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Zhang Ruimin : The CEO & Chairman of World’s Leading Appliance Maker Company

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Business is not easy to run, especially, if there are no risk takers or competent leaders. When a company is under major crisis, it’s the leader’s job to step up and take necessary actions to overcome the difficulties. Companies that survive the worst storm come out strong with exceptional energy to surpass their competitors. Haier is one such company which has emerged so strong after it almost sunk that today it has become world’s fourth largest white appliances company. And all the credit goes to Zhang Ruimin who is now the chief executive officer of Haier Group.

Early Life

Born on 9th January 1949, in Laizhou, Shandong, China, Zhang Ruimin’s parents worked in a local garment factory. During his high school, the Cultural Revolution was shaping up rapidly. As a result, he joined the Red Guards along with other students. During the revolution, most of the schools remained closed so students could not attend classes. At such free times, Zhang visited Mao’s birthplace and also attended rallies.

The revolution also resulted in shutting down of most universities, therefore, halting education once again for Zhang and other students. He started working at the state-run construction company, in Qingdao, in 1968.

Early Career

Due to the unprecedented circumstances, Zhang could not complete his education properly. But, the fire to learn and educate himself, kept burning inside him. Therefore, he used to travel back and forth, for the management courses, on his bicycle, in between his shifts. Zhang was also a voracious reader, and read extensively on management.

zhang-ruimin
Image Source: thinkers50.com

After years of hard work, Zhang was promoted to workshop supervisor and, after a long 12 years of service, in 1980, he was promoted to deputy director of Qingdao. In the next couple of years, Zhang got promoted to higher positions. First, as the deputy manager of ‘Household Appliance Division’ of Qingdao municipal government, and next, as the general manager of Qingdao Refrigerator Plant. The second position came to him by surprise, as the previous manager left, and the company needed someone experienced for the position. The company was in deep financial trouble when Zhang took the General Manager’s position.

Resurrecting Refrigerator Plant

Once, on a business tour to Germany, Zhang noticed some crucial problems in terms of reputation and quality. The company was performing in both the cases. While on his way back, he decided to conduct a demonstration for his workers to make them understand the importance of quality of products.

This was the time when a customer came to Zhang with a faulty refrigerator, and they both went through the whole inventory of 400 refrigerators for replacement. During this process, Zhang found out that their products had a whopping 20% failure rate. He called for all his workers and assembled around 76 faulty refrigerators. Each worker was then handed a sledgehammer, and he ordered the workers to destroy each of those 76 refrigerators. The cost of each refrigerator at that time was so high, that it could cover their two years’ worth wages. Zhang himself took part in destroying the faulty products because he believed if they didn’t destroy them the products would destroy the company one day.

This act not only created a positive attitude in workers but, also gained the company lots of publicity, which helped them to reach big markets in Tianjin and Beijing. Zhang’s management style changed the complete scenario of the company. And, by 1986, the company saw major profits, marching up to 83 per cent.

Haier Group

Qingdao Refrigerator was renamed to Qingdao Haier Group, in 1991, and Zhang was still handling the post of the general manager of the company. He also enrolled himself at the University of Science and Technology, in China, for a master’s degree in business administration. After he graduated, in 1994, and the year before, he was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Haier Group.

As a CEO he decided to spread Haier abroad and reach international markets. The company started shipping products to the Middle East and Africa. The company, soon, started expanding to numerous countries, including the United States of America, with its total workforce ranging at 30,000 people. Financial Times listed Zhang among the ’50 most respected business leaders in the world.’

Personal Life

Zhang Ruimin’s wife was a party secretary at a textile factory in Qingdao. He has a son who studied business at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Bruce McLaren : The Kiwi Motorsport Ace From New Zealand

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The great racer who not only raced the cars, also designed and engineered the best racing cars for the world of the car race. At an early age, Mclaren founded the Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd. He was not just a racer but his extraordinary, but short life left a legacy behind him. The Kiwi motorsport icon Bruce McLaren lived his life devoted entirely to his passion.

Early Life

Bruce McLaren was born on August 30 1937, as Bruce Leslie McLaren, Auckland, New Zealand. His father, Les McLaren, was an engineer and motor car man. His father along with his wife Ruth McLaren ran a service station and workshop. Bruce completed his primary education from Meadowbank Primary School, Auckland. Suffering from the Perthes disease, at the age of nine, his left leg remained shorter than his right leg. Due to the disease, he spent the next two years of his life, in the Wilson Home in Takapuna, on a Bradford Frame for treatment and had to leave the school. After two years, he came back to his family and started correspondence classes with a tutor. After completing his high school education, he graduated in engineering from the Seddon Technical Memorial College.

