Henry Ford @ 150 #2

On his 150th birthday,
his Innovations still reverberate throughout our Culture today.

from USA Today 30 July 13 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz 9/13
Born & Raised in Detroit.

Emulation: Ford’s Business Methods & Techniques are emulated to this day, from the auto industry to clothing manufacture to the fast-food industry. In the 1930s, a young Mr Toyota came to the U.S. to study Ford’s methods and eventually founded & grew the Toyota Motor Corp.

Ford’s Vision. But Ford’s true genius does not lie in the creation of any mechanical contraption, or in his penchant for designing factories on a grand scale. His true gift lay in his Vision of “Low cost transportation for the common man”. [What’s your Vision? Wiz4biz] Until he came along, automobiles were the toys of the rich. Ford’s idea of selling a low-cost, no-frills, dependable car brought automobile travel to the common man, putting independent transportation within reach of farmers, storekeepers & especially, the men who made the cars. Today, more than 240 million vehicles are registered in USA. (about 1 for every person).

Ford then, Gates today
Much like Bill Gates’ Innovations of the late 20th century, Ford brought his personal inspiration to the masses. Where Gates conquered communication, Ford conquered personal mobility. Both men took a created object and made it indispensable in everyday life. In several parallel ways, the innovations of both men led to countless spin-off businesses, social genres & enterprises.

the Effects of Ford’s success surround us to this day. The advent of inexpensive personal transportation brought mobility. No longer did people have to live where they worked. Factory workers could commute to the city, along with dock and railroad workers, giving birth to suburbia. The ability to bring larger numbers of children to a central location moved the education system away from the one-room schoolhouse, allowing the creation of graduated school systems, grades one through eight. Suddenly, the idea of a summer vacation became available to the common working man, giving birth to a hotel/motel industry, a restaurant and diner industry, along with coast-to-coast highways.

Ford’s Legacy: Perhaps the truest legacy of Ford lies in our love for the open road. The innovations of modern history, from the earliest motion pictures to the latest smartphones, have entertained us. But to satisfy our intrinsic need to see what is over the next mountain — to satiate the same desire compelling us to fly across oceans, journey to the poles and land at Tranquility Base on the moon — Ford put the world on wheels, turning common everyday men and women into explorers, mapmakers of their daily destiny. And with that independence comes the challenge for new generations to take it farther. Ford made America a smaller place. Gates and the Internet made the world a smaller place. Can the universe be far behind?

Comment: What do you think?