The New Machine was based during the time of the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt decides to make a whole lot of changes to the regulations during his presidency, and a lot of them being against major corporates. For instance, he launches a campaign against JP Morgan’s railroads. This is not the only person he was affecting. Rockefeller was trying to make sure his oil company was not going to fall to Roosevelt too. While this is going on, Henry Ford, who is young engineer, presents his idea to build and sell his cars to everyone. Cars during that day in age were used as a luxury service and not an everyday item you could have. He had to go up against the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers, also known as the ALAM. The car that he wants to sell is his Model A car. Later on, Ford receives a letter from ALAM telling him that his request was rejected. That did not stop him. Ford decides to challenge a person from the ALAM to a race in his own car. Granted, Ford has never raced a car before, but he did win. This is what makes him famous. Ford starts to build his cars, but ALAM hits him with a lawsuit. The lawsuit comes to an end, and Ford wins his trial. This is when he creates his Model T car. During the trial he also creates the assembly line for his automobiles. This Model T car as he states is “a car a common man can afford”. In the end, he inspires others to pursue their dreams. For example, he helped brothers create the motorcycle, helped Hershey’s chocolate use the assembly line method, and helped a man create makeup.
I found this episode interesting because you do not really know what happens until you look into it. By this I mean that I did not know that Ford has to go through all that trouble to build and sell his car. I did not even know that those type of groups existed at the time. Another thing I found interesting is that even though he was on trial, he still created cars. He never gave up on his dream.
Looking at the perspective of the movie, the relationship between the entrepreneur and the society was beneficial for the product being created. The society helped the entrepreneur, being Ford, chase his dream even though the society did not know they were doing it. In class, we have talked about the difference between innovation and an invention. Innovation is going off an idea that has already been created and making it better. An invention is creating a new product. Ford was never an inventor; he was an innovator. He used an idea that was already created and made it so not only the rich could have it, but also the lower classes. How this type of entrepreneurship affected society is by society not knowing they needed or wanted it. Ford looked to the future when creating his cars. He helped open the eyes to people that could use the automobile. He helped the lower classes feel included in what the upper class had. How society supports this aspect of entrepreneurship is by hinting at the idea of a new innovation. This meaning that society does not always know what they want or need. Looking at what Ford did he just went for the idea, he did not ask people if it was okay for him to build it. Society supports by bringing ideas to the table for those that need the push to create something. The interaction between this aspect of entrepreneurship and society is pretty simple. The entrepreneur should bring the product to the people, not the people bringing the product to them. For example, Ford created the cars not knowing if people would use them or not, but they did because the cars were available. Entrepreneurship and society worked hand and hand in this creation. Look at what Ford uses to create his cars. He uses items from bigger companies as well. He used the steel from Carnegie, oil and gas from Rockefeller, and JP Morgan’s electricity for the factories building the companies. These people were all part of society. All Ford did was use what was available to him, that is how he became a big corporate guy.