Bruce’s father, being a motor car man, loved cars and car racing. In fact, before the birth of Bruce, he used to participate in the motorcycle racing. Due to some injury, during one of his races, he had to leave motorcycle racing. But, he continued car racing, even after the accident. As Bruce had spent most of his childhood among motors and racing enthusiasts, he also grew a passion for automobiles and racing.

Career in Racing

Bruce was 14 when his father brought an old Austin Ulster to their workshop. His father wanted to repair the car so that he could take part in a car race. The car needed repair and took almost a year, to get back onto the roads. Bruce and his father even skipped meals to get the car done. After getting a driver’s license, at the age of 16, Bruce entered the first race of his life, a hill climb, about 25 miles outside Auckland.

mclaren
Image Source: grandprixhistory.org

For his first real race, he drove the Ford 10 special, and later, moved to the Austin-Healey and an F2 Cooper-Climax sports. In March 1958, he participated in the New Zealand International Grand Prix and was the first runner-up. In the competition, he won the “Driver to Europe” scholarship and became first New Zealander to do so. On 15th March, Bruce left for England, where he drove for John Cooper of Cooper Cars, starting in the very first year in England.

In late 1958, he participated in the German Grand Prix, a combined F1 and F2 race, where he earned his name among the people of England. The next year, in 1959, he joined the Cooper factory F1 team, alongside Jack Brabham, and at the age 22, Bruce won the United States Grand Prix, becoming the youngest ever GP winner of that time. Brabham was the Australian car race driver, who was also in the NZIGP Association’s selection committee. After this win, he won the Argentine Grand Prix (1960), Monaco Grand Prix (1962), and New Zealand GP (1964).

In 1963, Bruce founded the Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd, along with an American sponsor Teddy Mayer, and continued racing, winning many Cooper races. In 1965, he announced his own GP team. Like his father, in the same year, he also invested in a service station. The station was established in his hometown Aukland and was named as Bruce McLaren Motors. He worked with Cooper for 7 long years, and left it, to develop his own Formula One race car, winning the team’s first Grand Prix in 1968. In the same year, he won the 24 hours of Le Mans in a 7-litre Ford Mark IIA, and in 1969, the 12 hours of Sebring in a Ford Mark IV.

Personal Life

Bruce married his wife, Patricia Broad, on 9 December 1961. The couple had a daughter named Amanda. On 2 June 1970, while testing his new M8D, at the Goodwood Circuit in England, his car crashed on the Lavant Straight, just before Woodcote corner and he died in the accident, at the age of 32.

The racing team founded by Bruce continued participating in Formula One races and won 8 Constructors’ Championships and 12 Drivers’ Championships. He has got the Taupo Motorsport Park, in New Zealand, renamed Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park in 2015. His name is inducted in the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, International Motorsports Hall of Fame and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.

Walt Disney : The Pioneer of American Animation Industry

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Disney, a name that can bring a nostalgia among the adults and happiness among the children. The Showman, animator, voice actor as well as the film producer, was the pioneer of the animation industry and cartoon films. The man was a dreamer himself and introduced the world with his the imaginative world, through his cartoons. The creator of the Disneyland did not have an easy path paved for him and had to face difficulties to reach the place where he stands now.

Early Life

Walt Disney was born on 5 December 1901, as Walter Elias Disney, to Elias Disney? and Flora. He had three brothers Herbert, Raymond, Roy and a younger sister Ruth Disney. He was born in Chicago, but his family moved to Marceline, Missouri, in 1906, to do farming. In Marceline, Walt Disney joined the Park School, along with his sister, in late 1909. At the same time, he developed an interest in drawing. He tried copying the front-page cartoons of Ryan Walker in the ‘Appeal to Reason’ newspaper. His interest grew more when he got paid for painting a horse for his neighbour, a retired doctor.

Later, Disney’s family moved to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1911, where his father started a delivery route for ‘The Kansas City Star’ and ‘Kansas City Times’ newspapers. At the time’ Disney joined the Benton Grammar School’ and also helped his father with his work of selling newspapers. Disney also enrolled in a correspondence course in cartooning from Kansas City Art Institute. Meanwhile, he also became familiar with theatre and the world of vaudeville and motion pictures, through one of his classmates, Walter Pfeiffer.

