Kauno technologijos universitetas
Economics and Management faculty
Ford company and Henry Ford
VB 3/5 gr.
student
S. Jokubauskas
Kaunas, 2004
The Dream Becomes a Business
Ford Motor Company entered the business world on June 16, 1903, when
Henry Ford and 11 business associates signed the company’s articles of
incorporation. With $28,000 in cash, the pioneering1 industrialists gave
birth to what was to become one of the world’s largest corporations. Few
companies are as closely identified with the history and development of
industry and society throughout the 20th century as Ford Motor Company.
As with most great enterprises, Ford Motor Company’s beginnings were
modest. The company had anxious moments in its infancy2 The earliest record
of a shipment is July 20, 1903, approximately one month after
incorporation, to a Detroit physician3. With the company’s first sale came
hope—a young Ford Motor Company had taken its first steps.
Mass Production on the Line
Perhaps Ford Motor Company’s single greatest contribution to automotive
manufacturing was the moving assembly line. First implemented at the
Highland Park plant (in Michigan, US) in 1913, the new technique allowed
individual workers to stay in one place and perform the same task
repeatedly on multiple vehicles that passed by them. The line proved
tremendously4 efficient, helping the company far surpass the production
levels of their competitors and making the vehicles more affordable5.
The First Vehicles
Henry Ford insisted that the company’s future lay6 in the production of
affordable cars for a mass market. Beginning in 1903, the company began
using the first 19 letters of the alphabet to name new cars. In 1908, the
Model T was born. 19 years and 15 million Model T’s later, Ford Motor
Company was a giant industrial complex that spanned7 the globe. The years
between the world wars were a period of hectic expansion. In 1917, Ford
Motor Company began producing trucks and tractors. In 1919 a conflict with
stockholders over the millions to be spent building the giant Rouge
manufacturing complex in Dearborn, Michigan led to the company becoming
wholly owned by Henry Ford and his son, Edsel, who then succeeded his
father as president. In 1925, Ford Motor Company acquired8 the Lincoln
Motor Company, thus branching out into luxury cars, and in the 1930’s, the
Mercury division was created to establish a division centered on mid-priced
cars. Ford Motor Company was growing.
Becoming a Global Company
In the 50’s came the Thunderbird and the chance to own a part of Ford Motor
Company. The company went public and, on Feb. 24, 1956, had about 350,000
new stockholders. Henry Ford II’s keen9 perception10 of political and
economic trends in the 50’s led to the global expansion of FMC in the 60’s,
and the establishment of Ford of Europe in 1967, 20 years ahead of the
European Economic Community’s arrival. The company established its North
American Automotive Operations in 1971, consolidating11 U.S., Canadian, and
Mexican operations more than two decades12 ahead of the North American Free
Trade Agreement.
Ford Motor Company started the last century with a single man
envisioning13 products that would meet the needs of people in a world on
the verge of high-gear industrialization. Today, Ford Motor Company is a
family of automotive brands consisting of: Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda,
Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, and Volvo. The company is beginning its
second century of existence with a worldwide organization that retains and
expands Henry Ford’s heritage14 by developing products that serve the
varying and ever-changing needs of people in the global community.
Henry Ford
Industrialist, inventor. Born July 30, 1863 in Dearborn, Michigan,
into a farming family. The first child of William and Mary Ford, he was
taught largely by his mother, who instilled in him a strong sense of
responsibility, duty, and self-reliance.Ford grew up on a farm and might
easily have remained in agriculture. But something stronger pulled at
Ford’s imagination: mechanics, machinery, understanding how things worked
and what new possibilities lay in store. As a young boy, he took apart
everything he got his hands on. He quickly became known around the
neighborhood for fixing people’s watches and became an excellent self-
taught mechanic and machinist. At age 16 he left the farm and went to
nearby Detroit, a city that was process of becoming an industrial giant.