Forbes analyzed Ford CEO Alan Mulally’s recent product-line choices, concluding the decision to sell Jaguar and Land Rover contradict Mulally’s intent to build a global company — and Ford isn’t paying attention to what consumers want in the US. For one, the company’s doing away with the rear-driven sedan, which customers love for its size and reliability, instead of reinvigorating it. And despite the market demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, Ford’s cut its variety of Focus models. European buyers already have a second generation Focus, but the US won’t see one for years (although they will see minor changes to the first generation.)
BusinessWeek takes a different perspective on the decision to sell Jaguar and Land Rover:
The decision to sell Jaguar and Land Rover seems to be right. While some doubters wonder how Ford will succeed without a strong luxury-brand portfolio that achieves higher profit margins than Ford-branded products can, he correctly saw that the two brands were a monumental drain on resources and management attention. The pending decision to sell Volvo seems riskier. But here, too, he has seen that it is difficult to integrate a Swedish premium car company that operates in a country where people can’t be laid off with a North American mass market car company fighting for its survival. Rather than selling Volvo, though, it would be more refreshing to hear a plan to fix the relationship. Going to war globally with just Ford-branded cars when the automaker is far from being among the lowest-cost manufacturers is a strategy that seems fraught with problems.
Business Week graded Mulally on seven categories: Profit and Loss, Restructuring Savvy, Products, Marketing, Personnel, Culture Change, and The Vision Thing. In some areas, they seem to be right on, and in others (an A for products??) they may have missed the mark.
One thing most of the media outlets agree: Mulally’s doing pretty well, considering. What’s your take?
(Ford Image by janusz l)
