Полный текст:
Innovative Business Managers
Though the innovative branch of Management Science is a relatively new discipline developed during the course of last fifty years (Banker & Kaufman, 2004), the innovative managers existed long before the last half of the twentieth century. Summing up the gist of innovation management, Henry Ford (Ford & Crowther, 2005, chap. 4, para. 1) wrote
‘What I am trying to emphasize is that the ordinary way of doing business is not the best way. I am coming to the point of my entire departure from the ordinary methods. From this point dates the extraordinary success of the company.’
If I were asked to pick the most innovative business manager, I would pick Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford would be my first choice for the several reasons, because he was responsible for a number of innovations that benefited his business greatly, but I prefer to concentrate on his creation of the universal car.
He also was the upper manager and the inventor, as well as left an autobiography My Life and Work (Ford & Crowther, 2005), which makes it easier to trace the innovations he applied.
The production of the universal car model included three stages of the successful management: the identification of traits the car should possess, the implementing of assembling line to make an optimum use of time and workforce and constant monitoring and improvement in different areas of production, including machines, processes and staffing.
As Ford clarifies in My Life and Work, the universal car he named Model T had to have 7 attributes. They include strong material, simplicity in operation, sufficient power, absolute reliability, easiness to control and the lightest both weight of the motor and that of the whole car (Ford & Crowther, 2005). This is the first stage of innovation, which involves the careful and detailed planning. The goal Ford (Ford & Crowther, 2005, chap. 4, para. 11) set was to create a mass production car, the vision he adopted was
‘From the day the first motor car appeared on the streets it had to me appeared to be a necessity. It was this knowledge and assurance that led me to build to the one end - a car that would meet the wants of the multitudes.’
The 7 attributes can be considered to be objectives as well as a strategic guideline, to which resources and other production factors should have been allotted and utilized.
The next stage of implementing was to buy the land to build a larger factory resulted in slight raise on selling car models already in production. In a larger factory building the experiments were made to try different materials. The constant trials that cut the time needed to put the parts together were also made.
As the result, the principle that work should be taken to men and no man should bend over generated the creation of an assembly line. As Ford explains (Ford & Crowther, 2005, chap. 5, para. 8), ‘We now have two general principles in all operations - that a man shall never have to take more than one step, if possibly it can be avoided, and that no man need ever stoop over.’
The monitoring of the situation caused Ford to realize the company did not need to buy the parts for the car, but to make them in their own factories, so called ‘vertical integration’. The implementation went on to have constant monitoring and feedback was analyzed on a regular basis. It is difficult to separate the organization stage from the controlling one of the development in question. According to Ford & Crowther (2005, chap. 5, para. 22),
‘Hardly a week passes without some improvement being made somewhere in machine or process, and sometimes this is made in defiance of what is called "the best shop practice."’
The nature of the type of innovation can be defined, though. Cyert and March (as cited in Anil et al., 2000) discuss two types of innovation: long term or slack innovation and short term out of necessity or problem orientated innovation. Ford clearly used the second type (refer to his quote above).
Ballou et al. (1998, p. 462) call such technique a Total Quality Management (TQM) and argue that ‘quality-driven organizations continually strive to improve their products in a variety of ways.’
The launch of Model T benefited the business greatly. First of all, the introduction of only one model into the assembly line helped to lower the cost and increase the productivity. Next, the ratio of affordability and usability of the car gained popularity and created a demand on the market. Lastly, the growing mass production of the model let Ford gain the highest profit.
In summary, the analysis of universal car mass production makes me consider Henry Ford to be the most innovative business manager, whose innovation greatly benefited his business. The innovative management practices he applied include: unification of the production, assembly line, vertical integration, TQM and problem orientated innovation.
List of References
Anil, A.,? Fellingham, J.,?Glover, J. &? Sivaramakrishnan, K. (2000). Capital Budgeting, the Hold-up Problem, and Information System Design. Management Science, 46(2), pp. 205–216. Retrieved May 2, 2009, from http://mansci.journal.informs.org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/cgi/reprint/46/2/205?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=information+manager&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT
Ballou, D., Wang, R., Pazer, H. & Tayi, G.K. (1998). Modeling Information Manufacturing Systems. Management Science, 44(4). Retrieved April 28, 2009, from http://mansci.journal.informs.org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/cgi/reprint/44/4/462?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=information+system&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT
Banker, R.D. & Kauffman, R.J. (2004). The Evolution of Research on Information Systems. Management Science, 50(3), pp. 281–298. Retrieved May 7, 2009, from http://mansci.journal.informs.org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/cgi/reprint/50/3/281?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=management+business+information+systems&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT
Ford, H. & Crowther, S. (2005). My Life and Work. (chap. 4 & 5). Retrieved April 29, 2009, from http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/7213