Dwelling in present and planning for future is a must for any auto company in order to sustain business and profitability in the long run. However, past gives us opportunity to draw inspiration from achievements and also learn more mistakes and experiences. Ford Motor Company is one such auto maker who takes pride in its past and present, alike, while planning aggressively for the future. Drawing inspiration from past that went down to make a wholesome history has allowed the company to improvise on its planning and implementation aspects for offering better products and also see ramification of efforts in the form of a steady growth. Interestingly, the Indian operations of the auto maker also relate the same thing.
At present, the Indian subsidiary of Ford is seemingly eyeing more penetration in the Indian automobile market. Notably, the company has been able to make its presence felt among customers and car enthusiasts with models like Figo, Fiesta, Endeavour and recently launched Ford EcoSport. Interestingly, EcoSport marks the most prominent success for Indian operations of the auto company. EcoSport was launched as a compact Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) in the Indian auto industry and managed to stir the market with some amazing game changing response from domestic customers.
Ford Motor Company marks its journey as the world's fifth largest auto maker based on worldwide sales. This auto company, which is based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, was initially founded by Henry Ford on June 16, 1903. Since then, it has seen a lot of ups and downs during its ordeal in the global economy, but managed to keep its identity. Quite interestingly, the company had once owned 5 other luxury brands namely Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar, Aston Martin and Mercury. However, over a period of time these luxury car brands were sold to other companies with the exception of Mercury that was discontinued.
During its early years, the company had produced Ford Model A (1903), Model K and Model S (Ford's last right-hand steering model). Incidentally, Model K, Ford's first six-cylinder model, was referred with the name of "the gentleman's roadster" and "the silent cyclone" had a retail price of US$2800. Model T was launched in the following year. By the year 1913, the company persisted with all basic techniques of the assembly line and mass production. In the same year, the American auto maker introduced the world's first moving assembly line that reduced chassis assembly time to 2 hours 40 minutes and ultimately to 1 hour 33 minutes from 12.5 hours in October. The net result of this was a boosted annual production of 202,667 units the same year.
Marking an ever increasing recognizance, Ford finally attained international status in 1904 with the founding of Ford of Canada. The campaign to rapidly expand overseas can be traced back to 1911 with the start of assembly facilities in Ireland (1917), England, France, Denmark (1923), Germany (1925), Austria (1925) and Argentina (1925), followed by South Africa (1924) and Australia (1925) as subsidiaries of Ford of Canada. The journey of global expansion continued and by the end of 1919, the auto company was producing 50 per cent of all cars in United States and 40 per cent in all British ones; and the journey still continues with Ford Motor Company now being a renowned and globally acclaimed auto company.
