Ford announces corporate realignment
Not long after we told you about the likely promotion of Derrick Kuzak to the role of global Car Czar, President and CEO of Ford Alan Mulally officially announced his corporate realignment plan. At the top of the pyramid is, of course, Mulally himself. Reporting to him are the leaders of Ford's three largest units: Mark Fields, Ford of the Americas; Lewis Booth, Ford of Europe and the Premier Auto Group (PAG); and John Parker, Ford of Asia Pacific, Africa and Mazda. Supporting this team will be the aforementioned Derrick Kuzak, whose office door now reads Global Product Development Leader (a.k.a. Car Czar). J Mays is still the leader of Ford's design teams and will support Kuzak. The whole point of defining each executive's role in the company and creating clear hierarchies is so that Ford can begin acting like one company instead of five separate ones, each with their own interests. The biggest change here is that Fields, Booth and Parker will now all be reporting directly to Mulally. In the past, both Booth and Parker would report to Mark Schulz, the company's Executive VP of International Operations. Schulz, however, announced his retirement earlier this month, which gave management a perfect opportunity to cut out a middle man position and improve communication between various rungs of the corporate ladder.
Check out Ford's full press release on this realignment after the jump.
[Source: Ford]
PRESS RELEASE:
FORD ANNOUNCES CORPORATE REALIGNMENT
- Additional Focus on Worldwide Markets and Customers
- Improves Leverage of Global Assets and Capabilities
Reporting directly to Mulally under the new structure are the company's three automotive business unit leaders: Mark Fields, Ford of the Americas; Lewis Booth, Ford of Europe and the Premier Automotive Group; and John Parker, Ford of Asia Pacific and Africa, and Mazda.
In support of the business units, Derrick Kuzak will lead global product development, and report to Mulally. He will also continue to be responsible for product development for the Americas. J Mays continues to lead Ford design and will support Kuzak.
Also now reporting to Mulally, and similarly focused on using the company's global assets to better support its automotive business units, are: Tony Brown, purchasing; Bennie Fowler, quality and advanced manufacturing engineering; Nick Smither, information technology; and Richard Parry-Jones, chief technical officer. Mulally's other direct reports remain unchanged.
"An integrated, global product development team supporting our automotive business units will enable us to make the best use of our global assets and capabilities and accelerate development of the new vehicles our customers prefer, and do so more efficiently," Mulally said. "This new leadership will enable us to work together more effectively as one Ford team to continuously improve the quality, productivity and speed of our product development process."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
purecoda 9:24PM (12/14/2006)
Realign, restructure, bold moves, layoffs, selloffs, buyouts... We get it. Ford is trying to change.
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Hamud 6:19PM (12/14/2006)
Way to go Ford, there's no reason to act as separated company.
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Pete Angilly 7:10PM (12/14/2006)
Alan Mullally is doing EXACTLY what he said he would do. Derrick Kuzak was responsible for the great cars Ford sells in Europe. Everyone on this site has been begging Ford to bring these products to the U.S. Well, here's the guy to do it. There is tremendous potential in this company, with some smart moves like this they will be back. Chrysler, Porsche and others have been in the same situation and through PRODUCT they all came back. Go for it FORD!!
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Tom 7:57PM (12/14/2006)
Because all the news out of Ford is terrible, I believe believe new people and a totally new car line up are needed ASAP.
My prescription for Ford:
Add Euro Fiesta
Replace the current Focus with the 2nd gen Euro Focus immediately.
Replace the Fusion with the new Euro Mondeo.
Replace the Ford 500 with the Australian Falcon.
Add Euro Ford C-Max
Replace the Windstar with the Euro Galaxy.
Replace Explorer with something based on Volvo Suv
Mercury would get the following:
Add the next gen Ford Ka here immediately.
Add Euro Ford S-Max
Keep Mercury Milan
Replace Montego/Marquis with Aussie Ford Fairlane
Replace all SUVs with Hybrid or diesel version of small Land Rover
Mazda would get:
Versia-currently Japan only
AZ wagon-currently Japan only--xB lookalike
3
6
5
Miata
RX8
Redesigned MPV
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Blooooooooooooood 8:12PM (12/14/2006)
I think this is a wrong move.
