the 999; an 80+ horsepower race car, which created a world record by reaching speeds of 91.37 mph (147.05 km/h).Along with other stakeholders and one of the Detroit area coal dealers, Alexander Y. Malcomson, Ford founded Ford Motor Company on June 16, 1903.Their first car was released within one month and became a huge success. On October 1, 1908, Ford Model T launched, which ultimately changed the Ford Motor Company’s fate and urbanized America.Henry Ford Biography BooksSteven Watts efficiently exposed American history and the changes in America in many of his writings. Watts has written biographies about other famous figures such as Walt Disney, Hugh Hefner, and Dale Carnegie. The biography written by Steven Watts on Henry Ford is one of the most appreciated biographies.In Sidney Olson’s work, some of the myths framed around Henry Ford were debunked.In Olson’s biography, there are many photographs of Henry Ford taken with his own camera and other historical facts about his life.Watts’ book highlighted Henry Ford’s dedication and hard work in creating the Ford automobile company and how he could not identify with his son, Edsel Ford’s vision for automobiles.In contrast, Sidney Olson’s book is based on the available documents, paper works, dairies, and photos of the Ford family. He highlighted the important people in Henry Ford’s life.Henry Ford’s early life describes how a farm boy from Michigan became a famous industrialist, founder of the Ford company, and led the way to the famous assembly line technique of mass production.Henry Ford’s dream was to manufacture a simple automobile car that is affordable to the common American citizen.His resolution led to the invention of the Model T car, an affordable model.This model conveyed the new revolution in the machine age and changed the world of the automotive industry.Though Henry Ford’s company prepared many models earlier, the Model T is the one that created fame for the company.He created the movement of Fordism by inventing the assembly line mode of production.The assembly line form of production was first initiated in manufacturing the Model T cars, where the product was moved from one workstation to another.The parts are added sequentially to each workstation until the end product is prepared.This process greatly helped the automotive industry, as it is very cost-effective and produces an efficient end product.Did Henry Ford write an autobiography?Henry Ford was an enthusiastic business magnate and industrialist. Many might wonder if he wrote an autobiography. He wrote ‘My Life and Work: An Autobiography of Henry Ford’. This book gives valuable information about the principles, views, and ideas of a successful businessman. He was a brilliant person and his ideas could inspire all of you! Let’s get to know more of Henry Ford’s views about his business and about society.According to Henry Ford, he felt that the main idea behind a business is not merely earning profits.A business should be a service provider to society and he felt that a good business should create employment opportunities and should help in improving the lifestyle of people.Though he worked hard for the welfare of his workers and laborers, he was strictly against the idea of worker unions.He felt that the main reason for the failure of experimenters is that they cannot find the difference between planning and experiment. He believed in investing rather than saving.He felt that the only way to achieve our goals is to work hard and put in an honest effort.The book is a masterpiece for young achievers and business people. His ideas mentioned in the book are truly inspiring, which most companies are utilizing in the present day.Henry Ford Biography For KidsKids! Reading a biography of famous role models will help you improve your thought processes. Any autobiography helps you to develop problem-solving skills and can inspire us to achieve our goals, whatever difficulties arise. Here are some other facts about Henry Ford that might help you in your challenging yet beautiful path of life.Henry Ford was a pacifist and automobile industrial icon with an enormous global vision.His idea of mass production led to a drastic change in the American market and the entire world. In a short time, he became the world’s richest person, while still thinking about the welfare of his employees.He was a technical genius who changed the financial position of America and played a key role in changing America into an industrial hub.After the invention of the Model T vehicle, his company sold more than 1,000,000 cars in Canada, 15,500,000 cars in the U.S.A, and 250,000 cars in the UK.With this vast number of sales, the Ford Motor Company’s cars occupied half of all automobiles in the world.Soon, luxury goods became a necessity of common American citizens. It is impossible to describe 20th century America without mentioning Henry Ford.His contribution to the automobile industry led to the development of the U.S.A in suburban areas and an excellent highway system.The Ford Motor Company implemented excellent marketing skills to advertise its Model T car.Because of the assembly line method, time spent manufacturing a single unit was reduced from over 12 hours to 93 minutes.This huge difference helped Ford to gain remarkable yieldings.By 1918, half of the vehicles in the U.S.A were Ford vehicles. In the same year, to acquire the company’s total controlling power, Henry Ford handed the responsibilities to his son Edsel Ford and started a new company, Henry Ford and Son.The idea behind this was to create tension amongst the minor stakeholders and push them to sell their stake so that Henry Ford would gain total control over the company.His plan succeeded and the family soon owned the whole company.But the path was not always easy. General Motors started a tough competition with Model T. GM introduced the model Chevrolet as it had an excellent styling department.However, Henry Ford did not appreciate much about it. As with changing times, Ford failed to implement the innovative features in his models such as hydraulic brakes, and six and eight-cylinder engines. The Model T uses four-cylinder engines, color change, and conventional gearshifts.After realizing his downfall, he decided to shut down his production for a period and worked to release his brand new design, Model A.This model did not help him to be number one in the market. GM introduced different models and tried to upgrade them annually, whereas the Ford Motor Company ignored them along with customer demands and requirements.In 1943 Henry Ford’s son Edsel Ford died of cancer.Henry Ford took on the company responsibilities for two years which became very challenging for him.Within two years in 1945, he appointed his grandson Henry Ford II as the company’s new head.Ford believed in the welfare of his employees and increased the daily wage of labor to $5 per day from $2.34 for efficient employees.This decision gained attention from the U.S. industrial and capital markets. His decision hit the markets like a thunderbolt and resulted in an increase in productivity, less training costs, and less turnover of the employees.Additionally, the Ford Motor Company introduced a change in work hours, to 40 hours a week, with five working days. Ford believed that proper leisure time for a team member would help in boosting productivity.Apart from the worker’s welfare, Ford was interested in collecting past structures and exhibiting them to future generations.This idea resulted in the foundation of the Henry Ford Museum. Expanding across 12 acres (4.8 ha), the Henry Ford Museum is a treasury of Henry’s collected exhibits since 1906. Don’t miss out on exploring the museum if you ever get a chance to visit Dearborn, Michigan.
Henry Ford is one of the most famous business leaders and founded the Ford Motor Company.
