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Some years ago, I wrote a book on the history of the Willys-Overland company, the only one that, I think, has ever been written. It was a difficult book to write because during the ups and downs of Willys’ existence, most of its historical records were blown to the four winds. It took years to gather all the information I needed.
One thing I don’t feel that I put enough focus on is how Willys was able to grow from a tiny company that was literally one day away from bankruptcy into the second largest automaker in the world. It was an amazing transformation that took place over just a few short years. It’s something I think should be brought to light for  future generations. After all, if one automaker can do it, so can another. It mostly takes having the right man at the top, though a fair amount of luck always helps. I believe Willys-Overland was a success because it had the right man at the top.
The Overland automobile company was founded in 1903 as the motor vehicle division of auto supplier Standard Wheel Company. The new business produced a small two-passenger runabout quite similar to dozens of other small cars being introduced all across America. It was a well-engineered car at a good price so it’s not surprising that Elmira, New York auto dealer John Willys signed on as a dealer. The first year, 1906, he sold Overland’s entire output of 47 cars and inked a deal to buy all the production scheduled for 1907, some 500 cars. He sealed the deal with a $10,000 deposit and went home to wait. When 1907 arrived with no cars forthcoming, John Willys entrained to the Overland plant to find out what the holdup was. Upon arriving there he discovered to his horror that they not only hadn’t built his cars, but they weren’t going to. In fact, they planned to file for bankruptcy the very next day! Besides that, their so-called “factory” was more or less a collection of sheds.
Read on...
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Re: Learning from Willys
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