The Ford Network
Ford's career intersected with mentors who shaped his thinking, rivals who exposed his limits, and successors who learned from both his triumphs and disasters. These connections illuminate the pattern that recurs across founders.
Connective Tissue
The recurring patterns, frameworks, and mechanisms that emerge across Ford's story—each applicable far beyond the automotive industry.
Focus Discipline
Single-minded concentration enables breakthrough but prevents adaptation. The same clarity that lets founders see what others miss prevents them from seeing what they themselves miss.
Vertical Integration
Control the entire value chain from raw materials to finished product. River Rouge succeeded; Fordlandia failed. The difference was scope of competence.
Spectacle Demonstration
Binary public success beats years of quiet competence when your product is unproven. The 999 won by half a mile. SpaceX's fourth launch transformed perception overnight.
Turnover Calculus
Most businesses optimize for visible costs. Ford optimized for total costs. The $5 Day was one of the finest cost-cutting moves he ever made.
Exhaustion Strategy
Litigation can be won through endurance rather than verdict. Ford never expected to win the Selden case in court. He expected to outlast his opponents.
The Rigidity Trap
Not a failure of intelligence but a failure of identity. Kodak saw digital photography. Nokia saw the iPhone. The question is whether you can become someone else to meet the future.
The Paternalism Trap
Generosity without accountability becomes tyranny with better marketing. The $5 Day and Harry Bennett's Service Department were two sides of the same coin.
Spousal Infrastructure
Behind nearly every founder obsessed enough to change an industry stands a partner absorbing the cost of that obsession. Clara's household economy financed Ford's experiments.