HENRY FORD : THE GREAT INNOVATOR

Henry Ford : The Great Innovator
Henry Ford, the man who gave America wheels, the creator of the first automobile assembly line had humble beginnings. At the age of 16, he ran away from his home in Michigan and changed quite a few jobs. He was a gregarious and well liked. He loved exploring and tinkering with devices.

Henry Ford displayeddedication and conscientiousness. He put up a huge amount of effort and persisted with his dream of an automobile. He had a larger amount of drive and passion within him to realize his dream. Also by the implementation of the assembly line and then the moving assembly line shows us how organized and how good a planner Ford was.

On the Myers-Briggs type Indicator (MBTI), individuals are classified as extraverted or introverted (E or I), Sensing or intuitive (S or N), thinking or feeling (T or F) and judging or perceiving (J or P). Henry Ford is believed to be an ISTJ which stands for introverted, sensing, thinking and judging. Introversion is how he directed his energy and related to his employees and also the world around him. Sensing is how he focused on the details rather than thinking about abstract information. Thinking is how he made his decisions based on logic thinking and not on personal feelings. Judging is how he oriented himself with his organization and employees and how he planned things out well in advance.

He experimented with petrol driven engines and horseless carriages for years and in June 1896, his experiments finally yielded results, a self driven vehicle called “Quadricycle”. He had built a complete car with bare hands and later sold it for $200 to fund his further experiments.

Henry Ford had a positive core self- evaluation which is that he performed better because he set more ambitious goals, was more committed to his goals and persisted longer in attempting to reach these goals. He wasn’t a Machiavellian. He did not manipulate customers to buy his products nor suffered from stress. He did not use any aggressive tactics to propel his career forward.

In 1899, Ford had to make a choice – the choice between his dream and his job i.e a choice between the Detroit automobile company (DAC) and Edison Illuminating Company (EDI). He later said “… I had to choose between my job and my automobile. I chose the automobile or rather I gave up my job – there was really nothing in the way of a choice. For I already knew the car was bound to be a success.”

However, DAC wasn’t successful and the next company, Henry Ford Company (HFC) also failed. Thus, he faced two failures as a businessman. But failures never daunted him.

He also started designing racing cars like the “Arrow” and the “999 Racer” which went to be become extremely successful but it was his dream to produce “a car for the common man”. This gave Ford the confidence to start his own company in partnership with Alexander Malcomson, a wealthy coal Dealer in Detroit. The company was called Ford Motor Company. Ford and Malcomson held 255 shares of the company each, holding a combined stake of 51% in the company.

Ford and his team of engineers developed 19 models during the year 1903 to 1908. Apart from the French racing cars during that time, Ford was the only manufacturer to use car parts made of vanadium.

He also developed revolutionary assembly line systems like the mass production system and moving assembly line. In 1914, 13000 ford employees manufactured 260,720 cars compared to the industry as a whole which employed 66,350 workers to produce 286,770 cars. He managed to double his production every year in 1913 to 1923 by using the assembly line approach

. He was an extremely proactive personality. He always tried to improve his current circumstances or create new ones. He used to say, “Everything can always be done better than it is being done.” He would identify opportunities, show initiative, take action and preserve until meaningful change occurs. He would easily select, create and influence work situations in his favor. The Model T was an easy to drive, simple, light, flexible and powerful car developed by Ford. It was an astounding success with a market share of 48% in the US in 1914 and by 1921; it had a global market share of 56.5%. This car was targeted primarily at farmers and was priced at $850. Out of all his cars, the Model T became the greatest and most widely recognized car in the global automobile industry. More than 16 million of Model Ts Were sold during 1908-1927
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Risk taking is an important quality in any leader. And Ford was known as a charismatic risk taker. Henry Ford was also a risk-taker. There was a time when he was offered the General Superintendent post at EIC (Edison illuminating company) but with a condition to give up his research with the gas engine that he was doing side by side. He rejected that offer and took up work with d DAC (Detroit automobile company) as he already knew that the car was bound to be a success.

The labor policies implemented by Ford were generous and he believed in the entire organization to be a huge family. He gave bonuses and other benefits and also invested heavily in training programs. Despite all this, the employee turnover rate at the Ford Co, in late 1913 was around 50%. The reason behind this was due to the repetitive nature of the assembly line work and continuous increase in workers production targets. In order to boost the morale of his employees and to fix this problem, he paid $5 per employee while the industry paid standard wage rate of $2.50. The company’s profit soared from $30 million in 1914 to $60 million in 1916.

Henry Ford scores highly on the personality dimensions of the Big Five Model. He is described as sociable, agreeable, emotionally stable and open to experiences. His name is synonymous with success. He was accorded the honor of “businessman of the 20th century” as he transformed the lives of billion of people.

Henry Ford was an exceptional man. He was a man of dream and vision. He was not a narrcist. He was not self obsessed nor was he selfish. He worked for what he believed. He was extremely proactive, he was not a type A personality. He achieved his dreams and in turn he helped thousands of people earn their living. For him his dream and his work was very important. He achieved and persevered for it. Despite all the hardships and failures he never gave up hope. But for him, his failures always pushed him further. He was not daunted by them. His personality shined through every step.