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Fortune: Ford Motor Company
Legacy: Ford Foundation
Foundation Assets: $9,300,140,000
2002 Giving: $509,700,353
Major Funding Areas: culture, education, environment, health and human services, public policy, religion |
As the founder of Ford Motor Co., Henry Ford was one of the first entrepreneurs to apply assembly line manufacturing to the production of automobiles, making them affordable for everyone. In the process, he revolutionized industrial production.
Born on July 30,1863 to Irish immigrant parents William and Mary Ford, Henry Ford grew up on the family farm in Greenfield Township, Michigan and showed an interest in engine mechanics from a very early age. This interest would result in what is today known as Ford Motor Co., the world’s largest maker of pickup trucks and the #2 producer of cars and trucks.
Ford took his first job 1879 working as an apprentice for machinist for James F. Flower & Bros. in Detroit and later for the Detroit Dry Dock Co. After completing his apprenticeship, Ford went to work on gasoline-powered engines for Westinghouse Company. He married Clara Bryant in 1888 and supported himself by running a sawmill.
At the age of 28, Ford left the sawmill and went to work for Thomas Edison’s Illuminating Company. He was promoted to chief engineer within two years and stayed with the company for eight years. During this time, he spent his spare time experimenting with internal combustion engines and in 1896 he built the Quadricycle, a four-wheel self-propelled vehicle with a gasoline engine.
When Ford left Edison Illumination he convinced investor’s to help him form the Detroit Automobile Company and later the Henry Ford Company, neither of which would be successful. Ford persisted however, and in 1903 with 11 investors and $100,000, he became chief engineer at his newly incorporated Ford Motor Co.
Shortly after the creation of Ford Motor Co., Ford impressively drove one of his new creations to a new land speed record, convincing famous race driver Barney Oldfield to take the Ford Model “999” on a cross country tour. This made Ford a marquee name throughout the U.S. and set up the market for Ford’s reasonably priced, efficient, and reliable Model T.
The demand for the Model T was so high that Ford moved production to a large manufacturing facility in Highland Park, Michigan in 1908. It was at this new plant that Ford realized his dream of setting up a mass production assembly line for his automobiles. Within 10 years, half the cars sold in the U.S. were Ford Model Ts.
On January 1, 1919, Ford made his son Edsel the president of Ford Motor Company, but still maintained control of running the day-to-day operations. He and his son also bought out the remaining stock from other investors and became the sole owners of the company.
Ford went on to develop the world’s largest industrial complex in Dearborn, Michigan. The new facility integrated everything required to mass-produce cars including an assembly line, steel mill, glass factory, mills and forges. The seven million square foot complex employed over 81,000 people at the peak of production.
Production of the Model T continued until 1927 and ended only after a world-record 15 million units had been produced. In December of 1927, Ford introduced the Model A, which featured a hydraulic brake system and sliding-shift transmission. Over four million Model A units were produced through 1931. Ford continued to innovate and later in the in 1930s he began to utilize plastic in his cars.
In 1936, along with his son Edsel, Ford established the Ford Foundation with a gift of $25,000. The broad charter for the Foundation was to advance human welfare. Ford’s son died on May 26, 1943, and this had a profound effect on him. Over the next few years his company experienced losses of over $10 million and he died four years after his son, on April 7, 1947. Ford Motor Co. recovered however, and went on to become an American institution with over 338,000 employees throughout the world and annual sales of over $137 billion.
Ford’s persistence was his greatest quality and the primary reason his dream of mass production and affordable automobiles became a reality and transformed America into the industrial era. Ford proved that the power of one idea could definitely change the world for the better, something the Ford Foundation continues to strive for today.
Now the third largest foundation in the U.S., the Ford Foundation expanded to become a national and international organization in 1950, eventually selling all of its Ford Motor Co. shares in order to diversify, but the goals remained - to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement.
For more information about the Ford Foundation please visit:
http://www.fordfound.org
For more information about Ford Motor Co. please visit:
http://www.ford.com
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