Ford Shines as Government Motors Stumbles
Nicolas Loris /
For decades, General Motors, Chrysler and Ford have been notoriously lumped together at Detroit’s Big Three but these days Ford is distancing itself from the pack. But the reality is the separation began a few years ago when former Boeing executive Alan Mulally took control of Ford. “Alan Mulally came in 2006 and said, ‘This idea of producing vehicles that people don’t want to buy and forcing them into the market is insanity…By doing that he got a head start on everybody else,” AutoNation Inc Chief Executive Mike Jackson said in a recent interview with Reuters.
Despite reporting record losses of $14.6 billion in 2008, Ford refused to take auto bailout cash and avoided bankruptcy and 2009 indicated that automaker is successfully turning the corner. Ford’s stock “gained 55 percent since November and more than quadrupled over the past year.” The company began January “by posting its first annual gain in U.S. market share since 1995 and the best sales growth in December among its peers.” What turned it around?
“Under Mulally, Ford has slashed its North American workforce in half, closed factories and converted plants from making sport-utility vehicles to building smaller autos like the Focus. He sold Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin and is near a sale of Volvo to China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co.