“Quality means doing it right when no one is looking,” said Ford and he followed this philosophy ardently for the near half century in which he was in business.
Ford laid his reputation on the line when he incorporated Ford Motor Co. in 1903, but for him, it was not a risky decision since he had spent his entire life up to that point designing and perfecting his vision of the automobile. He was willing to put his name on the company and to stand behind it because he had the utmost faith that his car was of the highest possible quality. “First we ought to find out whether it is as well made as it should be – does it give the best possible service?” Ford would ask.
For Ford, quality was the number one priority in manufacturing his cars. He felt that if one of his cars broke down on a customer, that he was personally to blame. “A man who bought one of our cars was in my opinion entitled to continuous use of that car, and therefore if he had a breakdown of any kind, it was our duty to see that his machine was put into shape again at the earliest possible moment.”
But, unlike the wisdom of the day, which was to constantly be improving and changing designs, Ford believed in getting things right the first time around. It was for this reason that his original Detroit Automobile Company went bankrupt – Ford was putting more energy into getting the design of the first car correct before producing it than on manufacturing it as it was and improving it in later models. But, Ford knew that this failure would not be the end of him.
“That is the way I have always worked,” said Ford. “I draw a plan and work out every detail on the plan before starting to build…Many inventors fail because they do not distinguish between planning and experimenting.” Without this adequate preparation, Ford believed that not only would he have wasted a lot of time later on, but he would have been providing an initial product that was not up to par for the level of quality that he wanted. Indeed, the 12 years of preparation that he put into designing the Model T paid off handsomely.
“The economic and technological triumphs of the past few years have not solved as many problems as we thought they would, and, in fact, have brought us new problems we did not foresee,” said Ford. He did not believe that change was necessarily progress. Speaking to the tendency for his competitors to release a new model each year, Ford said, “A fever of newness had been everywhere confused with the spirit of progress.” Instead, Ford preferred to have one outstanding model that could stand the test of time and he took the preparation time to ensure as much.
Ford also disliked the industry’s general indifference to better methods of manufacturing so long as “whatever was done got by and took the money.” Placing a greater priority on quality than his stockholders, Ford believed that this was one of the most important factors for a business to be successful. Rushing into business without being 100% confident in his product was unacceptable to Ford, and was, according to him, one of the major unrecognized causes of many business failures.
“I do not believe in starting to make until I have discovered the best possible thing,” said Ford. “This, of course, does not mean that a product should never be changed, but I think that it will be found more economical in the end not even to try to produce an article until you have fully satisfied yourself that utility, design, and material are the best.”
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I haven't written much in the Failure series lately, but I've got a doozy or two coming soon. 
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