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Henry Leland

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15
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2020-05-31
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2020-05-31
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  1. “And so, response to this, a lot of stockholders sent him letters. Most of them, they were sympathetic and they appreciated him fighting on this. Here's one. He says, I'm just in receipt of your copy of the form letter, which you address the stockholders in Lincoln Motor Company. I want to thank you for it. I was a very small stockholder in your company having invested between $1,000 or $1,100 into it. I learned to drive on your splendid car, the Cadillac, and I knew the Lincoln was going to be a great achievement as well. So I went into this with the little money I had. My father was an admirer of yours. I once met you at my father's house when I was making him a visit. I know the account of what you say took place between you and Henry Ford is true. And I feel grateful to you for the long and bitter fight you have made to obtain justice for your shareholders. I wish I could say don't worry about it anymore. I can say so for myself, and I do.”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Says on September 1st, 1931, Henry Leland wrote this last letter to the stockholders of Lincoln Motor Company. I am 88 years of age. On the threshold of the exit from life ready to meet my maker, and I am unwilling that this case be ended without my putting myself on the record. I have followed every step of this fight to obtain our day in court. To me this case has meant the fulfillment or the failure of the agreement I obtained from Henry Ford for those individuals who suffered loss directly because of their faith in me. This suit was not brought in my own behalf, for mister Ford paid me personally the amount agreed upon. I have brought this and together with my son Wilfrid and entirely financed this suit on behalf of those others whose benefit disagreement was made.”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Henry Leland's life, and he fights. There's multiple years. It goes on, I think, four to six years of him trying to get Henry Ford to honor his word where he said he'd pay back the shareholders. And they wind up, again, he doesn't have any writing. He have promises with accountants and attorneys, but he does not have this in writing. And so Henry Ford never did. So after almost four years of litigation, the Lelands had to notify the stockholders that all the efforts had been exhausted on their behalf. Again, this is Henry Leland just trying to be an honorable person, and he's doing this right before he dies. He's in his late 80s at this point.”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “You know, their lifelong friend Henry, and they're just like, We had to vote with my family. And so Henry and his son, they did not believe in quitting. And so I would say this is an example of he had Henry Leland had an honorable personality and he wanted to keep going so he could pay back the people that believed in him. So says it was manifestly impossible for the Lelands, men of tender heart and unswerving integrity to take a cold, dispassionate view of the financial straits of the Lincoln Company. Many automobile companies had had money troubles. Some had undergone a variety of reorganizations, combinations, and other strategies to keep alive, and the directors and management had not been considered dishonest or insensible of their trust, even though investors may have lost a portion or all of their equity. But such a course was unthinkable for the Lelands. As long as there was breath in their bodies they would oppose it.”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “And our mechanic returned with a good order and a check in full payment. That was our beginning. What you see here now is that result. You may tell Mr. Leland his order will be filled and delivery made as requested. And so I would summarize that section as if you do the right thing people will remember. So now the war is over. I'm fast forwarding and they start manufacturing a car. Now keep in mind, Henry Leland is the opposite of Henry Ford. Henry Ford is making a $250, $300 car. Henry Leland is making a luxury product. He wants to make the best car in the world, right? Unfortunately, this is the worst possible time to manufacture an expensive luxury car. Here's some details about that. At any rate, the advent of the new Lincoln car had been delayed almost to the very day when the economic depression of the early 20s made itself felt. Five days after the long heralded beauties, they're talking about the Lincoln car, made their debut, other manufacturers”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “20 odd years ago, I had invented this machine and then used all my available money in making up a number of models. These were shipped to manufacturers in different parts of the country with the request that they be given a trial. If satisfactory, I would manufacture as many as the company could use. If not satisfactory, I ask that they be shipped back at my expense with a report. I soon began to get my machines back with such comments as no good, not practical, too many defects. Then a letter came from the Cadillac Motor Car Company over a signature of Henry Leland. He wrote that he believed I had a machine that would prove of great value to the industry if certain defects were corrected. He enclosed a check to cover the expense of my sending one of my expert mechanics to work with him in perfecting my machine. If successful, he concluded, we will place a substantial order. The defects were correct.”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “From his greatest professional achievement that he'll ever see, and probably the best position he'd ever been in. He could have probably stayed at Cadillac till, you know, in his 60s, he's like 77, something like that when he founds Lincoln Car Company, which starts out the Lincoln Company first is organized to produce Liberty engines for the war. And then after the war is over, it's repurposed into automobile manufacturing. But this is where Leland walks away from the greatest opportunities life. When his son returned with his uncompromising answer, meaning Durant's not budging, Henry Leland blew off many months of anxiety and a mighty explosion of wrath. They decided to send in their resignations to Durant and General Motors and find a way to help the war effort independently. It was a heart-rending decision to choose between the solid, well-built Cadillac organization, again, probably the most successful single early automobile brand at this time.”