Filed under: Trends, Ford, Earnings/Financials
Bill Ford outlines 3-point plan to employees
In an effort to assuage the fear of his employees over the current direction of Ford Motor Company, Bill Ford sent out a company-wide memo on Friday that details a three-point strategy for ushering the Blue Oval out of hard times. The Detroit News describes the strategy in a nutshell as 1) fixing Ford's North American business, 2) leveraging the company's global assets, and 3) bolstering its leadership team from within and outside the company. Easier said than done, right?In the memo Ford admits the business strategy that fueled Ford for decades has stopped working (i.e. a myopic reliance on trucks and truck-based SUVs). In order to achieve profitability again in North America, Ford has charged Mark Fields and his team with developing products that drive revenue and rapidly reducing costs, as any CEO should we think. Mazda and Volvo will also apparently contribute more to Ford's North American turnaround than they have in the past. Ford's last point about leadership development is already in practice, as the aforementioned Mark Fields, president of the Americas for Ford, has Bill Ford's new progressive policies to thank for his title.
Bill Ford's memo contains nothing that hasn't been suggested before, but its purpose wasn't to unveil Ford's revised "Way Forward" plan, which is due in detail later this month. The note to employees is rather an effort, we believe, to make workers at the company feel more like they're in the loop while Ford wrestles with changing his company's course.
[Source: The Detroit News]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jsmiles 5:01PM (9/03/2006)
The problem with the company in the first place is Bill Ford, I'm sure Henry ford rolls over in his grave the way his great grandson runs the company. He is a poor leader, that thinks the company will go back to the way it was, he is so worried about building bigger and bigger suvs instead of worrying about the focus and even building a smaller car to compete with the japenesse. Also the companies is very half assed and lazy. When you first made the five-hundred, fusion, freesytle, and whatever else uses the 3.0 v6 from the ford taurus, why would you use a engine that was in the tautus, and know a couple years later add the 3.5 v6.
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Wade McQueen 5:21PM (9/03/2006)
Yes, everything is easy...as easy as 1, 2, and 3.
Billy Boy, life is not always so simple. But since you did not earn your way to where you are, it's easy to make the assumption that things come in 3 easy steps.
Lame, so utterly lame. But then again, what do you expect from a company which builds the Ford 500.
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Bob-o 5:38PM (9/03/2006)
"The Detroit News describes the strategy in a nutshell as 1) fixing Ford's North American business, 2) leveraging the company's global assets, and 3) bolstering its leadership team from within and outside the company."
So for the employees, this means: 1) You'll probably lose your job, 2) you'll most likely lose your job, and 3) we'll lose our jobs too.
No need for the runaround Bill, you f'd up big time, and everyone's gonna have to pay for your mistakes.
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Mal Fuller 6:20PM (9/03/2006)
Ford will survive and eventually become as strong as ever. Bill Ford's no dummy and he can spell too, unlike some of his (nearby) critics!
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JackOfShadows 6:28PM (9/03/2006)
Here's a silly question from an old man.
If all you critics of Ford and GM are so dam smart, how come you're not running the companies?
Excuse me? What's that you said? Did you say you don't know how to run an international multibillion dollar company?
That's what I thought you said.
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Jackass 6:44PM (9/03/2006)
Old man,
Let me tell you a thing or two:
The downfall of this multibillion dollar company takes a lot of neglect. A LOT of neglect.
Things just don't wind up in the crapper overnight!!!
We all know sh*t stinks. It doesn't take any special skill whatsoever.
Now, again old man, HOW MANY plants are being shuttered?
That's RIGHT, I knew you would get the answer correct: 12!
Again, negligence of the most glaring type...all steming from the very top!
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Mal Fuller 8:44PM (9/03/2006)
" by Jackass"
Damn, took the words right out of my mouth!
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Mark Filderman hogs limelight while Bill takes all the bashing 9:25PM (9/03/2006)
Mark Filderman the Ford chief of North America is not facing any criticism while hogging all the limelight. Why is this so? Why criticise Bill who has a genuine stake in the company.
The problem is not ford, it is jaguar and land rover frankly. These two blood sucking vampires will take the entire ford company down with them. Instead of selling a healthy aston-martin ford should first sell the ailing jaguar and land rover.
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Ford is making wrong decisions, should sell jaguar 9:29PM (9/03/2006)
jaguar is bleeding close to billion dollars every year. Why is not ford selling it? Beats me.
If a man is injured, do you stop the bleeding first, or do you amputate his healthy arm.
By trying to sell aston martin, ford is amputating the healthy arm.
Jaguar is what is causing massive hemorrhaging, so sell it before its too late.
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Jeff 9:48PM (9/03/2006)
Ford is attempting to offload Aston because it is an easy money spinner. Aston will command a good price as it is making money and has a solid brand strategy. It's dealers are independent of the other PAG brands, sales and marketing is all seperate. Jaguar will come later (if anyone is interested), and will be a much tougher sell
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An observer 10:15PM (9/03/2006)
If Ford does not have a great design to pull people into the show room, then great employees, great commercials, great slogans will not help a car company. Ford has created very bland, uninteresting cars out through the years and now its time to pay for these mistakes. Ford—--The first thing you need to do is find innovative designers to attract customers into the showrooms.
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Ford is making wrong decisions, should sell jaguar 10:19PM (9/03/2006)
To #10.
