My Forty Years With Ford (Great Lakes Books Series)

It had always been our policy at Ford for everyone to start at the bottom. Kanzler was one of the few exceptions and largely for that reason, I think, Mr. Ford avoided him.

My best friends are my critics. You say, “Why did I not develop a real successor?” Mr. Ford, like many men of his kind, never had a successor, they just can’t acknowledge that such a thing is possible. Was his son even a possible successor? This war program which he, Henry Ford, never entered into, and which he would not take the slightest interest

These stockholders had originally put up $33,100. Sixteen years later they sold out for more than $105,000,000. Also, in those sixteen years, their total dividends were more than $30,000,000.

During World War I, Mr. Ford was contemplating a reduction of $80 a car. Since the company was turning out 500,000 cars a year, it was argued that this would reduce the company’s income by $40,000,000. This calculation had nothing to do with the matter. What was entirely overlooked was the fact, as brought out in the $ 5-day calculations, that the

It was apparent that, while the Russians had stolen the Fordson tractor design, they did not have any of our specifications for the material that entered into the various parts. And you can’t find that out merely by pulling the machine apart and studying the pieces.

“Unless you see a thing, you cannot simplify it. And unless you can simplify it, it’s a good sign you can’t make it.”

With motor transport on the increase and threatening their revenues, railways had little incentive to help auto manufacturers.

I had been telling him that with his new venture he might control or dominate the motorcar business. We had 50 per cent of it in 1924. His reply to control was “Charlie, I don’t want all the business. Twenty-five per cent will satisfy me.” Of course, to me that looked like coasting along, but it gave me a hint of why he was not in a hurry to start

When something new and different is sought, it is useless to copy; start fresh on a new idea. This means fresh minds at work.