Walt-Disney
Image Source: fanpop.com

In 1917, Walter’s father brought their family back to the city, as he became a shareholder of a Chicago jelly producer, the O-Zell Company. In the city, Walter joined the McKinley High School. He also joined the night classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. The first world war was on, and the young Walter wanted to join the army. But, being an under-age, he was not selected. As a result, he forged his age in the certificates to join the Red Cross as the Ambulance Driver. The army posted him in France. There, he met the future founder of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc who was also working as an ambulance driver at that time. Walter never left drawing, in fact, he drew cartoons for the Army newspaper, and also, painted the ambulance with cartoons. After the world war was over, he came back to the US, in October 1919, and joined the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio, as the apprentice artist.

Early Career

Within one year of Walter’s joining at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio, he had to leave the company, as it was going low at business. In 1920, along with Ub Iwerks, a colleague, from Pesmen-Rubin, he started his own company named as Iwerks-Disney. But, the company failed to accomplish its goals, and both the partners put it on hold, to join Kansas City Film Ad Company, that worked on the cutout animation technique. By the time, Walter found that the cel animation was more promising than the cutout method, and tried to convince his boss A. V. Cauger, to adopt this method of animation. But, failed to do so. He knew the potential of this technique, hence he borrowed a camera and a book, to experiment on the same. He started producing cartoons for a local Newman Theater, in the name of Newman’s Laugh-O-Grams. His cartoons became a huge success and he, along with with a co-worker, from the Film Ad Co, Fred Harman, founded the Laugh-O-Gram Studio, in 1921. He then hired his friend Iwerks, Rudolf Ising and Fred Harman’s brother Hugh.

Under the name of Laugh-O-Gram Studio, he produced Alice’s Wonderland?, taking Virginia Davis in the title role. But, before the completion of the film, his company was already shut due to lack of funds.

Founding Walt Disney Company?

Walter’s failure in business never stopped him from trying. In July 1923, he moved to Hollywood, to his brother Roy, and started looking for a buyer for his 12-minute short film Alice’s Wonderland?. At the same time, Margaret J. Winkler, a film distributor, was also facing struggles with the rights on both her cartoon series’ the ‘Out of the Inkwell’ and ‘Felix the Cat’. Walter needed a buyer and Winkler wanted a new series. So, both of them signed a contract for the Alice’s Wonderland. This contract led to the opening of Disney Brothers Studio?, that became The Walt Disney Company? in future. For the production purpose, Walter persuaded Iwerks and Virginia Davis, along with her family, to move to Hollywood. He also signed a $100 a month contract with Davis.

The Alice series ran successfully, for six long years, and but in those six years, Walter became bored of it. By the time, Winkler’s husband Charles Mintz had taken over Winkler’s work and became more involved in the production. At the end of the year 1927, Disney and Iwerks created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. He wanted the producers to pay more for the new series, but, Mintz was not in favour of that. It caused friction between the two, and Walter was left alone, again with his friend Iwerks, with no property rights to Oswald.

Oswald was already a success, so, Disney needed a potentially better character, which could beat Oswald’s character. In May 1928, Disney and Iwerks produced and tested the screening of the short cartoon film, Plane Crazy, featuring Micky Mouse, for the very first time. Although in the first and the second film of Micky Mouse, Disney could not get a distributor, soon, Walter signed a contract with Universal Pictures. In the next films, Walter also included sound and music. Soon, to increase the efficiency and benefits, he hired more lower-paid artists to draw key poses and tried to negotiate with the distributors, on the payments. But, this resulted in Iwerks to leave Disney and join Universal Pictures. This incident also made the other artists leave Walt Disney, as they thought that he cannot handle the company alone without Iwerks.

Disney was at loss, both financially and mentally. But, Columbia Pictures came to the rescue, and Walter signed a contract with the company. This partnership became a massive success, and he started filming the cartoons in colour. In 1932, Walter won his first Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoon). He also received an Honorary Award for the creation of Mickey Mouse.

In 1934, Disney started his first biggest project, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The production cost for the film was $1.5 million and was called a “Disney’s Folly” by the people, as it was an overbudget project and took four years to complete. But, as the movie released, it became the most successful motion picture of 1938 and was critically acclaimed. Due to the second world war, his next two cartoon films, Pinocchio and Fantasia, could not do well, leading his company into debts. Hence, in 1940, he made the company open for its first public stock offering.

