Rolex, Ford, Walton & Hershey: Key Business and Marketing Insights
Ben Franklin store rent
$25,000 annually (high for that time).
Sam's first year sales
About $80,000.
Watches in battle
Allowed quick time checks in battle without pulling out pocket watches.
Company Henry Ford was fired from
Edison Illuminating Company.
Detroit Automobile Company founding
Founded in July of 1899.
Henry Ford's first company name
Henry Ford Company → became Ford Motor Company in 1903.
Sam Walton's employer
J.C. Penney.
Sam's sales strategy
Low prices every day (Everyday Low Prices).
Advantages of self-service
Lower costs, faster shopping, and more sales per customer.
Chocolate's status
Luxury for the rich.
1913 plant advantages
Mass production at lower cost → competitors had to modernize or shut down.
Great marketing's impact
Only great marketing is needed to make a company successful.
Model T original price and change
Originally about $825 → dropped to $360 in 1916.
Rolex's initial watch preference
Pocket watches were considered more fashionable/prestigious than wristwatches at first.
Great Depression causes
Sales plummeted, layoffs, and Ford shut down plants temporarily.
Mercedes Gleitze's challenge
Swim the English Channel wearing the Rolex Oyster to prove its waterproof durability.
Hans's prediction in 1914
That wristwatches would become more popular.
First waterproof wristwatch
The Rolex Oyster (1926).
Hans's escape from negative home life
Through hard work in school, sports, and entrepreneurship.
Rolex's move to Switzerland
To avoid taxes and to protect from political instability in Germany.
MH's parents' farm sale
To pay off family debts.
Sam's profit strategy
Volume (sales volume/turnover).
Sam's store in Bentonville
Walton's Five and Dime.
Rolex's tax status
Zero ― exempt from corporate taxes because of the foundation status.
August 1899 event
Company failed → gave Ford experience in business failure.
Henry Ford's first steam engine
Constructed in 1878 at age 15.
Quadricycle production issue
Couldn't reverse/fit through standard barn doors.
The Hans Wilsdorf Foundation
A charity organization created for social causes.
Sam Walton's mother's business
A farm (with some small-scale retailing, like milk sales).
Rolex logo description
A five-pointed crown symbolizing prestige and royalty.
Gift from Henry Ford's father
A pocket watch → he took it apart and learned mechanics.
Purchase year of Ben Franklin store
1945
