04-09-06: Ford Motor Company is losing market share to Toyota and Honda faster than they can cut the jobs and close the unwanted plants. This isn’t the economy, competitors are getting quite rich. The reason is years of products that aren’t what people want. Period.
From the outside looking in, so many things are crystal clear to what should be happening on the product end. But having been a product manager inside a mega-corporation myself, I know well that corporate culture and the politics of committee can prevent changes from occurring, let alone creative solutions that involve risk.
Armies of people sit in meetings day after day. They don’t speak what is really on their mind, what their gut tells them. Committees are about who sways the group, not who can solve problems. Nobody wants to be the guy who says, “You are all wrong.“ Everyone in the room knows better. That guy isn’t a “team player”. That guy doesn’t move up.
Granted, I have the luxury of pointing my finger because I don’t have five Directors of Nano-Management to report to. I don’t need to please them by placating their belief that four, five or six sided triangles are good to keep my job. If I were in charge at Ford, there are some simple but in some cases boat rocking changes to make. I have the goods.
Mercury Division: Eliminate it.
Extra layers of chrome on the same boring cars aren’t a good thing. They never have been and they never will be. These cars trimmed up for the aged are killing the image of the company in the eyes of the up and coming youth who need to buy Fords in the coming decades. Tell the dealers you are sorry and give them better Lincolns to make up the difference.
Lincoln Division: Give them some really GOOD cars.
Cadillac is cleaning your clock and so is Chrysler, quit playing around with "flavor-of-the-month" grille treatments and satin trims. Build some real premium cars that aren’t just re-labeled Fords.
- Kill the Five-Hundred based MKS program. The car is heavy and bloated looking. With a transverse V8 and AWD the car is a tank. This arena is far too crowded with better cars from Lexus, Infiniti, Acura and many others. The car will be the 1990’s Continental all over again. Don’t waste the time and money on another “runner-up” car.
- Build some serious new rear-wheel drive cars. Dare to compete with Chrysler and Cadillac. Put V8’s in them and don’t apologize for gas mileage. The market is going back to RWD, even the Japanese are doing it. Don’t be the last idiot trying to pawn off near-luxury torque-steering FWD boats. Accomplish this by using the Mustang platform and the Australian RWD full-size platforms. Heck, just bring the OZ-cars here. They are ready to go as is!
- Re-design the all new re-designed 2007 Navigator. Who approved that orthodontic mess anyway? Put back the Lincoln trademark bold grille and give it some horsepower to compete with the new Escalade. Get serious or just quit building it.
Ford Division: Get going on cars.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. You are already building some great cars in other parts of the world. Get them federalized and sell them here. To the American product guys, put your egos away and leave the cars alone. Don’t dress them up with crap you think Americans want.
- Bring the world class European Focus over here now. Quit selling us the old-school Focus that’s one step shy of an agricultural implement. Even Communist China is getting the newer Ford Focus, a slap in the face for Americans.
- Bring the European Focus C-Max over here. Talk about a segment busting car that not only looks great, but offers what the mid-grade SUV’s do in utility with better handling and mileage.
- Bring the European Ford Ka or Fiesta over here. The US market is aching for cool small cars. If you are worried about them collecting dust in Omaha, only offer them in “blue state” cities. It worked for Scion.
- Raid the Australian Ford model line up and build the Falcon and Fairlane models here exactly as they are. With IRS rear wheel drive, inline sixes and 5.4 liter V8’s they are exactly what we need without all the ground up design and engineering expense.
- Dump the Freestar and stamp out the Euro Ford Galaxy here in the states. It is a far better vehicle and doesnt say, "I gave up on life" to everyone that sees you driving it.
Ford Trucks: Do some new thinking.
- Bring the European Transit Van over here and can the old outdated Econoline. Daimler Chrysler is gobbling up all the commercial business with their Sprinter. You can do it! Slide on the ice and take a chance. The Transit is better all around than the old Econoline and will do well here even though it might cost more.
- Ranger anyone? Build a new small truck line that is more in keeping with the new Honda Ridgeline. The time for FWD based and all-wheel-drive small trucks is finally here. Take a look at the new Dodge Rampage concept. That thing is headed for production. Don’t let them have the entire cake. Just shut down the current Ranger assembly line until it is ready, we’ll wait.
- Super Duty. Careful there! Spy photos of the next Super Duty trucks have surfaced that tell me that people in committee meetings are still designing the cars with psycho-graphic studies and percentage charts. Kill that thing before it gets out of the factory. If that truck hits showrooms looking like the photos show, you can kiss the HD truck market goodbye.
- Keep on building great F-150’s. You are on the right track there.
Don’t overplay the “Green Card“.
It is hard to take seriously the new “green-minded” Ford with all the hybrid hype when the same lot is bursting with F-250’s and Expedition XL’s. Don’t you see the oxymoron of having Kermit the Frog trying to woo sandal-clad “above the fray” environmentalists in one corner of the showroom while Toby Keith is slinging Budweiser at rednecks in the other?
In the big picture the simultaneous effort takes credibility away from the overall message. The Hybrids are great, but don’t bank your brand image on them just yet. You cant be all things to all people.
Summary It is easy to be an armchair Chairman I admit. There are complexities and expenses that could fill a library for each and every one of my “simple” ideas. On the plus side, there are signs coming out of the Glass House that things are looking up. Mark Fields is on the job and his track record for changing bad to good is one that deserves the benefit of doubt. News of the old guard moving on to other pastures comes out of Dearborn almost daily, so something is getting shaken up. Thus, I will stop for now my preach and observe.
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