During the second world war, Disney produced many cartoon films, based on the war and Training Films Unit. The war also gave birth to the character of Donald Duck. The films based on the war gained enough revenue for his company.

After 1950, Walter produced various successful live-action movies, including Cinderella (1950), Treasure Island (1950), The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), and Peter Pan (1953), etc.

In July 1954, Disney started constructing a theme park, in Anaheim, 35 miles (56 km) south of the studio. Just in one year, Disneyland was opened in July 1955 and it had 20,000 visitors a day in the coming year.

Personal Life & Death

Disney married, Lillian Bounds, in July 1925. Lillian was also an ink artist, who started working with Disney in 1924. They had two daughters Diane and Sharon (adopted). Lillian Bounds was one of his motivating power, that kept him going.

Disney holds the record of winning the maximum number of Academy Awards by an individual, by winning 22 awards out of 59 nominations. He also earned the Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and multiple Emmy awards, along with other honorary awards.

Walter was a chain smoker, that affected his lungs badly, resulting in a lung cancer. Even after receiving proper treatment, Walter died 10 days after his 65th birthday, in the St. Joseph Hospital, Burbank, California.

Steve Ballmer : The Former CEO of Microsoft

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In the past three decades, Microsoft has become one of the most successful software company, making Bill Gates the richest person in the world. The people behind the success of Microsoft stuck with it since the beginning of the company and has been a part of it till now. It is not only Bill Gates who is responsible for the rise of Microsoft, but people like Steve Ballmer have also been the strongest pillar of the Microsft empire. From the product manager to the CEO of Microsoft, Steve has also seen tremendous success with the success of Microsoft.

Early Life

Ballmer was born as Steven Anthony Steve Ballmer, on 24 March 1956, in Detroit, Michigan, to father Beatrice Dworkin and mother Frederic Henry Ballmer. His father worked as the manager at the Ford Motor Company. He spent three years of his childhood in Brussels, where he attended the International School of Brussels. After coming back to Detroit, he joined the Detroit Country Day School. Being a bright student, Ballmer was able to win a scholarship after scoring 800 marks in the mathematical section of the SAT.

After completing his school, Ballmer joined Harvard University and earned a B.A. degree in applied mathematics and economics. In the college, he not only excelled in studies but also, acted as an important part of various college activities and clubs.

Steve Balmer
Image Source: forbes.com

After graduating from Harvard University, he started working as the assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble. After working for two years in the same position, Ballmer decided to go back to school, and pursue a master’s degree. Hence, he enrolled in the Stanford Graduate School of Business in California.

Journey with Microsoft

Ballmer had met Bill Gates at the Harvard University, as he was also a fellow student there. In fact, Ballmer scored more than Bill Gates, in an exam conducted by the Mathematical Association of America’s. The time he was studying at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, in California, Bill Gates offered Ballmer the position of the 30th employee and the first Business Manager of Microsoft. Ballmer left his studies in between, and joined the company, on $50,000 salary and a small share in the ownership of the company.

Besides securing the position of the Business Manager of Microsoft, Ballmer also held the positions in the operations, operating systems development, and sales and support, in the company. In 1993, Ballmer became the Executive Vice President, of the Sales and Support department of Microsoft.

In July 1998, he was appointed at the second highest position of the company, becoming the President of Microsoft. He was also the head of the .NET Framework development team.

On 13 January 2000, Bill Gates handed over the position of the CEO to Ballmer, continuing as the chairman of the board, and the chief software architect of Microsoft. At the time Ballmer was the CEO of the company, Microsoft saw a huge surge in the profits and annual revenues of the company. Ballmer became one of the most successful CEO, and his performance made him top the list of the most efficient CEOs of all time.

Ballmer as the CEO of Microsoft started various new businesses and introduced the competitor of Sony Play Station, i.e., the Xbox, to the world. He also created the most powerful services, under the name of Microsoft, such as Exchange, Windows Server, SQL Server, SharePoint, System Center, and Dynamics CRM. Also, he led the many beneficial acquisitions of his time including Skype.

By the end of 2012, few of Ballmer’s decisions, as the CEO of the company, resulted in bad backfires, resulting in criticism. In fact, he was named one of the worst CEO’s by the BBC, in 2013. Even with the criticism, he was able to accomplish the major acquisition as CEO for Microsoft, by acquiring the Nokia’s mobile phone division, in September 2013. On 4 February 2014, Ballmer retired as the CEO of Microsoft and also resigned from the Board of Directors of Microsoft, on 19 August 2014.