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Was so great because if you were skilled a skilled worker in the early automobile industry, you can make a lot of money compared to other labor opportunities that you had. Henry Leeland thought it was some kind of like, I wouldn't say like mission, but he thought he was doing a greater good by teaching people how to take care of themselves and as a result being able to provide for their families. I would also say a trade about his personality I particularly admire he was dedicated to self-improvement His theory was that the one essential ingredient of success was mastery of oneself as well of one's job So now we get to the point where he's going to leave Cadillac so he's gonna resign him and his son are groomers”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “The rewards it had brought. When he went into business for himself, he never stopped instructing his men in a better way to do things. He labored to teach his workmen his suppliers, his stockholders, and even his customers. He's teaching everybody around him. Anybody could apply to him for advice, and many did. Henry Ford in the early days came over to ask him how to grind his pistons so they would not stick when they got hot. So he would constantly share, even though he was competing with these people, he'd share his information. This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by the founder of Intel, Bob Noyce, who was also the mentor of Steve Jobs. And he says, knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied. And I think if Henry Leland had heard that quote, he would definitely agree. Not only did he do the school of mechanics, first they thought, okay, we need more skilled laborers, but eventually people went to his school and they wouldn't even go, they'd work for his competitors. He still kept the school open. It was very important for him. He thought this opportunity.”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Quality products, and this is the result. When Mr. Sloan bought a car for his own personal use, he bought a Cadillac. This is Henry Leland talking. We buy the best parts we can find. I have always contended price should be considered last by a manufacturer and selecting materials for his product. Now I'm skipping forward. There's a lot of, it's not, you know, you don't start cataloging and then everything goes well. They have a lot of sales, but they don't have a lot of like large financial backing. So then they're constantly short of money, even though they're making profit. And so this is why they sell the GM, because although they fight back from when there's like a financial panic, they're close to running out of money, and then the overall economy picks up. They do more sales, they become more profitable. And even though they're making $2 million a year, they're just like, you know, this is too anxiety-inducing. And they thought, you know, the pitch from Billy Durant is that he has access to a lot more money. I think the early GM was capitalized as something like $60 million, which was huge.”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “So Henry's level quality was so high that he changed the perception. So other countries at this time thought American mass manufacturing, they called it nasty. And so Leland's dedication to quality actually changed that impression. So he insists on precision and his work, the main takeaway from this section is he insists on precision and his work was appreciated because of this. So it says, Fred Bennett remained with Cadillac throughout his life and came to know Henry Leland well. So now he's right later in his life, Bennett is writing Henry's son about his father. There is one thing which I always tell present-day manufacturers, and that is the real basis of the modern standardized car can be put down to the strong religious sense of your father. He insisted on complete accuracy in manufacturing for the reason that it would be wrong to put fine limits.”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Leelands had agreed that they would assume general direction of the Cadillac operation and would spend at least two or three hours there every day, though still giving their major part of their day to LNF, that's his other company. Yet from the first day they found themselves devoting more and more attention to Cadillac and less and less to their own establishment. The Lelands were happy at Cadillac. Henry went to work at once systematizing the operation and winning the friendship of the personnel as he introduced his way.”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “To call Henry. They were very definitive. Either you fellows come and run the factory for us or we will go out of business. So the Lelands became automobile manufacturers. Other men had built cars for many reasons, for the fascination of creation, for the profits in it, but Henry Leland agreed to build a car because he did not want to see a pet engine unappreciated and unused.”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “I forgot to mention something, so I'm about to tell you when this is when Henry agrees to become an automobile offender. He's working on the engine, but he's still running his machine shop. Leland and Faulkner. So he starts working on Cadillac and he thinks it's going to be like a part-time job. And then he falls in love with the work and he realizes the opportunity. So that he winds up dedicating all his time to Cadillac. So it says, remembering those days, Mr. Leland would say, I never intended to get into the automobile business. There was too much trouble in it. But to the directors, it seemed reasonable that if the Lelands could do such a good job on their part of the process, they could probably handle the whole operation much better than it was being done. So these are wealthy people that made money in other domains. They don't really want to run the car company, nor do they actually have the skill set to do so. So that's when they kind of force Lainland's hand. They're like, we're going to shut down if you don't run this whole thing. That's what it means that he was pulled into it. Finally, as the difficulties multiplied, Murphy and Bowen came”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “Henry Leland now embarked on the great adventure of his life. He would play an important role in the organization of Detroit's first successful automobile company. What that means is not only needs the product successful, but the company's financially successful. I'll get to when Billy Durant buys the company from him. But they're making about, I think $2 million a year in profit. And Billy Durant is able to buy the company for four and a half million dollars. And even when GM gets in trouble later on, Billy Durant adds all these other crappy automobile companies, Buick and Cadillac are funding all the nonprofit companies that Billy Durant rolls into General Motors. So Cadillac was by far, if not the most successful early automobile company, one of. It's one of two. It's either the first or the second. Buick's the other one. Again, this is way before Ford hits the Model T. Oh, and I...”

    2020-05-31 · Founders · #128 Henry Leland (Cadillac) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source