Maybe. But then jaguar must be shut down and Ford should wait till someone willing will buy the brand or whats left of it.
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Jack Harris 10:20PM (9/03/2006)
How many months till the F series truck is unseated as the number one vehicle sold in America? Ford still has no B class car here to compete with Fit, Yaris, etc, even though they already build these cars for Europe and Australia(Fiesta, Ka, C Max). The rest of its lineup is lackluster. I drove a Ford 500 recently and it was nice, but for $30,000 I would be looking at Lexus or Acura, not Ford. Look at the Fusion and Zephyr look alikes, why badge engineer the same Mazda 6 for 2 different customers, only idiots are fooled by this. My suggestion to Bill Ford:Get rid of Mercury.The old idea of moving up to a Mercury is a joke when the cars are the same as Ford. Make Lincoln a real separate luxury car line, like Lexus. Build Fords that the working man can afford. Make a commitment to build cars in the US, even if it means going to the mats with the UAW and getting rid of some of the insane union contracts in effect today.
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Ford is making wrong decisions, should sell jaguar 10:23PM (9/03/2006)
To #11.
Ford has many interesting cars and talented designers. But brands like jaguar and land rover are sucking huge amount of time, energy, money and causing immense distraction to ford leadership.
Ford is busy burning while appeasing jaguar and land rover establishment.
Why blame ford products?
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Shut down mercury and lincoln 10:26PM (9/03/2006)
To #13
I agree with your comment. Ford should shut down mercury and lincoln. It should get rid of jaguar and land rover.
Ford, Volvo and Mazda. That should be the future of Ford.
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Silver 11:28PM (9/03/2006)
Sadly, Ford only has a handful of appealing vehicles right now. Tragically, they're all Mazdas.
Good luck Ford. You'll need it.
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Jeffrey Salazar 11:30PM (9/03/2006)
Its distressing to me everytime I hear Bill Ford talk. He sounds like an out-of-touch executive without a clue. He is so caught up in the beurocracy of Ford that he can't see what is so obvious to anyone that simply goes to a dreary Ford dealership.
Ford needs to make stylish quality cars that people want to buy. Period. That is the problem. They aren't making the kind of cars that people want. Forget all the other nonsense about creating alliances and leveraging other know-how, etc. That is what you say when you don't have a clue and hope that nobody is noticing.
The team that dreamed up the oh so boring Ford Five Hundred must go. The team the came up with the StyleFree must go. The team that decided that the MkII euro Focus was too expensive for the US and that we want a cost-reduced more conservative rendition of the Mk I must go. Whoever chose the cheap plastics and rubber (that melts in the sun) in the Ford Mustang must go. Get rid of these people and Ford might be able to make a comeback. It seems that the people that gave us the Pinto, Mk II Mustang, the Fairmont, and the 1979 LTD have come back to Ford. Why does this happen at Ford?
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Greg 11:30PM (9/03/2006)
The New Ford Mustangs are selling out as soon as they arrive.
Here is an idea, more 'rear wheel drive' large sedans with a retro look.
Let's see, how about a retro Galaxie?
or.. a retro LTD....
or heaven forbid, a retro early 60's T-Bird.
I bet they'd sell.
Ford's proven 4.6 engine is a winner and would be suitable for all three models I mentioned above.
Just my thoughts.
GregNewYork
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Richard Warren 11:35PM (9/03/2006)
#6 Your screen name fits: Jackass
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John 11:36PM (9/03/2006)
Mazda cannot be the future of Ford. I think the Civic basically outsells the entire Mazda portfolio on a monthly basis. Mazda's business model is reliant on producing niche cars that appeal to a few, and then they go about marketing their clever zoom-zoom. If Ford adopts the silly notion that being cute or novel will sell volumes of cars, they'll fail faster than what they're doing now.
I would even venture to say that Ford is what has made Mazda successful (business-successful, not enthusiast-successful) in recent years. Mazda got to split some of the R&D for the MZR and C-platform (chassis and suspension). What... you think Mazda turns a profit because they are building their Mazda6 and Mazda3 from the ground up all by themselves? Geez.
American automakers cannot make money producing small cars because they're handicapped. Back to the analogy of amputating arms... maybe you should figure out why you have such a massive injury to begin with before you go about amputating a damned thing. Inefficient use of labor and facilities leads to high costs and high costs make producing low-margin vehicles at a profit very difficult. Get rid of the high costs first (you know, don't allow 1/2 of your workforce to be guaranteed jobs for laziness). Find a way to get rid of defined benefit pensions and health care. After that, then you may go about figuring out which parts to amputate.
Chevy said before that they didn't make money on their aged Cavilier. Even back in the NUMMI-Venture-Days of the Geo and Toyota Corolla, Toyota made money for each Corolla while GM lost for each Prism. With a Modern Cobalt, you can bet they're not making money now either. Ford can't make a penny if they tried to sell a C1 based Focus in North America, and I find it hard to believe they do anything better than break-even on the current "crappy" Focus. What about Chrysler and their Calibers? You think an all-new chassis and engine equals grand amounts of profit? (hint, the answer is "no").
The imports can "do it right" because they can "do it and make money." I guess you don't have to worry about fighting with one arm tied behind your backs if you're getting your arms chopped off. Of course, the critics are still quick to point out that the one-armed combatant is losing.
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