#056: Oldsmobile – launched the car industry by outsourcing, creating spinoffs like Dodge

They named the band REO Speedwagon from the REO Speed Wagon, a 1915 truck that Ransom Eli Olds designed. Doughty had seen the name written across the blackboard when he walked into his History of Transportation class on the first day they had decided to look for a name. Oldsmobile introduced the concept of outsourcing Dave Young: Welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not-so-secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is well, it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients so here's one of those. [Mother's Brewing Ad] Dave Young: Hey, welcome to The Empire Builders Podcast. Dave Young here, along with Stephen Semple. Stephen, when you told me today's topic, I got all nostalgic. When I was probably 15, my sister's a year older than me so she had just turned 16 and our first car, she got to drive as a driver and I got to drive as a student driver and then eventually as a driver, was a hand me down. My grandmother's 1971 Oldsmobile 98 with a 455 big, big engine. That thing was a land yacht. Four barrel carburetor. Should not put that in the hands of kids 16 years old, but I think my dad's thought was, well, it's got a lot of sheet metal. We're going to talk about Oldsmobile. Stephen Semple: We are going to talk about Oldsmobile and one of the big reasons why I felt like we need to talk about Oldsmobile is when it comes to the mass assembly line and a lot of that innovation that happened with automobiles, Henry Ford gets a lot of credit and deserves a lot of credit, but there was a bunch of innovation that happened before Ford, that if it didn't occur Ford wouldn't have been able to do what he did with the moving assembly line. And I think it's a lesson that has been lost to history. Ransom Olds deserves much more credit in history than they've gotten so that's where we're going to explore a little bit. Again, before Ford could do his moving assembly line there was a bunch of innovations that had to happen and the car makers that we all know today, this is now the interesting part when we go back to history, car makers we all know today were not the first car manufacturers. We all think this whole thing of first in is the one that wins. Dave Young: Yeah. Stephen Semple: Well in the automotive industry all the players that got in first are all long gone. It was the second wave that became the dominant players. The first car maker in the United States was James Duryea, who made the first Duryea automotive in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1893. We've never heard of them. Dave Young: Who? Nah. Stephen Semple: Right. They ended up getting the money for doing it because there was a race that was held, this 54 mile race that went from Jackson Park in Chicago to Evanston and back again and it was held on Thanksgiving day in 1895 and they won this race. Dave Young: 54 miles. That's just like an average commute now. Stephen Semple: And it was $2,000 prize money. So they got this $2,000 prize money and all the recognition from it and started to make cars. And the first car that they made was the Duryea Motor Wagon and they started making those cars in the 1900s. And they basically made, I think it was about 13 or 14 vehicles before it was all ended. Dave Young: They had not figured out the mass assembly line. Stephen Semple: No, and by 1900 there was a hundred different brands of horseless carriages being marketed in the United States. All of a sudden there was all of these manufacturers, but they were all virtually handmade and as we know were all outrageously expensive and it was cars were perceived as a toy for the rich. Now Ransom Olds was a son of a blacksmith and he ...