Skip to main content

Don't steal my thunder

Henry Ford the American legend, was obsessed with being the only shareholder and manager of his company.  Ford carefully analysed the work and its flow and broke up the tasks into the smallest possible elements so that tasks could be performed without application of mind or spirit repeatedly by faceless and nameless workers. Henry Ford designed his operations so that workers were completely dispensable and easily replaceable by any other able bodied worker.

This approach inhumane as it may appear, gave the brilliant Henry Ford, tremendous improvements in productivity and savings in cost, helping Ford to leave his competitors a long way behind. Initial success was phenomenal. In early 1920’s Ford motor company’s share of American automotive market was an eye popping 75%. This approach soon thereafter became a norm in all industries. (This is why majority of trade union activities focussed more on work conditions than only on increase in wages.)

Henry Ford was obsessed with being in personal control. He employed a private secret police headed by the notorious Mr. Harry Bennett which was brutal and had a two point agenda; to ensure that no Ford executive made any decisions and that no worker should express an opinion or an emotion.

Management team is the most precious asset of any organisation and one that needs a long time to develop and build up and a very short time of bad leadership to destroy. Henry Ford continuously attacked his own management team, he remained the only manager in the organisation.

Henry Ford the greatest asset of Ford Motor Company soon became its greatest unsustainable liability.
_____________________

By 1939 Ford's market share had dropped to 20%.  The company was losing at that time US$ 10 Million per month and was eventually revived only by the professional approach of Henry Ford II who was Henry Ford’s grandson.

Never been groomed for the job of owner and President, Henry Ford II realised that he needed management help. He hired 10 very competent men to assist him.



In 1946 the company hired a smart, hardworking youngster called Lee Iacocca. His marketing, planning and execution skills saw him reach the top position of Ford as President in 1970.

Against all opposition and great odds. Iacocca was successful in developing a series of highly successful vehicles, the most notable was the Ford Mustang.

In the first two years the car made over $1.1 billion in net profits – in 1964 dollars.  Iacocca’s photo appeared on the cover of both Newsweek and Time in the same week.  


But Iacocca had overstepped the bounds of political power.  He had become a public figure, which did not sit well with Henry Ford II.  Over the next  ten years their relationship would deteriorate.

In 1978 Henry Ford II dismissed Iacocca as President in spite of the fact that Ford Motor Company posted a record US$ 2 Billion profit. Publicly Ford said "You just don't like some people". Privately he told Iacocca "Don't steal my thunder".




A truly great person is able to transcend his or her ego. Unfortunately the head of many families and organisations suffer from great insecurity, bogged down with conspiracy theories and hence have extremely fragile egos. If they have overpowering, unchecked authority without checks and balance they become  their own and their family /organisation's worst enemy.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Office Efficiency - Central Social Institution, Prague, 1937

The offices of the Central Social Institution of  Prague,  Czechoslovakia. April 1937 “The offices of the Central Social Institution of Prague, Czechoslovakia with the largest vertical letter file in the world. Consisting of cabinets arranged from floor to ceiling tiers covering over 4000 square feet containing over 3000 drawers 10 feet long. It has electric operated elevator desks which rise, fall and move left or right at the push of a button. to stop just before drawer desired. The drawers also open and close electronically. Thus work which formerly taxed 400 workers is now done by 20 with a minimum of effort. Ref: B196_095071_3660 Date: 26.04.1937 Compulsory Credit: UPPA/Photoshot”
Post a Comment
Read more

You have to play the game to win it.

In life its not sufficient to be merely efficient but to also be effective. Someone once asked my father Man Singh ji, 'What is the secret of your success?'  He remarked, "I do not always make right decisions. I make decisions, and then almost always make them right" Read more ..........
11 comments
Read more

The neck of the bottle is always at the top.

        F requently requested to assist organisations large and small, I observe a common and recurring theme.  The issues revolve around the struggle of owners /managers to manage effectively. This is visible predominantly in companies that have started small and are growing, in family run businesses and families themselves. They are invariably puzzled that management approach, style and methods which worked so well in the past, now just don't work anymore. They resort to even more hard work and effort, yet the situation only worsens. Finding themselves in unfamiliar situations they dart here and there implementing fads, half hearted strategies alien to their thinking and character. They do this because they are getting frustrated and doing something is considered better than doing nothing. They change staff and managers. They churn product mix, vendors and even customers and markets. They try so many things but nothing seems to work. They chang...
20 comments
Read more