Is Ford Running on Empty?
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
William Clay Ford Jr., the head of Ford Motor, could be the family member who resurrects one of the biggest companies on earth — or the last Ford to run it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/business/yourmoney/16ford.html?th&emc=th
Great article.
The only reason I give a vrelt's a*s (bonus points if you get this pop culture reference :o])about this article is because Ford laid off 38,000 workers in the not-so-distant past and that piqued my attention, mainly because I was shocked. I mean, can you imagine the corporate mismanagement that has to be in place in order to put a company in a position to have to mess with the lives of 38,000 workers? That's serious mismanagement.
And anyone who has ever driven their cars can see why. Heck, you don't actually have to drive one of their cars. You can look at them and see the problem.
Their cars are fugly. I'm going to have to put in a caveat to the new Mustangs. I like the neat exterior styling of those cars. However, I'll have to put in a caveat to that caveat -- I've been in one of their new Mustangs and I was not impressed by the interior in the least. They could have made it way cooler. Yes, they have those old-fashioned instrument panels. Yippy skippy. But the effect that I got was not 'cool' -- it was 'cool on a budget'. It looked like a cheap attempt at having something new and different.
Look at the Ford Focus. I heard from someone that the Focus was based on a European design. It looked a little weird when it came out but cool at the same time, with those sharp edges and whatnot. It turned your head. You may have thought it was ugly or perhaps you thought it was cool, but you noticed it. The newer Foci seem to be having their design dumbed down…they are turning into ordinary little economy sedans, with not a whole lot in their exterior lines to make you look twice at them. They are slowly becoming…well…ordinary.
This particular paragraph stood out for me:
'In the executive dining room, the last of its kind at Detroit's big automakers, waitresses take orders from a multicourse menu and bring silver finger bowls betwee the main course and dessert.'
Are you sh*tting me? That company just laid off 38,000 workers and their executives are enjoying these kinds of perks? If I was one of those 38,000 workers or perhaps if I were one of the people who performs one of the 30,000 jobs that are going to be eliminated in the next six years, I would be more than a little torqued after reading about this little bit of 'we're still treating our CEOs like they're gods' bullsh*t.
One thing that I think Mr. Ford is doing somewhat right, though, is holding back on producing hybrids. The alternative fuel market is still very much in flux. Hybrids may be a good start, but they are not the decided solution to high gas prices and dwindling fossil fuels. However, that's still very much a gamble, because hybrids are in fact getting snatched up RIGHT NOW. Ford could very much use the shot in the arm that producing a domestic compact hybrid that's cheaper than an import hybrid would give them. Meanwhile, Ford plans to work on developing flex-fuel vehicles, which seems to me to be the better idea. After all, how many people are out driving cars they just bought a year or two ago that are not hybrids? Gas is obviously going to be around for a long time, though not forever, and people, not just industry, need time to catch up.
Well, that's my Ford rant folks. Enjoy.
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