My Life and Work Henry Ford 9781545549117 Books
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"My Life and Work" is the autobiography of Henry Ford. Written in conjunction with Samuel Crowther, "My Life and Work" chronicles the rise and success of one of the greatest American entrepreneurs and businessmen. Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company will forever be identified with early 20th century American industrialism. The innovations to business and direct impact on the American economy of Henry Ford and his company are immeasurable. His story is brilliantly chronicled in this classic American biography.
My Life and Work Henry Ford 9781545549117 Books
Toyota clearly followed Henry Ford;s ideas and recognized him as the innovator.Reading the early history of the auto industry with Ford's assessments should be required reading before going after "Lean Certification" as they now call the logistics optimization part of the "Toyota Production System" in my opinion. The entire industry globally was about making racing vehicles. Ford saw the opportunity to go after the mass market but in careful steps to avoid need for financing. Each factory created the cash for the next much larger factory near Detroit. But he did not do that by making "cheap" cars, he did it by engineering the lighter and stronger vanadium steels he found from parts lying around the race tracks from a French racer. Then making just ONE model at a time with continuous improvements. 2, 4 and 6 cylinder models eventually..only in black but serviceable as evidenced by long life of Model A's for example.
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Tags : My Life and Work [Henry Ford] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. My Life and Work is the autobiography of Henry Ford. Written in conjunction with Samuel Crowther, My Life and Work chronicles the rise and success of one of the greatest American entrepreneurs and businessmen. Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company will forever be identified with early 20th century American industrialism. The innovations to business and direct impact on the American economy of Henry Ford and his company are immeasurable. His story is brilliantly chronicled in this classic American biography.,Henry Ford,My Life and Work,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1545549117,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Business
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My Life and Work Henry Ford 9781545549117 Books Reviews
I just finished Henry Ford's Autobiography "My Life and Work" and was quite surprised by it. Other that 3 or 4 pages where he wonders about the "Jewish Problem" (which I would skip if I were you), the rest of the book was astounding. If all businesses were run the way he lays out in the book, the world would be a much better place. He stated that he believed that the purpose of a business was to serve the world in the best way possible while providing employment and compensation at a level that would enable a worker the ability to purchase every need he (or she) had. The way he describes the average worker is astounding coming from a "Captain of Industry". He also proposes the proper place for money, finance, lawyers, and managers. I was completely, and happily, blown away by his vision. Too bad as soon as he retired Ford became like every other company and through most of his ideas out of the window.
This book is less an autobiography than an education in business and economics with a unique philosophy. It is a great mirror to hold up to our current business practices and economic life. Reading between the lines, it is a warning to the leveraged buyout crowd and an incentive to our economic policy makers to think again.
Henry Ford has been much ridiculed and vilified. True, he was critical of much and expressed himself very strongly. He was anti-Semitic. This was not unusual in his day. This book has none of that, but you can see one source of his enmity – the banks. Then, as now, the Jewish participation in commercial and investment banks was very pronounced. Ford felt that allowing bankers in led to a loss of control and running a business in a way far different from his philosophy. He was not very positive about lawyers either.
Henry Ford is also admired for the “assembly line” system of manufacturing, which he admits he got from observing a slaughterhouse operation. Ford is also known for going a long time without changing models and lowering his prices (along what we now call the learning curve). He looked for constant manufacturing and engineering improvement (what the Japanese call “kaizen”). Also, like the Japanese in later generations, he pioneered “just in time” inventories.
His goal was to supply simple high quality products at prices anyone could afford. Meanwhile, he raised the average worker’s wages to unprecedented heights and instituted companywide “social services” and a unique brand of vocational education for the young. In many ways he was neither a capitalist nor conservative. Rather he was a progressive thinker for his time and a “distributivist” rather than a socialist. One might wonder whether his philosophy, if generally implemented, would have prevented the slew of economic and industrial problems experienced since the 1930s, but it certainly justifies listening to his views and considering them seriously.
Autobiography is not missing here. I enjoyed Ford’s description of his friendships with Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, and the naturalist John Burroughs. I recall being taught in school or elsewhere that Ford was a poor farm boy who became a mechanic and invented a car in his garage. This is misleading. His father was an affluent farmer who gave his son a nice farm eventually. Ford did not like farm work and always was looking for ways to do things efficiently. This led him to mechanics and he was not like your corner garage mechanic. He became interested in gasoline engines and perfecting them. He was more what we would call a machinist. Moreover, through self-study and practice he became what we would call an engineer. He held responsible management jobs with a steam tractor company and Detroit Edison. While doing these things he tinkered on his own time with his original automobiles. His forward thinking is illustrated by his thoughts on why corn should be used to make “tractor fuel.” Sounds pretty modern to the ethanol crowd.
My only problem with this book is that the paragraphs are too darn long, but that's the way folks used to write.
I came away from this book with a renewed interest in Ford, a fascinating personality. His thoughts and “credo” about business and society and the proper place of the industrialist are well worth knowing and considering. They are as relevant today as 100 years ago. If you are in business management there is even more to think about and compare with what is taught in today’s business schools. If you worry about a world awash in debt and influenced by “bankers” and leveraged buy-out artists this book will give you more food for thought.
Henry Ford was a man of vision and conviction. A man who in many ways was ahead of his time. He delved and embraced many areas of life and it's commitments and responsibilities. He believed in hard work, personal goals and gave an explicit road map for anyone of ambition to follow. He disavowed laziness and the tendency to lazy thinking. His book is more far reaching than just manufacturing cars on a volume basis; it delves into what a man should set forth as a general commitment to the entire approach to how one can lead a successful and honorable life. Must read.
My 15-year-old son read this book for freshman year History class (home school). This is his review
"The title of this book, My Life and Work, would be better titled, My Work and Ideals. There is very little in this book about Ford himself. If you’re looking for a book about events in Henry Ford’s life, look somewhere else. He spends most of the book discussing the best way to run a business, and how these methods were put to use in the Ford Motor Company.
In addition, I found this book very redundant in some ways. Ford spends a chapter on each of the aspects of running a business, and how it was done at the Ford Motor Company. The ideals used in each of the chapters are really all the same, just applied in different scenarios. You could just read the first chapter of this book and save yourself the time of reading the whole thing; you’d get almost as much out of it.
Also I have to say that the font in this book is horrible! I don’t know about the hard cover, but the paper back’s font is super squished and hard to read. If you want to read this book I recommend that you get a different copy with normal print so you can read it more easily.
If you want a look inside Henry Ford’s head get this book! However, if you’re looking for a book about his life and the events therein, there’s a better book for you!"
Toyota clearly followed Henry Ford;s ideas and recognized him as the innovator.
Reading the early history of the auto industry with Ford's assessments should be required reading before going after "Lean Certification" as they now call the logistics optimization part of the "Toyota Production System" in my opinion. The entire industry globally was about making racing vehicles. Ford saw the opportunity to go after the mass market but in careful steps to avoid need for financing. Each factory created the cash for the next much larger factory near Detroit. But he did not do that by making "cheap" cars, he did it by engineering the lighter and stronger vanadium steels he found from parts lying around the race tracks from a French racer. Then making just ONE model at a time with continuous improvements. 2, 4 and 6 cylinder models eventually..only in black but serviceable as evidenced by long life of Model A's for example.
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