This Is the Year, Ford CEO Tells Employees

Of all the Big Three domestic automakers, Ford’s direction seems the most ambitious and confusing. Since taking the helm less than two years ago, CEO Jim Hackett has tried to articulate his vision for both the company and the country’s future roads, sometimes with head-scratching results.

There’s no doubt that change is afoot. The company has already ceased production of all but one of its non-Mustang passenger cars and taken the first steps to getting its lagging overseas operations in order. But 2019 is the pivotal year, Hackett said in a memo to employees. For the sake of Hackett’s future, it had better be.

In the memo, obtained by The Detroit News, Hackett said 2019 is when the automaker turns the corner “toward a really bright future.”

He acknowledged that change can be slow to come, but it doesn’t come at all without a plan. In Ford’s case, that plan is an $11 billion roadmap to invest in electrification and autonomous driving, turn around its Chinese, South American, and European businesses, and reduce its employee headcount. Overseas, action has a lready been taken, most recently in Brazil. Its planned global workforce reduction remains hazy in scope, but analysts expect a major cull in salaried employees.

Hackett says the company will reveal the size of layoffs by mid-2019, adding that that the job cull is the price it must pay for adding so many new employees after the recession (only to ultimately miss targets).

“It’s natural for people on the inside and outside to raise doubts and ask tough questions as they seek clarity and certainty about our future,” Hackett wrote in his memo. “This is not a Ford phenomenon by the way. Many pundits dismissed Fiat Chrysler as a lost cause coming out of Chapter 11 and predicted Tesla would go bankrupt years ago.”

Next year’s introduction of a long range, Mustang-inspired electric crossover will be accompanied by the return of the Ford Bronco and a unibody crossover that looks to be a brawnier version of the Escape. A new Ranger will be joined by revamped Super Dutys, vans, and medium-duty trucks for 2020 and 2021.

While Ford employees may need reassurance that the automaker really does need to invest in, say, e-scooter companies in order to keep pace with upstart rivals, convincing Wall Street of the company’s viability is proving a tough sell. The automaker’s stubbornly depressed stock is an anvil hanging over Hackett’s head. Ford shares are trading lower than they were at this time last year, and lower still than in 2017.

For his future to be secured, Hackett must return upward momentum to the company’s share price.

[Image: Adam Tonge/TTAC]