Henry Ford Biography Summary

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Biographical Summary
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, on a farm near Dearborn, Michigan. His only formal education was through fifth grade at the local schoolhouse, where he took an early interest in tinkering with steam engines. He left his family farm for Detroit at sixteen and became a mechanist apprentice. In 1888 he married Detroit local Clara Ala Bryant, and they had a child named Edsel. Ford briefly returned to farming to support his family. In 1891, Ford returned to Detroit and was hired as an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company. Several years later, he handcrafted one of his first cars, the Ford Quadricycle. He left his job at the Edison Company to briefly serve as superintendent at his first car company, Detroit Automobile …show more content…

At the time that he started Ford Motors Company, most people did not drive cars, and hadn't even considered purchasing a car. Henry Ford is famously quoted saying, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses’”. His extremely successful Model T, nicknamed the Tin Lizzie, fundamentally changed the automotive industry. Ford understood that most of the American population was in the working class and could not afford to buy a car, so he decided to create a standardized vehicle for the masses. The Model T was durable, reliable, and most importantly, affordable. However, marketing strategies were crucial, since previously people hadn't even thought of buying a car. When Ford first introduced the Model T, he ensured that there was a great amount of publicity surrounding it in every newspaper possible to get the word out. Publicity is just as critical today if not more, and Ford understood that from very early …show more content…

The automobile went from being a toy for society’s elite to being an essential item within the economic reach of nearly every American, all thanks to the hard work and ingenuity of Henry Ford. His dedication to quality and attention to detail earned him not only dozens of racing titles, but also the reputation of a respectable businessman. Ford understood his market so well that he knew what the people wanted before they could even ask for it, always ahead of the curve. Ford was a pioneer of American commercialism, and so his production methods were centred around efficiency and mass production, thus allowing him to increase productivity and decrees cost to meet the demand of the masses. Lastly, consideration of the working class and philosophy of raising the wages instead of raising the price point and focusing only on profit. There are a great many lessons to be learned from distinguished businessmen in history, and Henry Ford is no

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