Personal Life

Ballmer is married to Connie Snyder, since 1990. He along with his wife and three sons live in Hunts Point, Washington. After retiring from Microsoft, he purchased the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers in a bid of $2 billion, on 29 May 2014. He is also in philanthropy, and donated $50 million to the University of Oregon, in 2014 and US$1 million the Jewish National Fund, becoming a member of its Chairman’s Council.

Susan Wojcicki : The Second Chief Executive Officer of YouTube

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From being a mother of five children to making a name in the list of the Most Powerful Women of biggest forums like Forbes and Fortune, Susan Wojcicki has become an inspirational example of women empowerment. A part-time painter, doodler, and a scholar from the University of California, Wojcicki is responsible for Google’s most beneficial deal- YouTube. The current CEO of YouTube oversaw the potential of the user-uploaded content, and convinced Google’s board members, to give her idea the green light, and steal the deal.

Early Life

Susan Wojcicki was born on 5 July 1968, to a physics professor, Stanley Wojcicki, and Esther Wojcicki, an educator, in Santa Clara, California. Her father served at the Stanford University, so she along with her two sisters, Janet Wojcicki and Anne Wojcicki, spent most of their childhood in the university campus.

Susan Wojcicki
Image Source: flickr.com

Wojcicki completed her high school from Gunn High School, Palo Alto, California. In 1990, she graduated from the Harvard University with primary subjects, history and literature. Later, she attended the University of California, to pursue a master’s degree in economics, followed by an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

During her graduation, Wojcicki took Computers as a subject and grew an interest in it. Her interest led her to drop the long-term plan of pursuing a career as an educator and choose a career in the technical field.

Early Career & Joining Google

After her MBA, Wojcicki started working in the marketing team at Intel in Santa Clara, California, in 1999. Later, she became the management consultant at Bain & Company and R.B. Webber & Company. In the year 1998, the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, used Susan’s garage in Menlo Park, as their first Google office. In 1999, she joined Google as the first marketing manager and the 16th employee of Google. She was also among the first Google Doodle team and has been a part of Google’s most important projects, like Google Images, AdWords, DoubleClick, and Google Books.

Wojcicki continued working in the marketing department of Google, becoming the senior vice president of Advertising & Commerce department of Google. In 2007, Google acquired DoubleClick by paying $3.1 billion, on the suggestion of Wojcicki.

CEO of YouTube

During the rise of YouTube, Wojcicki foresaw the scope of it and advised Google to take over it, merging the Google Video into it. Hence in 2006, Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion. Within less than a decade of the acquisition of YouTube, YouTube valued at $160 billion, 100 times more than the initial investment of Google.

In February 2014, Wojcicki was appointed as the second CEO of YouTube. After she became the CEO, the number of logged in users per month raised to 1.9 billion, watching videos on it one billion hours a day. Her leadership rose, up to 30% female employees in the YouTube office. She also imposed some policies on the content of YouTube to prevent hate speech and violent extremism.

Personal life

On August 23, 1998, in Belmont, California, Wojcicki got married to Dennis Troper. The two are parents of five children. Wojcicki and Dennis Troper move philanthropy through the Troper Wojcicki Foundation. She has been a supporter of Women’s computer education. She even advocated for the paid maternity leaves for women and gender discrimination. In 2017, Wojcicki was ranked at number 6 in the list of Forbes World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

Karl Benz : The German Inventor & the Founder of Mercedes Benz

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The founder of the world’s first automobile, powered by an internal combustion engine, and one of the most expensive cars in the world, Karl Benz was a German engineer and entrepreneur. The great inventor who introduced the world with his signature design of the first horse-less carriage has been inspiring the world for years.

Early Life

Karl Benz was born on 25 November 1844, as Karl Friedrich Michael Vaillant, to Johann Georg Benz, a locomotive driver, and Josephine Vaillant, in Mühlburg, Germany. During the time of his birth, his parents were not married, but, tied the knots, only after a few months of his birth. After the wedding, Karl received his father’s surname Benz. But, his father died of pneumonia when Karl was just 2 years old.

