Ford for thought

PR Newswire cites the Edelman Trust Barometer:

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Innovation is accelerating and should be a growth enabler, but it will be stymied if business doesn’t pay as much attention to acceptance as it does research and development. More than two-thirds of our respondents who say innovation is poorly managed believe society is changing too quickly and not in ways that benefit ‘people like me’. The mass-class divide, the huge imbalance in trust between business and government and the infodemic have been the forces behind the decline in trust and the rise of polarization. Fear of innovation has now become the fourth log on the populism fire.

Business has the best opportunity to reverse this trend because it is the most trusted institution, both in general and when it comes to introducing new innovations into society. But it must focus on explaining the impact of innovation and its net positive for society and not just investors.

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Explaining and PR won’t help. People KNOW that innovation is MEANT to ruin their lives, and they are CORRECT.

Henry Ford knew how to use innovation to benefit both his customers and his workers. The Ford T was not ahead of its time when introduced; its newer elements were fairly common in 1908. By the end of its run in 1927 it was hopelessly “old-fashioned”, but STILL the best-selling car in America. Ford’s innovation was in MATERIALS AND METHODS. Ford’s engineers found the best steel alloys and the best assembly-line systems and the best combination of hours and pay for workers.

Some relevant quotes from the Ford Museum website:

As members of the Ford Motor organization we are engaged in the production of an article of use for the people of all countries. Our principle is to make our work as profitable for the buyer as for the seller.

Note the two-way relationship between customer and company, much more ‘feudal’ than the modern Tech Tyrants whose SOLE PURPOSE IN LIFE IS TO DESTROY THE CUSTOMERS AND THE WORKERS.

As betting at the race ring adds neither strength nor speed to the horse, so the exchange of shares in the stock market adds no capital to business, no increase in the production and no purchasing power to the market.

He was profoundly correct then, and infinitely more correct now. Ford was ABLE to benefit his customers and workers BECAUSE he was not in the stock market.

(From 1934) No one loses anything by raising wages as soon as he is able. It has always paid us. Low wages are the most costly any employer can pay. It is like using low-grade material; the waste makes it very expensive in the end. There is no economy in cheap labor or cheap material. The hardest thing I ever had to do was to reduce wages. I think we were the last big company to come to it. Now I am mighty glad that wages are climbing again.

Better working conditions, and more leisure time for workers, are EFFICIENT, just as recycling materials is EFFICIENT. The modern ‘gig’ approach forces zero leisure and near-zero pay. Tech Tyrants are the exact opposite of EFFICIENT. Instead of preserving materials and labor, they destroy everything.

I foresee the time when industry shall no longer denude the forests which require generations to mature, nor use up the mines which were ages in making, but shall draw its raw material largely from the annual produce of the fields. I am convinced that we shall be able to get out of yearly crops most of the basic materials which we now get from forest and mine.

He was serious about substituting plants for metal and oil, and hired Carver to help develop such processes. NOT because he was Green or Environmental, but because his products and production were meant to be PROFITABLE for farmers.