Customer Reviews

My Life and Work

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While obviously self-serving, this book provides fascinating insights into the thinking of a true pioneer. Just when you start to think it is dated, you hit a section with startling current relevence.

I wish the leaders of GE had heeded his warnings about getting so wrapped up in financing structure and accounting results that you get distracted from your basic business and your customers' needs.

His approach to driving does costs and creating value are profound to this day. It's too bad the finance wizards at GM and Ford forgot his lessons - the leaders of Toyota and Honda learned them well.

Henry Ford is the classical writer on management. He stands on a same line with Sun Tzu, Niccolò Machiavelli, Robert Owen, Frederick Taylor and Henri Fayol.

This is the foundation of all the management literature, and every modern manager should be aware with the works of the authors above mentioned.

In the book "My Life and Work", Henry Ford presents his view on different things: management philosophy, social life, human abilities and capabilities, the role of the bankers in the production, good debt and bad debt, the labor and the speculation, the roots of poverty and the ways to solve it, the role of the government, and other important topics.

You will also find an autobiography in this book, but there is a lot of things that Henry Ford avoids in this book, e.g. how did he took the controlling stake in the Ford Motor Company. He didn't write in the book that he have started another company, Henry Ford and Son, and made a show of taking himself and his best employees to the new company; the goal was to scare the remaining holdout stockholders of the Ford Motor Company to sell their stakes to him before they lost most of their value. The ruse worked, and Henry and his son purchased all remaining stock from the other investors, thus giving the family sole ownership of the company.

This is a fascinating read.

It provides a unique insight into the mind of Henry Ford- one of the most influential people of the 20th Century.

As such, it is an important chronicle from history, Also, it still provides valuable ideas of relevance today.

Much has been written about Henry Ford. It is interesting to contrast those writings against Ford's own words.

A fun,easy to read book by a man with common sense and tremendous insight. It is written during a "simpler" time when America was becoming an industrial powerhouse. Ford is a very intelligent, and practical man, a man you wish you could have a conversation with. Two reasons I didn't give this 5 stars; is because it becomes superfluous in describing day to day operations at the Ford factory. Also, I thought I would find more principles that could be applied to today. Overall, an enjoyable read!

Although this is not the easiest book to read the content is excellent and should be required reading for all students and business people.

Even though this book was published in 1922, I'd say most of what Ford observed and dealt with then still holds true today. Bankers/financing, war, management, home life, etc.

This book is great for managers and business people alike. I am not sure when this book was origially published but it was sometime right after the Great Depression and the war. Because of this the language is slightly different and it is sometimes hard to get into in some areas. That being said...it does have great information and Ford was an amazing man. I love corporate America, ecspecailly when it's home grown!

Anyone who has read "My Life and Work" will understand exactly what is wrong with our country today. There are three ways to create wealth--grow it, mine it, or make it--and activities like flipping houses or trading carbon credits do not qualify.

Ford developed what is now known as the Toyota production system, and readers will see a very explicit description of just in time manufacturing (and its benefits) in "My Life and Work."

Ford also summarized effective labor relations in one sentence: "It ought to be the employer's ambition, as leader, to pay better wages than any similar line of business, and it ought to be the workman's ambition to make this possible."

This book is a must-read if you are a Ford fan, and if not, I would skip it and read a good biography of Mr Ford instead.

I'll just say this about Ford. He was absolutely the greatest industrial mind off ALL TIMES.