Based in Dearborn, Michigan, the Ford Motor Company was the second largest industrial corporation in the world, with revenues of more than 144 billion and about 370,000 employees. Operations spanned 200 countries. Although ford obtained significant revenues and profits from its financial services subsidiaries, the company’s core business had remained the design and manufacture of automobiles for sale on the consumer market. Since Henry Ford had incorporated in 1903, the company had produced over 260 million vehicles.