His title is Global Product Development Leader (a.k.a. Car Czar). That means he is responsible for development of cars all over the world. As everyone knows there are HUGE differenses between USA and other markets. Can an individual do a good job at the same time by overseeing F-150, Mark LT, Excursion and Ka. Ka is that tiny car Ford sells in Europe. European cars are vastly different from American cars, why not just hire a local guy who will oversee entire Europe. Why hire a guy just for the sake of calling him a Czar. I hope it is not just because GM did it.
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NSFW 1:10AM (12/16/2006)
So now Ford is going to be focusing on geography and then tailoring designs to meet customer needs, rather than focusing on customer types and then tailoring things to fit geographic trends. Weird.
Seems odd to me that they've realigned the company around geographical regions, instead of aligning around customer types. Granted, customers have their geographic idiosyncracies, but it's hard to believe that those geographical issues really differentiate consumers more than things like family vs. fleet vs. enthusiasts vs. industrial, for example.
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Tom 11:10PM (12/14/2006)
You mention huge differences between the US and other markets.
Other markets love small cars...do you have any idea how popular Fit and Yaris are right now?
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Andy 12:28AM (12/15/2006)
Tom:
1) The Fusion is a popular car that has earned good reviews, and had the advantage of a healthy V-6 and AWD over the Corolla and the Civic.
2) The US Focus is an entry-level small car that costs under $15,000. The Euro Focus has a starting price of about $22,000. The US Focus's equivalent in price is the Ka.
3) The Mondeo would have a starting price of just under thirty grand if it came to the States. Far above the price range of the Fusion.
4) Europe has little choice in car sizes. It is a densely populated small continent with antique cities, narrow streets, and high fuel costs.
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That One Person 8:39AM (12/15/2006)
#4...What??? How is this not a good move? Have you seen Ford's lineup OUTSIDE of the NA market? It is 100 times better than what we have. Yeah, they will still be able to build an F-150...that doesnt seem to be a problem for them. It is Ford's car market that needs help. And this is the guy to do it. And by the way, they dont buld the Excursion anymore.
Anyways, I think Mullaly is finally starting to get Ford's shit together. I think having all the market leaders together, it will really help with product development.
I have to agree with Andy on this one. They cant just BRING Euro cars over here. Well they could but the cost wouldnt help sell products. As much as we want the Euro Focus, every other person in this country doesnt want to drop close to $20k (base price) on a Focus. But what they should have done was at least re-tool the factories and produce cars that looked and performed like the Euro counterparts.
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roadside observer 9:29AM (12/15/2006)
This is great news. Alan Mulally really seems to be getting Ford's act together. Despite the catcalls from the critics about bringing in a "non-car-guy" for CEO, Bill Ford's decision to bring in Mulally is looking better by the day.
BTW, how popular are the Fit and the Yaris?
This year, the Fit has sold 25,702 copies through November, and the Yaris has sold 64,082 copies through November. Total: 89,784 units, or 0.56% of a market which sees an annual sales volume of 16,000,000+ units. Toyota has sold over 97,000 copies of the Prius alone through the end of November - more than the Fit and the Yaris combined. Sheesh, Ford sells 89,000 F-Series trucks in less than two months.
The Fit and the Yaris may be popular in other markets, but they're not that hot in the US, where the subcompact segment is a niche segment.
Even if Ford could re-engineer the Ka to pass US safety rules, it couldn't sell the Ka at a price that would be profitable and allow it to sell in decent volume.
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Mike 1:19PM (12/15/2006)
Bold moves! The biggest being aligning J.Mays under Derrick Kuzak. The issue with the Focus is that Ford loses a tremendous amount of money with every one they sell. They need a JV in China to desing and produce a small car that is profitable......... I like the direction....Stop the bleeding (buyouts, sell offs) then continue the momentum off of the fusion...next the Edge.... Need to dump Mercury.....
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