Salute to Henry Ford

Everyone should know who is Henry Ford. He is a great inventor who deserves the fame of Thomas Edison as he has invented mass production through assembly line. We might not know the greatness of assembly line but everything we use today is produced through assembly line fashion. Through assembly line fashion, manufacturers can greatly reduce their cost of productions and produce better quality products with jobs specialization. Henry Ford is remembered (as if he is still being remembered) as the person who formed Ford Motor Company. But after the invasion of Japanese car manufacturers such as Toyota and Honda, Ford is only remembered as "Fast Only Rolling Downhill".

As one of the Big Three in Detroit (another 2 are General Motor and Chrysler), Ford ruled the automobile market for years and enjoyed luxury earning till the Japanese invasion. Because they are the pioneer of automobile industry, they exploited their first-mover-advantage to the max by increasing the price of the cars without adding value to it.

Japanese are greedy and ambitious. They slowly introduced cheaper and better cars to the market and slowly took over the automobile industry. General Motor and Chrysler were eliminated in this game after the financial crisis in 2008. But Ford is the sole American survivor in this game. So how should he play the game?

First, he closed down all his other unprofitable businesses and focused solely on cars manufacturing. Second, he attacked the Japanese's mistakes. After Japanese took over the automobile industry, they stopped producing good quality cars like they used to be. This is a golden chance for Ford to "salt-fish-turn-body". Right away, Ford produced cars cheaper and better than Japanese cars. Silently, Ford is making profits 5 quarters consecutively after the financial crisis while his major competitors still struggling to find a way out from the financial breakdown.

Once again, salute to Henry Ford!! Ford is no longer fast only rolling downhill =)