Henry Ford started the company in 1902 with $28,000 in cash from twelve investors, among which were John and Horace Dodge, who would later found the Dodge Brothers Motor Vehicle Company. He was 40 years when he first established the company’s first factory on Bagley Street, Detroit.

He would later incorporate the firm on June 16, 1903. Ford Motor Company would go on and label their models chronologically in alfabetical order, starting with the Model A to the Model K and Model S, which was Ford’s last right-hand steering vehicle. Then, in 1908 Ford introduced the Model T, which was designed by Childe Harold Wills and two Hungarian immigrants, Joseph A. Galamb and Eugene Farkas. This model proved to be of quintessential Ford vehicle, placing the company among the most influential automotive brands in history.

The Ford Model T was reliable, practical and affordable, which made it a big hit in the US, where it was advertised as the middle-class man’s vehicle. The car’s success compelled Ford to expand his business and layout the basics of mass production principles in 1913 with the introduction of the world’s first vehicle assembly line. By 1912, production figures for the Model T alone reached nearly 200,000 units.

This organizational innovation brought in the vehicle construction field allowed Ford to reduce chassis assembly time by as much as 10 hours, dropping from 12 ½ h to 2h 40 min.

Besides ensuring the efficiency of the production process, Ford turned his company into an interactive entity by announcing a new profit-sharing policy. This would grant buyers a cut of profits if sales reached 300,000. As expected, sales effortlessly reached the 300k threshold and went even further to hit a record 501,000 in 1915.

As part of a new set of financial tactics, Ford provided working places for the disabled who otherwise had a hard time finding a job, reduced work shifts and doubled all employee’s salaries. Changes like these sparked a tremendous sales increase while also setting the base of modern working conditions.

Still, the US and Canadian market would prove to be too small to fit Ford’s plans. By the mid 20’s, the Ford label had crossed the ocean and reached England, France, Germany, Denmark, Austria as well as distant Australia. The company’s activity on European grounds further helped the brand’s revenue growth.

War would not shake the Ford company as bad as other car makers. Post WWI improvements include the introduction of four-wheel brakes and a series of new vehicle releases to match new consumer demands. In 1922 Ford entered the luxury car segment with the acquisition of the Lincoln Motor Company, named after Abraham Lincoln whom Henry Ford admired.

Ford Motor Co. was one of the few big American corporations to survive the Great Depression, although the plummeting automotive sales led the company to scale down its operations and lay off many workers. In May 1929, Ford Motor Co. signed an agreement with the Soviet Union to provide technical assistance until 1938 to construct an integrated automobile-manufacturing plant at Nizhny Novgorod, in exchange for the Soviets purchasing $13 million worth of automobiles and parts. Under this agreement many American engineers and skilled auto workers went in 1932 to work on the Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (GAZ), or Gorki Automotive Plant. The few who remained in the Soviet Union after the completion of the plant fell victims to Stalin’s Great Terror, ending either shot or exiled to Soviet gulags.

With the arrival of WWII Ford increased its influence on the global stage becoming an active player in the war effort, a thing underlined by US President Franklin Roosevelt referring to Detroit as the “Arsenal of Democracy.” When the US War Department handed production of B-24 Liberator airplanes to Ford, the output rose to 20 airplanes per day instead of only one per day managed by the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation.

After WWII Ford continued its passenger vehicle operations and in 1955 introduced the iconic Thunderbird model. Then it introduced the Edsel brand in 1958, which proved to be a failure and was dissolved in 1960. Part Edsel’s failure as an automotive brand resided in the onset of the 1957 recession in the States and the vehicle’s high price tag.

Ford Motor Co. managed to get back up from its Edsel failure with the introduction of the Falcon model in 1960 and the Mustang in 1964. The company’s next major step was represented by the formation of Ford Europe division in 1967.

Ford plunged into a state of brand-fatigue that would bring the company to the point of near bankruptcy. Following major sales losses in the 2000’s, Ford was pinned against the wall by debts and the imminence of closing down.

Preferring to make it back on its own, Ford mortgaged all of its assets in 2006. As of then, the company has releases a variety of new models both under the Ford brand name and the rest of the sub-brands it owns such as fresher and edgier Mercuries and flashier Lincolns, Ford’s luxury division. Business in Europe has also been good for Ford, especially after the introduction of the Focus model in 1997 and although it hasn’t fully recovered, it’s definitely on the way to regaining popularity.