It has been a public company since the 1950s, but Ford (F -0.40%) is unique among Detroit automakers in that it's still a family business. Chairman Bill Ford is founder Henry Ford's great-grandson, and in recent years he has done an excellent job of setting the company's overall direction.
But many Ford fans and investors don't know that Bill Ford is backed by a very powerful force -- the rest of the Ford family, which to this day still has control thanks to a special class of stock created when Ford first went public.
In this video, Fool contributor John Rosevear explains how the special Ford shares give the Ford family a huge voice in how the automaker is run -- and whether that's a good thing for the rest of Ford's shareholders.
