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Today’s New York Times has an interesting piece on the relationship between Ford Motor Company Chairman William C. Ford Jr. and Barack Obama’s team. During the entire industry bailout brouhaha ol’ Bill Ford has been conspicuously absent, leaving the dirty work to his well-compensated surrogate Mulally. Those with long memories may recall that Bill Ford made a big splash several years ago claiming that the family firm would assume leadership of a new, greener automotive future. At the time he had a hard job squaring his noble words with the launch of the Ford Excursion. Luckily for Ford, the Excursion has since gone on permanent holiday and Hummer has assumed Scarlet Letter status with greens everywhere. Ah what a difference a few years can make. Suddenly good fuel economy is back in style and monster trucks are so yesterday. Lately, “Mr. Ford has been working behind the scenes, meeting one-on-one with Mr. Obama in August, conferring with his senior economic advisers, and teaming up with Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan to push a vision of a leaner, greener auto industry.” Ford remains in the best position to stay further ahead of the bear than GM or Chrysler as it has enough cash to get through the next year and is “not on the verge of bankruptcy like G.M. and Chrysler.” While GM and Chrysler have slashed development budgets well beyond the bone, Ford is able to say: “We have a plan that is high-tech, product-driven, which is a fuel economy plan, and we have kept that plan in place under these tough conditions.” About that meeting with Obama? “We talked about the electrification of our industry and other fuel-economy issues. He’s a great listener and he asked all the right questions.” Bill Ford didn’t get to be first chair in his family by being overly boastful though, and says that “he does not profess to have Mr. Obama’s ear yet on the how to save Detroit. But Mr. Ford is keeping close contact through Governor Granholm, a member of the president-elect’s economic advisory team.” Now about those congressional hearings: “Mr. Ford said that some of the skepticism from Congress about the industry’s future was justified. ‘I completely understand the frustration that Americans feel and it came out loud and clear this week,’ he said. ‘I don’t think we told our story terribly well.'” You have to believe that Ford the company and Ford the family would learn to live with being the last man standing, industry solidarity notwithstanding.
11 Comments on “Does Bill Ford Have An Inside Line With Team Obama?...”
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Does anybody remember Bill Ford promises to Sierra Club to become green before introduction Excursion and Expedition? He was stating that those are greener then competition (I guess he referred to a color palette).
The reason Ford does not have money problem, because they could not borrow even a year ago. So they mortgaged every piece of furniture they got. Now they will be bailout under “save our banks” plan. They already have nothing to loose.
Bill Ford did one good thing: fire Jac Nasser, who had squandered FoMoCo’s riches from the SUV/pickup boom.
Well, I should amend that. Bill did another good thing: step down from the CEO’s job. He realized he didn’t have what it takes (i.e., ruthlessness in getting that herd of cats going in the same direction). But otherwise, his time at the helm will be best remembered for frivolities such as planting gardens on factory roofs. I think he’s the kind of guy who goes to Davos and thinks he’s a visionary.
Bill reminds me a bit of the British royal family.
To save money (and likely improve results) I wonder if Mullally could run the Lions on his lunch hour?
indi500fan:
Hopefully without the whole inbreeding thing…
I have been in a few meetings with Bill Ford and from my experience with him and his staff he possesses a high degree of integrity and honestly cares about the environment. Long before it was fashionable amongst auto execs, he truly believed that automakers can and should be ‘green’ and if times were better over the last 5+ years, I would hazard a guess that Ford, not Toyo-Hondo would ‘own’ the Green Mantle.
Of all of the U.S.A’s high-profile auto-execs, he is amongst the most-liked and has long thought that the ‘way forward’ could and should be higher mpg, green vehicles made by a company with a low carbon footprint. Not exactly a bad vision of the future.
If he has a back-channel to the incoming President, I say ‘bravo’ and shame on GM and Chrysler for not doing a better job of lobbying in D.C. for their own agenda; they might just pay dearly for it because whether you like Bill Ford’s green agenda or not, he certainly has managed to make Ford seem like the one company that the Congress would not mind doting upon with some of our ‘green’.
IMO, Bill Ford is by far the best Ford since Edsel. He could just as easily be a playboy screw-off, but he obviously accepts responsibility for saving the company and doing good. How different the situation would be had his father done as well.
Would that Wagoner had even a small fraction of Bill Ford’s integrity.
I think Bill Ford is a genuinely nice guy who does care about the environment and he was ahead of the curve on his green carmaker idea. Too bad that didn’t translate into being a good CEO…
Bill Ford may not have been a great CEO, but he was willing to admit to mistakes and had the courage to find someone who could do a better job. Pity Rick Wagoner hasn’t learned from Bill Ford’s example.
Now if only he could pry the Lions from his father’s Al Davis-like grasp.
So — will Obama’s presidential limo be a Lincoln or a Caddy?
I wonder if his meetings with Ford were to pick upholstery colors ;-)
Caddy’s have been the limos of choice for a numbers of years now- Lincoln’s were the choice for years before.
I am much more impressed by what Ford has to offer than what GM is showing (Volt) and what Chrysler is pretending (EV) to have in the pipeline.
The Ford Fusion Hybrid with a projected 39 mpg city is a game changer as far as I’m concerned. Whether you’re interested in the technology or not, it offers better city fuel economy than almost anything else out there including the diminutive Smart ForTwo, Jetta TDI, and of course the Toyota Camry Hybrid.
I would like to see Ford ditch Mercury and concentrate on two brands, Ford and Lincoln. In fact, if it came down between Lincoln and Volvo, I would toss Lincoln and keep Volvo.