Sublime

Henry Ford créa la Ford Motor Company en 1903, à l'âge de 40 ans. Andrew Carnegie avait bien dépassé la quarantaine avant de commencer à récolter le fruit de ses efforts, la moyenne des prix Nobel de physique est de 54 ans. À l’âge où le niveau de testostérone diminue, l’homme atteint son plus haut niveau de réussite. Au moment où il n’est plus esc

With them, profits came first and set the price accordingly. Ford held that if the price is right the cost will take care of itself. Price first, then cost, was a paradox. It ran counter to prevailing business practice, but Ford made it work.

Henry Ford summed it up best. “If I had asked people what they wanted,” he said, “they would have said a faster horse.”

By 1920 its lineup ranged from Chevrolet at the low end through Oakland and Olds, Scripps-Booth and Sheridan, to Buick and Cadillac at the top. But GM’s product lineup, having been assembled through acquisition, was a shambles. There was lots of overlap between brands in the middle of the range, while the lowest-price car was too expensive (the che

A particularidade para mim mais surpreendente dos negócios era dar-se uma grande importância à parte financeira e quase nenhuma à qualidade do produto. Parecia-me isso uma inversão da ordem natural, que quer o dinheiro como efeito do trabalho, vindo depois e não antes dele. Outra particularidade que me impressionava era o desprezo em melhorar os mé

If I could wave a magic wand over our dealer organization, with the result that every dealer could have a proper accounting system, could know the facts about his business and could intelligently deal with the many details incident to his business in an intelligent manner as a result thereof, I would be willing to pay for that accomplishment an eno

General Motors was founded in 1908, the same year the Model T was launched. Its founder, William C. Durant, had made a fortune in carriagemaking and decided to move into cars. He established GM as a holding company and immediately acquired Buick, a carmaker he already controlled, followed by a string of other carmakers, including Oakland, Oldsmobil

These new elements I think I can without significant loss reduce to four: installment selling, the used-car trade-in, the closed body, and the annual model. (I would add improved roads if I were to take into account the environment of the automobile.)

By various means, mainly exchanges of stock, Mr. Durant between 1908 and 1910 brought into General Motors about twenty-five companies. Eleven were automobile companies; two were electrical-lamp companies, and the remainder were auto parts and accessory manufacturers. Of the automobile companies, only four, Buick, Olds (now Oldsmobile), Oakland (now