Thread regarding Ford layoffs

EV Strategic Failure - No Excuses

The C-Suite has no clothes.

That’s not news to anyone. That’s an acknowledgment of what we all know. The 10s of Billions lost (not to mention the opportunity cost which may well be more expensive) is a direct result of the awful strategic decisions made by Ford’s pathetic executive team.

What’s the purpose of saying this? So that those leaders who want to play pretend and have successfully seeded this “the entire industry sc--wed up” narrative with their media lackeys get this message: you are to blame. You failed us. You failed our customers. And we all know you know it.

It has been obvious since the beginning of the EV cycle that the demand wasn’t there. The value proposition has never had widespread appeal. The working class - remember them? - isn’t lining up to pay more for a less capable, less convenient solution with less resale value, a shorter lifespan and horrible supporting infrastructure. If you didn’t know this, you should resign immediately.

Did you need to flush ~40B dollars down the drain (who got rich from this fiasco - that begs for some investigation) in order to figure out that your core customer base didn’t want to pay more for far less? Or did you think the government was going to ram them down all of our throats and that you would sit back and be the benefactors of a command economy?

Oh, and don’t think we all didn’t notice that you inflated the pricing of all your ICE vehicles to subsidize your abominable strategy.

How about we focus on improving the products people want to buy? You know, the ones that actually sell. Or, will it be some more outside hires from Silicon Valley to come and show us all how to execute the next scam? My money is on the latter.


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| 2193 views | | 19 replies (last January 3) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1kd00hnf9

19 replies (most recent on top)

@1sj There is a lot of institutional rot. Ford board of directors went with EVs knowing it was risky to satisfy the politicians that bail them out periodically. EVs were an asset bubble supported by elites motivated by self-interest. For the elites there is a lot of upside potential and little downside risk. The burden of failure falls to the common people who have invested their time and energy into hollow pursuits. The elites are of course culpable, they have conned the common people, but the common people are responsible for making sure their exertions are for substantial pursuits.

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Post ID: @244+1kd00hnf9

@dr Promoting, managing, and leading have quietly become the biggest threats, not because the work is hard but because it’s done without transparency or respect for talent. When HR is we-ponized, the truth disappears, process becomes cover, and silence is enforced instead of accountability. The people who actually care about the people, not the house, not clout or optics, should be alarmed by how talent is treated and how employees are discarded the moment they become inconvenient. Arrogant leadership hides behind policy, moves decisions into back channels, and pretends confusion is professionalism. Manager = disrespects talent and tries to pull one over, HR = disrespects talent and calls it compliance, Advisor = leverage dressed up as guidance. That old-school mindset is out of style, and it embarrasses anyone who still believes in building something real. You don’t win by outmaneuvering your own people, you hollow the place out and call it leadership.

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Post ID: @1ts+1kd00hnf9

@ho You never saw a survey because Planning & Strategy flat out recommended against the EV endeavor. They were overruled and gutted. JF and DF were so deep in Biden's pockets they were going to do whatever it took to get rich, even if it meant vaxxing employees and pushing trash vehicles onto customers.

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Post ID: @1sj+1kd00hnf9

@1n9 That's funny because growing up, I didn't know anyone around me like that. Are you sure? Must've been an outlier...

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Post ID: @1sa+1kd00hnf9

You know what we’re missing? A 22 year old to come in and run the place. They’re the future. And some already have 10 years of experience

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Post ID: @1n9+1kd00hnf9

Racing is almost as wasteful as EVs.

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Post ID: @q5+1kd00hnf9

Who the heck is the Global Director of EV technology at Ford?? Purge should start THERE!!!

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Post ID: @nv+1kd00hnf9

All the above comments are something ford leadership and board should be following. The top executives
Are clueless especially when they have to bring in outside analysists to advise and do a deep dive in costs. Heck the assembly line guy knows more than the executives.. listen to your people from the line up to the engineering bosses they have the experience and knoweldge. Until you can do that you are destined to fail about rudderless

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Post ID: @m9+1kd00hnf9

The main problem is when they fail, there are minimal repercussions on them. But there are major repercussions on the ones that carried out their directives. It seems to happen at all corporations now. They are rewarded for their failures and we are the ones that take the hit.

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Post ID: @j5+1kd00hnf9

@hc Thank you.

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Post ID: @hf+1kd00hnf9

Spot on post.

I worked at Ford and never saw a survey on BEV marketing. Basically a free survey would have given them the common sense answers that BEVs are not in high demand and not in the near future either. Ford bet on the government forcing BEV sales with regulations and mandates. This is what happens when you listen to bureaucrats and not customers. And the EPA should not be allowed to make regulations. That’s the job of congress or should be.

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Post ID: @hc+1kd00hnf9

Well, that's just, like, your opinion..... man.

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Post ID: @gt+1kd00hnf9

@dr Yesssssssssssssssssss

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2F7n07eedv6l071.jpg%3Fwidth%3D320%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D0437bbdb8d3f54a37e4bf652c90547022e757556

https://images.fastcompany.com/image/upload/imgs-fc-com/steve-jobs-large.jpg

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Post ID: @g6+1kd00hnf9

Farley was wearing a black turtleneck on the last call. He is trying to fit in with the Apple Cobblers by all means since CE1 is the final straw. Four programs axed in 2 years, Blue Oval City a flop and CE1 has to hit it out of the park or Ford should just forget about EVs.

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Post ID: @dr+1kd00hnf9

I think the real problem is Bill Ford. He said it himself that when he was CEO, he didn’t like it. That to me just shows he doesn’t know how to run an auto company. They got lucky with Mullaly, he just had to retire and no competent replacement in line. Automotive OEMs are engineering companies, to make a product you need to put together hundreds of parts. You need an engineer that knows automotive with good business sense at the top. Aerospace and Automotive are similar, e.g., long design cycles, hundreds of parts, product defects can ki-l people etc. Engineers making phones don’t fully get this right away, and their egos get in the way. Maybe Bill Ford realizes this now but can’t find someone that can do what Mullaly did. I don’t think you can ignore $30-40B down the drain so keeping the status quo until he finds somebody is probably his thinking.

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Post ID: @cf+1kd00hnf9

The continued dumping year after year of their most experienced and knowledgeable employees. Then turn around and hire younger off the street at nearly the same or higher salary but with no relatable experience to wreak havoc yet strut around behaving like their $$it don't stink. Meanwhile 'D-mb & D-mber' giving Town Halls while Rome burns trying to sell that Ford is just moments from their "Model T moment". Just any day now Doug and Model e is going to show the world with something amazing. Just be patient. How many years have we been hearing this BS now? Oh yeah, way too many. Until then, just keep flushing that money down the toilet Bill.

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Post ID: @b9+1kd00hnf9

JF and DF gotta go they don't understand the customers or the employees. Awful amount of money wasted on EVs and complete lack of focus on quality and employee morale, two things that are going to haunt ford for years to come.

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Post ID: @b1+1kd00hnf9

No excuses are needed when there is zero accountability for executive failures at Ford!
Bill Ford and his tiny brain are directing the company, his family needs to retire him and Farley and hire a CEO who is an actual leader not a brown noser.

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Post ID: @ag+1kd00hnf9

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