Business Component- Entrepreneuship (Ford Motor Company)

Business Plan Component
To: Professor Palermo
From: Anna Sklyarova
Section: 04
Subject: Entrepreneurship
Company name: Ford Motor Company
Team name: 4
Sources:
 "About Ford Motor Company - Ford." Ford Motor Company: Cars, Trucks, SUVs, Hybrids, Parts - Ford. Ford Motor Company. Web. 05 Sept. 2010. <http://www.ford.com/about-ford/>.

"About Ford Motor Company - Ford." Innovator, Industrialist, Outdoorsman: Henry Ford Started It All. Ford Motor Company. Web. 05 Sept. 2010. <http://www.ford.com/about-ford/heritage/people/henryford/650-henry-ford>

The Life of Henry Ford. American Association of Museums, 2003. Web. 5 Sept. 2010. <http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/>.

Crowther, Samuel. “Henry Ford: Why I Favor Five Days’ Work with Six Days’ Pay.” World’s Work  October (1926): 613-616. Web. 05 Sept. 2010. http://www.worklessparty.org/timework/ford.htm.
Weekly Stock Prices: $11.87 (September 15th, 2010)


Henry Ford was born on July 30th, 1863on a prosperous family farm in Dearborn, to William and Mary Ford. When he was young, his interest in engineering emerged. He actively pursued this interest and by fifteen became known in his community for fixing people’s watches and taking everything else apart. Although he could have just as easily remained in the agricultural business like his father, his innate dislike of farm work and restless desire to work with machines lead him down a different path. (Ford.com)
 When he turned 16, Ford left home for Detroit to work as an apprentice machinist. He spent three years as an apprentice and later returned to Dearborn to work on steam engines, supplementing his lifestyle with occasional work in a Detroit factory as well as a reluctant hand in farm work.
In 1891, Ford made a conscious decision to dedicate his life to industrial pursuits and became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company. His promotion to Chief Engineer in 1893 gave him enough time and money to devote attention to his personal experiments on internal combustion engines. In 1896 he completed his self-propelled vehicle-the Ford Quadricycle. With the financial backing from the vehicle, Ford left his engineer position and helped found the Detroit Automobile Company in 1899. The company floundered due to the low quality and high prices of its products and in 1901 Ford left to pursue his own work again. (HFMGV.org)
When the Ford Motor Company started in 1903, the infant company produced only a few cars at a time with small groups of men working with components made to order by other companies. In 1908, Ford introduced the Model T automobile and initiated a revolution in transportation with the first easy to operate and reasonably priced car. For the first time in the history of the automobile, the car was no longer just a luxury. (HFMGV.org)
The growing demand in the auto industry caused Ford to open a large factory in Highland Park, Michigan in 1910 and here Fordism, his greatest legacy, was born. Fordism is the mass production of inexpensive goods with the assembly line coupled with high wages for workers to facilitate them to buy the goods he was making. (HFMGV.org) Increasing the wages to five dollars a day (effectively doubling the standard) helped draw the best engineers in the industry. In an interview with “World’s Work” in October 1922, Ford said “We try to pay a man what he is worth and we are not inclined to keep a man who is not worth more than the minimum wage.”
In the beginning of 1919, the presidency of the company transferred from Henry Ford’s hands into Edsel’s—his son and the person who held the company together behind the scenes in business and administration. With Edsel’s negotiation the Ford family became sole owners of the company by purchasing stock of the other shareholders. Under Edsel’s direction Ford facilities were expanded to foreign locations. He constantly emphasized good design and service as the prime factors in Ford sales. (Ford.com)
In 1943, after Edsel's death from cancer at age 49, Henry was persuaded to return as president of the company but retired again two years later leaving the company to Henry Ford II, Edsel’s eldest son. Henry Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs and emphasizing quality resulted in many technical and business innovations.