Horse 275 - I like Henry

One of my all time greatest heroes isn't someone who saved the world but an industrialist, a businessman who didn't take crap from anyone, found himself in court more often than not but in his own way helped change the world quite siginificantly. The company's products still sport his famous signature, and it still remains one of the biggest 50 companies in the world. The man I refer to is none none that Henry Ford.

His first car (oddly enough was called the type A) left the doors of the factory in 1903. The motor company celebrated its centenary in fine style 2 years ago, but the most famous thing that the company is for is the process that started in the company's ninth year.
Economies of scale had been known about for at least 125 years. Adam Smith had written about the principle in his seminal book "Wealth of Nations", Smith observed that by utilising specialisation of labour, a factory producing something as simple as pins (only 2 components) could increase its production a thousand fold.
In 1914 Ford utilised this principle and Ford's motor cars began to move down a mechanised production line where each process would add just a little bit to the cars as they moved along. The idea was so good that the total time it took to produce a car went from 26½ hrs to just 93 minutes. That date? 91 years ago today. 14 Jan 1914.

Ford may be famous for his brash temper which produced such quick tempered remarks like: "You can have any colour, so long as it's black." or "History is bunk" but my favourite call of all was his address to the US Congress "You don't get anywhere sitting on your ass.".
During the depression he believed that people would only spend money if they were working and therefore had it. Despite heavy losses he was true to the workers that stayed on, and the Ford Motor Company went from number 3 to number 1 in just 4 years.Henry Ford believed that if you worked hard then you should get and deserve to get rewarded for it.
He remains in my mind one of very few businessmen who deserve their place in history, he respected his workforce and realised that it was them who ultimately made the company money, not him. It's always good to drive a Henry.