Madam C.J Walker: America's First Self-Made Female Millionaire - Essay Sample

Introduction

Sarah Breedlove, who later changed her name to Madam C.J Walker, was a well-known business lady and a philanthropist who came up to become the first African American self-made female millionaire in the U.S. She founded the Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company in Indianapolis. She was born on December 23rd, 1867, to two former slaves, Minerva and Owen Anderson Breedlove, on a cotton plantation in Delta, Louisiana (Lommel, 1993). Henry Ford was a well-known American inventor, industrialist, and a businessman who founded Ford Motor company. He was born on July 30th, 1863, as the only son to William and Mary Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan, where they own a flourishing farm (Dyrud, 2016). Consequently, the following discussion will describe the background of business development and motivation of each of the above-mentioned persons highlighting key innovations and strategies that led to their success. Furthermore, it will discuss the strength and weaknesses of each strategy and its impacts in that period.

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History and Issues

Madam C. J. Walker

Madam C. J. Walker's motivation for success was mainly fueled by her personal experiences and the people around her. For instance, she worked for as little as $1.50 a day to educate her daughter. The most significant motivation, which came as a personal struggle, was in the 1890s when she had a scalp infection that did her experiment with various home remedies manufactured product, including Annie Malone's products. It is here that her passion for beauty products originated. She started by becoming a salesperson for Annie Malone products, and then later upon changing her names, she founded her venture selling a scalp conditioner and healing remedy called Madam Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower (Lommel, 1993).

Sales and marketing strategy was the primary strategy she used to promote her business. She sold products door to door, held demonstrations in various social centers, and even traveled to various regions (Pitts & Snow, 1986). The other was a distinct form of production strategy, such as the differentiation strategy by making a different product from that of her competitor, i.e., Madam Walker's Wonderful Hair Grower. She also used the Market segmentation strategy by only targeting black customers in the south and southeast regions. The last production strategy she used was the product mix strategy by building a factory in Indianapolis, a hair and manicure salon, and training schools in Pittsburgh (Lommel, 1993).

Henry Ford

Since his "Quadricycle" invention in 1896 Henry, Ford faced various struggles in promoting production. The first struggle was to get funding for production. Even though he had several investors over the years, for instance, William H. Murphy with whom they founded the Detroit Automobile Company (later known as the Henry Ford Company), the partnership failed twice due to the bureaucratic nature of business where investors meddled with production (Dyrud, 2016).

However, these struggles came solutions that led to business success. First, he found a new way to maintain complete independence from investors and maintain control of production and later teamed up with a new partner- Alexander Malcomson. Secondly, he identified his market, middle-class Americans, and invented the Model T that was simple and affordable. Thirdly, he Invented the Assembly line, which was meant to cater for the high demand of the Model A and Model T (Dyrud, 2016). Fourthly, he invested in mass production, which incorporated large production plants and the moving assembly line. Evident by building an industrial complex. Lastly, Ford increased the worker's daily wage to $5 for eight hours from $2-34 for nine hours a day.

Comparison

Henry Ford's primary strategy of mass production had the following strengths: it reduced the cost of production by reducing the total expenditure per produced unit (Pitts & Snow, 1986). Due to automation and the conveyor system, there was an increased production rate evident with the production of one Model T in 24 seconds (Dyrud, 2016). However, the strategy had weaknesses. It was inflexible to consumers' demands and was hard to adjust production, hence the reduced sales of the Model A.

Henry ford economically empowered his community and offered job security for his workers by increasing their wages. In turn, he was able to improve their productivity

Madam C. J. Walker's primary marketing strategy had the following strengths; it helped her get direct feedback from the customers and understand her target customers through direct interactions. The main weakness of this strategy was that it required more resources to undertake. She had to travel a lot (Pitts & Snow, 1986).

This personal interaction enabled her to be a political activist, joining in marches and activists groups such as the Harlem leaders who went to the White House to propose a petition recommending federal legislation against lynching (Lommel, 1993). This way, she helped protect the black community.

Conclusion

Ford's success in production led to the implementation of principles of the mass output by factories across the U.S and Europe. In 1925 Henri Fayol, a manager in a French coal company, studied and adopted the unity of command principle (Pitts & Snow, 1986). Currently, companies such as Toyota and Mazda use improved forms of assembly lines integrating human labor and robotics. In the 1960s, the door-to-door salesman had impacted the American culture, being inscribed even in art and plays (Pitts & Snow, 1986). Today this strategy has been adopted by various religious groups e.g., Jehovah's Witnesses

Reference

Dyrud, M. A. (2016). The case of ford motor company. Journal of Engineering Technology, 33(1), 10. Retrieved from: https://search.proquest.com/openview/495d442935b17a3447a0b696ccb00156/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=32062

Lommel, C. (1993). Madam CJ Walker. Holloway House Publishing. Retrieved from: https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=8I0lUdDwV1UC&oi=fnd&pg=PA9&dq=Madam+C.+J.+Walker&ots=oftMhWENbp&sig=C3fr6tC6pBR6dr9jnUF0bxR89B8&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Madam%20C.%20J.%20Walker&f=false

Pitts, R. A., & Snow, C. C. (1986). Strategies for competitive success. New York: Wiley. Retrieved from: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4b3d/3611171aba02ec77d5584fe7262722002719.pdf