Ford Death Watch

Ford Death Watch 44: Captain Kirk Bets on The Last Man Standing

By John Horner
May 12, 2008

Why would gunslinger/investor Kirk Kerkorian want to buy Ford? After two decades living high off the [gas] hog, Ford’s still suffering the Mother of all Hangovers. The night before the day after, FoMoCo headed down to the Vegas strip and got hitched, polygamy-style (Hertz, Aston-Martin, Jaguar and Volvo). While town father Bill Ford's sobered-up and hired sheriff Mulally-- whose drawn-up the divorce papers and cleaned-up the town-- it still looks like tornado fodder. And here comes Captain Kirk, all guns blazing, looking to take over the joint. Why now? 

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Ford Death Watch 43: Drive One… What?

By Robert Farago
April 13, 2008

"Ford on a good day is always about the people," declared Jim Farley, group vice president of Ford marketing and communications. Like many of these pre-digested pronouncements, Farley’s seemingly innocuous, feel-good assertion is fraught with unintentional meaning. What does Farley mean by “Ford on a good day?” What’s Ford about on a BAD day? Is Ford bi-polar? Manic depressive? Does it forget to take its meds? And what about the contradiction between “on a good day” and “always?”  And, most damning of all, Ford is NOT about the people. It’s about the product.

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Ford Death Watch 42: Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch

By Michael Martineck
March 27, 2008

Automotive News recently published an interview with Ford's group vice president of human resources. Joe Laymon mentioned the names of six brass hats Ford considers potential successors to their current CEO Alan Mulally. As Mr. Mulally has only been in office for just 18 months, anticipates a long stay and hasn’t seen his 63 birthday, the timing was, at the least, odd. More importantly, Laymon effectively turned a succession plan into a very public episode of Survivor Dearborn.

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Ford Death Watch 41: Time to Bail

By Matthew Neundorf
January 24, 2008

Alan Mulally began last year as a passenger on a nose-diving Ford Motor Company. Clocking the company’s $12.6b fiscal flummox, FoMoCo’s CEO left no punches unpulled. "We fully recognize our business reality,” Big Al pronounced. “And we’re dealing with it.” Twelve months later, Mulally’s machine’s cut a new deal with the United Auto Workers (UAW), scaled back production and launched some new whips. During today’s announcement, Big Al proudly pronounced the new new turnaround a success. “Each of our automotive operations is improving, and we are encouraged by the progress.” That makes one of us.

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Ford Death Watch 40: Mercury R.I.P.

By Steven Lang
January 8, 2008

Four vehicles. That’s all you’ll find on Mercury's web site. If you’re as “lucky” as I am, Mercury will respond to your browsing by asking if you want to spend five minutes on a questionnaire. Say what? Asking for five minutes of your customer's time before you even show them your products? That isn’t the smartest thing to do to a spam-weary public. Then again, once you click on the word "No" and return to the actual products, you begin to realize that the entire Mercury product line represents the brand’s not-so-smart existence.

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Ford Death Watch 39: Bah Humbug

By Matthew Neundorf
December 20, 2007

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas; at least in Dearborn. Ford has reinstated merit raises for their white collar workers. Bonuses for its blue collared brigade are under consideration. Ford’s global manufacturing guru Joe Heinrichs figures “it’s important to reward people for doing the right thing.” Which is… three straight quarters of besting Wall Street’s paltry projections and slowing the Way Fordward’s cash burn. With the long anticipated sale of Jaguar and Land Rover only days away, it would seem that Mulally’s machine is running smoothly. Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

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Ford Death Watch 38: Wiggle Room

By Robert Farago
November 6, 2007

So Ford and the United Auto Workers (UAW) have hammered-out a new deal. Our fave sage Daniel Howes over at The Detroit News hailed the tentative agreement with the usual rhetoric: new paradigms, inflection points, fresh thinking, transformation and general bullishness. Yes, well, as over ten thousand Chrysler union workers recently discovered, there’s many a pink slip between the cup and the lip. Make no mistake: there are details bedeviling this Ford agreement. And the union rank and file are heading into the ratification process with their eyes wide open.

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Ford Death Watch 37: Is Mulally Making the Grade?

By William C Montgomery
September 7, 2007

The House that Henry Built was close to ruin when Junior Bill fell on his sword to bounce Boeing’s best to The Blue Oval. One year later, BusinessWeek (BW) gives FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally an A-. And yet the reaper’s blade still hangs over Dearborn. And Mulally still toils to prove that his first year’s effort was worth $133.55 per minute (based on a 60 hour work week). Meanwhile, surveying the lay of the land post-Mulally, we reckon BW’s senior correspondent had more than sweetened tumbâk in his hookah when he penned this report card.

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Ford Death Watch 36: What Profit a Man?

By Matthew Neundorf
August 7, 2007

Last week, Ford exceeded Wall Street’s expectations by reporting a profit. A profit! As in, the American automaker took in more money than they spent! Pundits unfamiliar with the fact that Ford carries around so much debt it makes Atlas' planetary burden seem like a small backpack, oblivious to the missing ten foot pole marks on Ford dealers' inventory, hailed the news as a sign that the only Way Fordward is up. You know you need to worry when the CEO himself feels obliged to warn stockholders and camp followers that billion dollar losses lie directly ahead. And indeed they do. 

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Ford’s Death Watch 35: Everything Must Go

By Samir Syed
June 17, 2007

Desperate times, desperate measures. Ford Motor Company has retained the services of three investment banks to advise it on the sale of Jaguar, Land Rover and, perhaps, Volvo. Flogging the remains of the Premium Automotive Group (post-Aston) will plug a giant hole in the automaker's balance sheet, give FoMoCo a cash injection to sustain short-term operations and fuel its do-or-die turnaround plan. As Stan Laurel would say, well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into.

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