Karl Friedrich Benz
Image Source: jarmunaplo.hu

Karl completed his school education from the local Grammar School, and joined the Poly-Technical University, for further education. The founder of the science-based mechanical engineering, Ferdinand Redtenbacher, was one of his professors, at the University. In 1860, he started studying mechanical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe. On 9 July 1864, he graduated from the university as a mechanical engineer, at the age of 19.

Career

As soon Karl graduated, he looked for a job and started working as a mechanical engineer. He switched between many companies for almost 7 years, but could not fit in. He worked as a draftsman in a scales factory, worked for a bridge building company, and even worked in an iron construction company.

In 1872, Karl joined his hands with August Ritter and started an Iron Foundry and Mechanical Workshop, named as Machines for Sheet-metal Working, in Mannheim. Due to his partner’s irresponsible behaviour, the first year of the company went really bad. The company was facing losses, so, Karl’s fiancée Bertha Ringer, acquired the shares of August Ritter, with the money of her dowry.

Karl started working on the various vehicle parts, including ignition, spark plugs, gear, carburettor, water radiator, and clutch. He loved running bicycles and always wanted to make an automotive bicycle. His another dream was to replace the horse carts with the automotive engine carriages. In December 1885, Karl assembled his first two-seater, fully powered gas car. He received the patent for the two-stroke engine in 1879.

Karl was clear about his intentions, and soon he patented the speed regulation system, the ignition using sparks with battery, the spark plug, the carburettor, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water radiator.

Due to the high expenditure on the experiments, Karl and Bertha became weaker, financially, and were forced to sell the shares of their company to photographer Emil Bühler and his brother. The company was renamed to Gasmotoren Fabrik Mannheim, in 1882, and Karl had only 5% of shares left in it. In 1883, Karl resigned from the company.

The Rise of Benz Motors

In 1883, After leaving Gasmotoren Fabrik Mannheim, Karl with Max Rose, the owner of a bicycle repair shop, founded Benz & Companie Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik. The company had 25 employees and became popular with the name Benz & Cie.

With the company, Karl started working on a horse-less carriage, named as Benz Patent Motorwagen, and registered the patent for the same, on 29 January 1886, as DRP-37435. With the four-stroke engine, he developed the carriage, that was pulled by a bicycle and, was based on the similar technology, when he created an automobile.

Karl kept on improving the vehicles and launched the next version of the same, the Motorwagen Model 2, in 1889, followed by the Model 3 in the same year. In 1988, the Motorwagen was open for sale and received a good response from the public.

In 1988, Bertha Karl’s wife along with their two children, went on a drive on the Motorwagen, from their hometown to Bertha’s mother’s house, in Pforzheim. The distance between the two places was 106 km, and it is said to be the first longest trip done on the Motorwagen. The motive behind the drive was to make people aware of the feasibility of the newly invented carriage. Interestingly, Karl was not aware of the trip and Bertha informed him about her success through a telegram.

Karl kept on experimenting, and by 1899, his company had 430 employees, producing 572 units of their product, becoming the largest automobile company in the world.

Soon, with the time, Karl produced a few racing cars and some affordable personal vehicles for people. Karl also gets the credits for building the first truck with an internal combustion engine (1895) and the flat engine (1896).

In 1906, Karl Benz, Bertha Benz, and their son, Eugen, founded the private company, C. Benz Sons, Karl remaining the director of Benz & Cie. The company was established 10 kilometres east of Mannheim, nearby Ladenburg, producing automobiles, gas and petrol engines. The company produced affordable vehicles, becoming most popular in London as taxis.

In 1923, Germany went through a rapid inflation, resulting in a lesser production of vehicles. Benz & Cie signed the “Agreement of Mutual Interest” with the infamous DMG (Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft), that was valid till 2000. Under the agreement, the two brands produced vehicles with mixed technologies, maintaining their own brands. It lifted both the companies shares, and the two managed to fight the economic crisis.

The two companies together launched the diesel trucks line, in 1927, and Karl served as the board member of the newly founded company until he died. Many of the Karl’s first and most important inventions are still preserved in Mannheim.

Personal Life

Karl Benz married his fiancee, Bertha Ringer, on 20 July 1872. The couple had five children. On 25 November 1914, on his seventieth birthday, the Karlsruhe University awarded Karl Benz an honorary doctorate.

On 4 April 1929, Karl Benz died from a bronchial inflammation, at the age of eighty-four. In 2011, a movie named Carl & Bertha was made on the life story of Karl and Bertha.