Deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, incredibly fertile and unimaginably ancient, came the mechanical hum of industrialization, the unmistakable signal of civilization.
It was 1929, and Henry Ford was poised to take over the world.
After completely revolutionizing the world of transportation by introducing the Model T in 1908, Ford and his team had transformed the way manufacturing itself took place. By implementing Taylorism—”scientific management”, as it was called back then—the assembly line came to dominate the US, and then the world.
Under his leadership, Ford Motor Company became one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world. Ford's success in the automotive industry made him a household name and a symbol of American ingenuity and success.
In contrast with the way we think of today’s business titans, Ford implemented some progressive labor policies. He introduced a minimum wage for his workers of $5 a day in 1914—significantly higher than average wages a…
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