Transcript
Introduction
And now let's jump into the unbelievable life and career of Henry Royce. The historic first meeting of Rolls and Royce took place in 1904. The two men could hardly have come from different backgrounds. CS Rolls had been educated at Cambridge and moved comfortably in London society among his aristocratic and wealthy friends.
Henry Royce had known poverty and hardship all of his life. The only university he graduated from was the one of hard knocks. The one characteristic they had in common was a certain prickliness. This is how Rolls described the first time he met Royce. “You may ask yourselves how it was that I came to be associated with Mr. Royce?" For years, I've been engaged in the sale of foreign cars. I wanted to be able to recommend and sell the best cars in the world.
The cars I sold were the best that could be got at that time. But I always had a sort of feeling that I should be selling English cars instead of foreign ones. I noticed a growing desire of my clients to purchase English-made cars. At the same time, I could not come across any English-made car that I really liked. Eventually, I was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of Mr. Royce and in him, I found the man that I had been looking for years. It was immediately clear to Rolls that Henry Royce was an unusual talent.
Rolls at this time had a prejudice against 2-cylinder engine cars. And so he climbed into the passenger seat of Henry Royce's little 2-cylinder car prepared for all the vibration and roughness that were usually associated with that type. To his amazement, he found that the car had a smoothness and a quite phenomenal degree of silence. He came, he rode and he was conquered.
That is an excerpt from the book I'm going to talk about today, which is Rolls-Royce, The Magic of a Name, the first 40 years of Britain's most prestigious company, and it was written by Peter Pugh. So this is my second time reading this book. The first time I read it was like 3.5 years ago, its originally episode 81 of Founders. I wanted to read it because I think a main theme of Henry Royce's life is that you can actually build world-class products and an amazing business without having to invent anything new. His main talent was an ability to observe, think about, and then improve on existing machines and products.