FYI- Ford has hired a non-car guy to head up the company. I guess he's a plane guy, so maybe not so bad...read here if you give a Sh*t... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/06/business/06ford.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
I have to wonder how good this will be. Boeing has done away with lots of U.S. jobs and sent them to China. Hope that does not happen at Ford, there already on the ropes.
It wasn't that long ago that GM brought in a then-new CEO, the former CEO of General Foods. Dave http://www.roadsters.com/
The best thing Ford can do right now is take the company back to being privately held. Too much media negativity and shareholder criticism is a bad thing. As a private company, you will see more creativity and quality emerge.
Mullally is smart and genuine. even though he's management, labor will now KNOW that someone at the top IS listening and though he has to make Ford profitable, he DOES care. he WILL unite that company and imo he's the best thing to happen to Ford in at least the last 40 yrs!! GOOD MOVE FORD!!!
thats funny, we just hired an MIT astronautics and aeronuatics genius to be our CFO.....our CFO....of a publishing/news company. if i told you WHY we hired him it would REALLy make your head spin. somethings are good somethings are bad, only time will tell.
For 30 years Boeing made the wings for their L1011 here in Toronto,...last year the plant shut down and now everything is made in Korea!.....I can't imagine what an offshore made F150 might be like!
The L1011 was a Lockheed plane. But that's besides the point. Most of the US airlines are financially stuggling, they aren't buying planes or will be soon. The fastest growing market for passenger planes is Asia. Many foreign airlines are owned or heavily subsidized by their governments. If you want to sell a couple of billion dollars of airliners to say Korea, they are going to ask, "what's in it for us?" You say, we'll give a Korean company a contract to build parts for our planes. They have a skilled workforce and a lower labor rate, so it's win-win so to speak. One thing though, so far, all final assembly is still done in the Seattle area. Boeing is getting out of manufacturing the parts and becoming a designer, integrator and final assembler of components made by other people.
Today CNBC interviewed a financial expert who mentioned that Ford's new CEO brings with him experience in increasing production and a good very rapport with unions. Dave http://www.roadsters.com/
It doesn't matter if they bring back Henry himself, if they don't start making cars that people want to buy,it's all over. If you were a couple of billion dollar company wouldn't you hire someone to look into how long the suckers (sorry,the public) were going to keep buying Explosions and F-250's and maybe have something hot, yet economical to operate, on the drawing board? Ford did this to themselves,this new guy is supposed to be good. Hope so.
I'm so relieved to know poor Jacques Nassar has a new job. Nice to know that no matter how incompetent you are still wanted by someone.
I sure see a lot of Mustangs and f150s every day between home and work. I guess they're building something some people want? Oh, and those Fusions are starting to show up a lot, too.
Bill Ford stepping aside is the boldest move Ford could make now. They need to take a look at the market place and try to build cars that people will buy, not the bland look-a-likes they have had for years. Without the Mustang and the F-150 trucks Ford would be out of luck. They have taken retro car marketing opportunities and screwed them up. The new T-Bird laid an egg and the new Zephyr has no outstanding design attributes. Both of these cars are a disgrace to their heritage.
American industry is dying....and if it survives, young people with video game experience will be running it.......good luck
Yes,there are lots of those on the road,but Ford has already sold them. Not many are buying new ones. Ford sales have been down for 7 straight months. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,211717,00.html
This subject is way O/T because it really doesn't include any vehicle of vintage traditional means (Bill Ford himself said in the above highlighted interview that they were moving away from tradition=Huh!) I think that Ford should take a lesson from for the boys over @ Brookville & have have a looksee @ the ever growing waiting list for new 32 Ford Styled bodies=. American Auto MFG's are in the toilet due to poor styling-as well as a screwed sales force. Bottom line is sales!!!!!!!!!!!! "Have you priced a Ford Lately?" Mustang Conv GT's are like $37k when all is said & done add the Saleen or Shelby deal to the mix & you're @ $50-60k. Man, that's a Mustang not a GT, don't get me started on that deal because even though I like the car from an enthusiasts standpoint, stickered @ 135k & in reality selling for more like $155k when all is said & done. I won't be buying one any time soon. Fusion,Five Hundred,Crown Vic=not too exicting too me. GM suffers from the same styling woes as well as pricing. Will be looking forward to the Camaro, but thats all I see for excitement & in that we'll have to wait a couple of years.-Hope that it won't be a let down .
Ford GM and Chrysler are losing for one main reason.....their cars break down more often than Toyotas.......and that will turn a customer away permanantly....along with the customers sons and daughters, and their sons and daughters...etc etc etc. Gonna be tough to bring the customers back after forty years of building crap. Good businessmen survive and the bad ones disappear.
I think he meant MD11. They are knocking down the plant now ( or have already). It is the famous AV Roe plant where they built the AVRO Arrow and that cool US army flying saucer car. A fellow I know was working there during the office demo and managed to save a piece of mural off the wall before they axed it. "Progress" can suck sometimes... Stu
i agree with someone else on this thread. going private has to be a step in the right direction. major shareholders have been ruining companies for better than 20 years now. surely it will stop one day. they demand that the end product be junk, built by cheap labor, all to maximize their portfolios. the only trouble is, where is ford going to come up with the money to keep running in the mean time? they are starting to look like chrysler in the early 1980's. but whats happening at ford is typical of the economy in general, everybody is in all actuality broke as hell, just no one cares to admit it.
Detroit isn't about making cars, they're about making $$$. They aren't about the U.S.A., they're about cheap labor, if it's from overseas and puts an American out of work, they don't care. But how will that out of work American buy one of their overpriced cars?
If they're hiring the guy that made Boeing profitable by cutting thousands of jobs they're out of luck. If they're hiring the guy that drove the process that created the 787 Dreamliner, the hottest selling plane in the business right now, they'll be fine. Boeing deserves a truckload of gold stars for realizing that people don't appreciate being crammed into ever-smaller seats on ever-larger planes. They created an airliner that suits the needs of airlines AND passengers and Boeing is being richly rewarded with orders for their work. For all I know the new Ford CEO could be both of those guys. That introduces another factor. How an employer uses an employee has as much to do with success as the capabilities of that employee. Expect the cost cutter to produce visionary designs and you'll be sadly disappointed. Look for the product development guru to produce advanced design without spending any money and you'll be equally disappointed.
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