Fordism

08/22/2024

Erroneously, Henry Ford is often quoted by modern marketing guru fuckwits (the LinkedIn type) as saying;

“If I had asked people what they wanted they would have said faster horses“.

This to imply that you shouldn’t waste your time asking your dumbarse customers what they want if you ever want to genuinely innovate.

What Ford actually said (and I’m quoting directly from his autobiography) is;

“Our purpose is to construct and market an automobile specially designed for everyday wear and tear – business, professional and family use; an automobile which will attain to a sufficient speed to satisfy the average person without acquiring any of those breakneck velocities which are universally condemned; a machine which will be admired by man, woman and child alike for it’s compactness, it’s simplicity, it’s safety, it’s all-around convenience, and – last but not least – it’s exceedingly reasonable price, which places it within the reach of many thousands who could not think of paying the comparatively fabulous prices asked for most machines.”

Difference much?

Later on the book he went on to say;

“The [Ford] salesmen … listened only to the 5 percent, the special customers who could say what they wanted, and forgot all about the 95 percent who just bought without making any fuss.”

That is, Henry made a point of listening to the silent majority, not ignoring them.