The auto industry is one of the largest business entities in the world with dozens of brands. And each brand operates with a different leadership style from one another. There’s the legendary Henry Ford. There is the contemporary Elon Musk. Including there is Carlos Ghosn who was spectacular but ended “tragically”. They are all great people in their respective times.
The following are 6 of the car industry’s most successful figures.
Henry Ford
The name Henry Ford
Founding status of the Ford Motor Company
Born July 30, 1863 in Greenfield Township, Michigan, USA
Died April 7, 1947 in Fair Lane, Dearborn, Michigan, USA
Detroit Business Institute education
Ford pioneered assembly lines in the auto industry, making car manufacturing more efficient and effective.
This economical industry makes car prices affordable, and many people can afford cars. He also revolutionized the American transportation system, as well as the world.
Apart from his innovative approach to the production process, he also provided workers with satisfactory salary increases. This initiative is now known as “Fordism”, namely the mass production of cheap goods at higher wages for workers.
That production method was inspired by Ford’s visit to a local butcher shop. Minimum wages for workers were increased from $ 2.34 to $ 5 in 1914. The best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford to work there.
Henry Ford produced the first car that many of the American middle class could afford, including the technicians who worked at Ford.
The Model T was introduced in 1908, and since then Ford has transformed the car from an expensive curiosity to a practical transportation that had a significant impact on 20th century culture.
Carlos Ghosn
The name Carlos Ghosn
Former Chairman and CEO of Renault, Nissan, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance; former Chairman of Mitsubishi Motors
Born March 9, 1954 in Porto Velho, Brazil
Engineering Expert Education from the École Polytechnique and École des Mines de Paris
Ghosn has several nicknames, such as The Chargers and The Repairing Boss. He managed Renault’s financial turnaround in the late 90’s to create the alliance we know today, Renault-Nissan.
Ghosn is the first person in the world to run two companies on the Fortune 500 list simultaneously.
He is also a member of 74 boards in 16 different industries related to him.
But what is most impressive is that Ghosn was able to turn the company that was almost closed due to loss, namely Nissan, into a profitable company.
Following Nissan’s overhaul in the early 2000s, the Renault-Nissan alliance is now the third largest automaker in the world.
Although he was recently charged with financial and tax embezzlement by Japanese authorities, Ghosn is still a successful man at a time when he was most needed.
While Ghosn has also been removed from his posts at Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi (Nissan owns 34% of Mitsubishi), he is a man whose success stories have been comic and popular in Japan.
Elon Musk
The name is Elon Reeve Musk
The status of the CEO of Tesla Motors, as well as the CEO and CTO of Space X
Born June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa
Physical Science and Economics Education at the University of Pennsylvania
Elon Musk is considered cool by many people because he recently intensely developed the Space X rocket company, after first leading one of the most innovative electric car companies in the world, Tesla.
Previously, he was known as a person who took part in the Paypal financial system.
Musk entered the automotive world in 2003 as a co-founder of Tesla Motors. However, the world’s attention began to fall on him when in 2008 the Tesla Roadster was released, the world’s first mass-produced electric sports car.
As of December 2016, Tesla Motors has sold more than 186,000 electric cars worldwide since the delivery of its first Tesla Roadster in 2008.
Tesla is now the second largest maker of plug-in electric cars in the world after the Renault-Nissan Alliance which first sold the Nissan Leaf.
However, Tesla Motors is just one of the reasons we admire Mr. Musk. His commitment to spreading solar energy widely and helping to reduce global warming, as well as his efforts in the rocket industry, is what will always make him look cool.
Mary Teresa Bara
The name is Mary Teresa Barra
General Motors CEO status
Born December 24, 1961 in Royal Oak, Michigan, USA
Stanford Graduate School of Business Education
She is the first female CEO to lead one of the four largest automakers in the US and one of the largest in the world, General Motors (GM).
Mary Barra – as she is usually called – joined GM since she was 18 years old.
He started at the bottom and later held various technical and administrative positions, including manager of an assembly plant.
Barra was appointed CEO in January 2014. During its first year, GM was forced to announce 84 recall involving more than 30 million vehicles (more than three times the number it sold worldwide in 2013, and more than the entire US auto industry recall in 2013) .
He was summoned by Congress to answer questions about GM products that were problematic and linked to 13 deaths. Of course Barra faces tough challenges to rebuild consumer confidence.
Despite a rocky start, Barra managed to clean up a long-standing “corporate politics” culture at GM.
It also encourages efficiency, production speed, and better quality for GM products.
JRD Tata
Name JRD Tata
Chairman of Tata Group and shareholder of Tata Sons
Born July 29, 1904 in Paris, France
Died November 29, 1993 in Geneva, Switzerland
Janson de Sailly School education
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata is one of the pioneers and early entrepreneurs in transportation in the world.
But most importantly he transformed India’s transport – a country with a population of more than a billion people apart from China – by establishing Tata Motors and Air India in the late 30s and 40s.
Both companies are still operating and profitable to this day.
Born into one of India’s leading families, JRD Tata was raised to become a pioneering pilot and build one of India’s largest industries.
In 1938, at the age of 34, he was elected Chairman of Tata & Sons, making him the head of the largest industrial group in India.
He started with 14 companies under his leadership and at the time of his departure in 1988, Tata & Sons was a conglomerate of 95 companies.
What is less well known is that Tata Motors was founded as a manufacturer of railway locomotives. And in 1954 the company produced the first commercial vehicle in collaboration with Daimler-Benz AG (lasted until 1969). Since then, Tata has dominated the commercial vehicle sector from India.
Tata is very concerned about the welfare of employees and this can be seen in all companies in the Tata group. In 1956, he initiated an ’employee association with management’ program to provide employees with stronger positions in corporate affairs. It also enforces an eight-hour work day, free medical assistance, and work accident insurance.
Akio Toyoda
The name is Akio Toyoda
CEO Toyota status
Born May 3, 1956 in Nagoya, Japan
MBA Education at Babson College
Akio Toyoda (60) is the grandson of Toyota founder Kiichiro Toyoda. He became the CEO of the world’s largest automaker 8 years ago.
Akio led Toyota through the global economic crisis, as well as the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
He also managed to deal with the controversy surrounding the vehicle recall in 2009/2010, which ultimately led Toyota to agree to a $ 1.2 billion settlement for US consumers.
Toyoda called the recall a “turning point” in the company’s history and an opportunity to return to Toyota’s basic philosophy of “customer comes first.”
Toyota is the largest automaker in the world in terms of the number of cars sold each year. And Akio Toyoda managed to further grow his grandfather’s legacy company.
How could it not be, even when the world automotive concept leads to hybrid, electric, and fuel cell vehicles, Toyota can win one of the leading positions with Prius and Mirai products.
