#98 Enzo Ferrari (the making of an automobile empire)

**David Senra** (0:00)
Ferrari was a genius of entrepreneurship, a visionary who possessed the ability to realize his dreams. When asked how he wanted to be remembered, he famously replied, as someone who dreamt of becoming Ferrari. Ferrari was animated by an extraordinary passion that led him to build a product with no equal. He started in a tiny village in northern Italy, which thanks to him became the epicenter of the most exclusive automotive production in the world.
Ferrari had two fundamental talents.
First, he was, by his own admission, a shaker of ideas and men.
Gifted with a charisma that effortlessly captured anyone who crossed his path, Ferrari could stimulate the energy and creativity of his colleagues like no one else.
He was very demanding, especially when things were going well.
We all had to be careful not to sit on our laurels. He was absolutely dedicated and could be ruthless.
Ferrari's second talent? He was an absolute marketing genius. I remember one visit from a very important and wealthy American client. The factory parking lots were filled with unsold cars, which we tried to hide from public view. The American said, I would like to buy a Ferrari. Ferrari replied, yes, of course, but we have so many requests. I'll do what I can, but I'm afraid that you'll have to wait several months before you can buy one.
That was because a Ferrari must be desired. It cannot and must not be perceived as something that is immediately available. Otherwise, that dream is gone.
In order to maintain the exclusivity of the brand, production has always been lower than the requests of the market. Ferrari the man was an intentional prisoner of his own myth. He had habits that he rigorously respected. He never boarded a plane. He left Maranera only on rare occasions.
Those who wanted to meet him had to come to his office no matter where they came from. He wore dark glasses in order to observe and judge everybody without giving them the opportunity to look them in the eye.
I have many personal memories of Enzo Ferrari and the years that I spent with him.
I like to go back in time to September 7th, 1975, the day of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. It was an unforgettable Sunday. We won the race and brought back to Maranello after 11 years the world title with one race to go. I can still see the roaring crowds on the flags and feel the embrace of the whole team.
But above all, I remember my phone call with Ferrari. From the sound of his voice, I realized that he had been crying.
This had never happened before.
Thank you, he said to me.
It was a very emotional moment that will forever be in my heart.
In this painstakingly researched, entirely accurate account, Luca Dal Monte has vividly captured in these pages the Enzo that I knew and loved.
That was written by Luca di Monsimolo. It's an excerpt from the forward of the book that I read this week, and the one I want to talk to you about today was his Enzo Ferrari, Power, Politics, and the Making of an Automotive Empire.
So this is the longest biography that I've read for the podcast, and there's a lot to get to, so I want to get right into it. Before I go right to the book, though, I want to talk about the scene that's in the new Ford versus Ferrari movie. And it's Lea Iacocca talking to Henry Ford II and a bunch of other executives about why he thinks they should make an offer for Ferrari. And when he brings up Ferrari, the other Ford executives that are extremely unlikable in the movie, if you go see it, you'll see why, they're kind of dismissive. They're like, why? We build more cars in an afternoon than Ferrari does all year. And he says, Enzo Ferrari will go down in history as the greatest car manufacturer of all time. And they're like, what, why? It's not because he builds the most cars.
It's because he spent every lira, which is the currency of Italy at the time, which could be, it's because he spent every lira chasing perfection. He was completely obsessed. And if you go see the movie, you'll see the difference. The people in the movie that are, that come across extremely likable. It's interesting because when I read that book last week, Go Like Hell, I had the same thoughts. Carol Shelby, misfit. Like if you like this podcast, you're going to love Carol Shelby. If you like this podcast, you're going to love Enzo Ferrari. You're going to love Ken Miles, the driver. Those are the people that come off at least like, even if you don't consider Enzo Ferrari likable, you respect his dedication to his craft, right? And then in the movie, just like in the book, Henry Ford II comes off less likable, and the organization, the bureaucracy of the Ford organization in the 1960s, they're almost like the villain in the movie, if you will. And I kind of picked up that same thing when I was reading. Now, the second thing he said that I think is important to understand Enzo Ferrari, it's his personality, because not only is he unbelievably dedicated, it just said in the Ford, the person that worked for him says, he built a product that had no equal. That's exactly what he set out to do. In that case, he reminds me a lot. There's a lot in his personality in the way he talks about other people and other products.