What Would You Do?

Incredulous, you replied, You stopped? How many billions of dollars did It cost to instal brand loyalty around the Taurus name? Well, youve got until tomorrow to discover a vehicle to put the Taurus name on. Then, you have devil years to make a new Taurus which had better be the coolest vehicle that you can possibly make. So, in less than four hours, you make your first billion-dollar decisiveness. It wouldnt be your last. With billions of dollars in losses, you eliminated 46,000 stage businesss, exchange off Gaston Martin, Jaguar, and Land Rover, and put down truck and SUB production by 40 percent.Despite these drastic moves. cut across still lost SSL 2. 6 billion your scrap year and $2. 7 billion your third. With losses still mounting, the first major issue you learn to address is vehicle customization, that is, maximizing consumer choice by producing contrasting cars with different parts for different world markets. Vehicle customization originated in 1967 when Fords e uropiuman operations were created to design and manufacture cars Just for Europe. Consequently, when Ford attempted to cut be by creating a common world car to be sold In Europe and the united States, It failed.The resulting cars (yes, cars), one designed In Detroit and the a nonher(prenominal) In Germany, were completely different except for two shared parts. The second major issue is that Fords management aggroups have difficulty staying on goat and tracking caller-up performance. Even with downsizing, Ford is a complex phoner with 205,000 employees, multiple product lines, and international operations on four continents. Surprisingly, Fords managers barely stay in their Jobs a few years. And, If youre off to your next Job and dont have to live with the consequences of your decisions, why are about whether you meet your departments or divisions goals?The final Issue Is that contentious relationships between Fords divisions have produced dysfunctional decision making. Differ ent geographic regions and functional divisions, such as engineering, production, and gross revenue, are much interested in doing what they want than what is best for Ford as a whole. Feelings on this issue are so strong that your management team pleaded with you to remove Fords blue logo from one of your Powering presentations so as not to alienate those who worked for Fords Volvo, Jaguar, and Lincoln divisions.At the time you agreed, but now realize it was a mistake. Three years ago, you arranged for $23 billion in loans to desexualize the company by means of tough times. And with Chrysler and GM in bankruptcy, and industry sales off 35 percent, youve needed every dime. But, youre 65 percent through those funds, so youve got to address these key Issues. Fords survival depends on it. If you were the CEO AT For a, want would you 00? Questions 1 . Should Ford continue to make different cars for Europe and the United States? If so, how do you lower expenses?If not, then how do you get the company to produce the world cars, when it has failed to do so before? What should Fords strategic purpose be here? 2. Beyond making managers stay longer in their Jobs, which wont be popular, how will you change Fords culture so that managers pay help to company plans and feel accountable for meeting performance targets? 3. Finally, what will you do to address the dysfunctional way in which decisions are made, where different departments and units mission more about their issues than the companys issues? Sources M. Dolan, J. Stool, and N.