As Reuters notes, 90 percent of the vehicles Ford builds in Canada end-up in the U.S. So, despite the fact that the Ford F-series is still the best-selling vehicle north of the border, Ford Canada is suffering. All of which leads to the suprise (really?) resignation of Barry Engle, Ford of Canada's president. Though Engle has served for several years for Ford and Chrysler, working in several capacities around the globe, he decided to exit the auto industry just six months after assuming FoMoCo Canada's top job. Engle's new job will be in his native Pennsylvania, working for an agricultural equipment company; IMHO he's using "family time" as a smokescreen. Time for a Lilly Pulitzer: did he fall or was he pushed? And why?
8 Comments on “Ford of CA Prez Quits After Six Months...”
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I place my spot on that he was pushed. Ford has a notorious history for throwing away the best and pushing the rest…Knudsen, Iacoca, etc.
Whether he was pushed out or prudently evacuated under his own power, it would appear to be a good move.
I’m sure he, like most of us, has a family to provide for and, odds are, New Holland will be around long after Ford has gone TA.
Ford Canada’s President is really just a divisional executive job and figurehead (for sales leadership) – the big decisions and money calls are from Dearborn – so this has no strategic effect on Ford whatsoever.
Ford Canada is just a branch operation. Pushed or fell, it really didn’t matter anyways.
Ford Canada hasn’t done well under the American firm’s expert tutelage. The problem is that they’re being treated as a branch office and given a product mix as such, which is problematic, because the bulk of the Canadian (most of Canada is actually pretty urban) market looks more like Europe’s than the US.
While the F150 was their bestseller, their next-best was the Focus, which Ford gutted for 2008. The Focus used to be the go-to car for a lot of people, and the wagon sold very well (the sedan sold best, but that was because it was by a large margin cheaper), and together the hatches and wagon handily outsold the sedan.
And what does Ford do? Cut just about the only vehicle Ford Canada didn’t need to put huge money on the hood to move. Dealers I know were spitting nails when they found out about the Focus.
Did you know that the Focus never saw the sales bump in Canada that it did in the US? That’s because Canadians were already buying the thing.
Now to problem #2: Following the Focus is the Escape, which has been more or less left to rot. Ford pretty much just handed this segment to Honda on a silver platter.
And problem #3: the lack of a minivan or other inexpensive seven-passenger people-mover. The Dodge Caravan is usually in the thick of the top sellers, along with the Civic and F150. Canadians never bought into the Explorer like Americans did, and with the loss of the Freestar and the prohibitively expensive Freestyle/Taurus/Flex, Ford has nothing to sell.
If I were the CEO of Ford Canada, I’d quit, too. Even Volkswagen does a better job of relating to the Canadian market.
“The Focus used to be the go-to car for a lot of people, and the wagon sold very well…”
I sure hope that for the next “world” generation of the Focus Ford gives North America a full line up again. A vehicle like the Focus wagon is perfect for a lot of users.
” … with the loss of the Freestar and the prohibitively expensive Freestyle/Taurus/Flex”
Ford’s abandonment of the minivan segment for not one, but three big pseudo-SUVs is turning out to be a stupid move. Sliding rear doors are very, very useful and minivan buyers are practical people, not slaves to style. Every family with children I know of still has at least one minivan in the fleet. They are so much more useful than any of the SUVs it isn’t funny. How can Ford afford to build the Flex, Taurus-X and Edge while at the same time ignoring the minivan? Why on earth has Volvo avoided the minivan segment all these years? They could be selling out of $40k minivans to upscale families if only they built the Volvo of Minivans.
I thought it interesting that Engle was going to work for New Holland, because I thought that company was owned by Ford. Doing a bit more research, I discovered that it was indeed once owned by Ford, but was then sold to Fiat (which also owns Case; I wonder if the tractor-brand devotees know about this?). So in a way, Engle is still working for automakers, just not directly.
The ag equipment industry and the auto industry are not entirely dissimilar, with Asian upstarts undercutting established brands on price, though the reliability isn’t quite there yet, especially for the Chinese brands. Sound familiar?
When companies are going into a tail spin, it’s not good for one’s career to be away from the home office politics. Competence is likely less important right now than making the correct political moves at Ford. Also, being outside the HQ means that you have to constantly react to every idiotic initiative that comes down the pike or risk ruining your chances to stay on board.
I happen to work for Case-New Holland. Engle will not be the first Ford cast off that we have. Our director of corporate purchasing has completely reorganized that function. Now, function it does not.
HarveyBirdman quote:
“Doing a bit more research, I discovered that it was indeed once owned by Ford, but was then sold to Fiat (which also owns Case; I wonder if the tractor-brand devotees know about this?).”
The ties to Italian ownership has not hurt our sales. I had the same concerns when the ownership changed. What it has done is reduce our organizational efficiency. If Fiat recruits executives with their same methods and mindsets, we will continue to lose efficiency.