------------------
"I only drink to steady my nerves. Sometimes I'm so steady I don't move for months." - W.C. Fields -

"I don't care where I sit, as long as I get fed." - Calvin Trillin -

Dwayne

quote:

---

Originally posted by Fastback68:
That's close to the ant colony mentality - which is probably what Mr. Ford dreamed of.
Of course, by taking such an arrogant attitude, it could also be argued that Ford thought himself an "expert" on management!

---

It's easy to denigrate the man, but if you actually study up on all he accomplished, you'll be amazed. He turned workers from indentured slaves working 12-16 hours a day, six days a week, for peanuts to workers that people who worked 8 hours a day at decent wages, in addition to coming up with the concept of profit sharing, allowing them to even be able to afford the product they built. Ford pioneered the concept of hiring the handicapped and paying them the same pay as able men, in addition to rehabilitating convicts and teaching them how to earn an honest living. He revolutionized farming, created the concept of the air lines, his plants were models of ergonomics and efficiency, and what was amazing for his time, as he developed cheaper ways to build the cars, he didn't pocket all the profit, he lowered the prices, to enable poorer people to be on wheels and enjoying the freedom and greater economic opportunity it created, and at the same time spreading his market base, and growing his company.

...and that barely scratches the surface of what he did.

------------------
mike r
racing is real
everything else is just a game.
81 capri-302-7.25 @93mph 1/8
1.54 60 ft.

Ford was a self made man, and he had very little patience for the college grads that came to work at the plant and started spouting theories they read in books. He wanted skilled workers that knew how to do things, not just say they knew. To prove his theory, he took a man working as a floor sweeper and stuck him in the metallurgical department, and he became the top man there.

It all goes along with the old saying that a wise man realizes how much he doesn't know, while a fool thinks he knows it all because he can't imagine there is more to learn than he already has. A wise man learns something new every day.

Besides, as a wise old parts manager I used to work with used to say: "You know what an expert is, don't you? It's a guy that used to be a spurt!"

quote:

---

Originally posted by SteveLaRiviere:
It all goes along with the old saying that a wise man realizes how much he doesn't know, while a fool thinks he knows it all because he can't imagine there is more to learn than he already has. A wise man learns something new every day.

---

That's what I took the quote to mean.

------------------
"I only drink to steady my nerves. Sometimes I'm so steady I don't move for months." - W.C. Fields -

"I don't care where I sit, as long as I get fed." - Calvin Trillin -

Dwayne