If you missed the Town Hall that just ended, you missed a great one! Both inspiring and sad at the same time as we are losing our best leader in the company. But I am hopeful KG will do his best to fill DF's responsibilities.
33 replies (most recent on top)
Dog Fa-t, pure a-s?
@m2 She is by far the most bought "news writer" in circulation. I wonder why negative coverage never seems to surface? I want to see BF featured on Fox 2's "Wall of Shame," with Rob Wolcheck going undercover in Ford buildings to film conditions resembling Delhi, where no one speaks English.
Sure, he is probably classier than some of the l-wlifes I’ve worked with, but that’s not saying much.
Lol. Lots of people going to take that week off. Not sure who wants to be there for that.
@zq Yup, just like he left Tesla with Elon shouting at him all the way from conference room to parking lot to stay at Tesla and finish what he started /s
Post ID: @th+1kppak392
DF most likely left on his own accord as he had already set the stage for Ford's future products and services. There are bigger challenges out there than in the mobility segment and do not be surprised to see him at the center of it after a short break. You cannot keep great technical talent down.
@v1 STOOPID IS AS STOOPID DUZ!
@pb Bill Ford had the right idea when he brought in Mulally. Mulally shifted a lot of the management problem children at the higher levels out the door. The more successful Mulally was at changing the Ford culture and the more accolades he received the more uncomfortable Bill seemed to be and Bill was eager to see him go. Intellectually he seems to know what he should do, but emotionally he can’t do it.
Doug was ultimately pushed out, the experiment didn’t work. Within CE1 especially, there’s a tendency to lionize him as some kind of visionary, but the reality is he’ll be long gone when P833 launches and has to face the market. All the bugs, quality issues, potential recalls, and customer reception, positive or negative, land on the program he shaped. He also built a leadership culture around bringing in Apple alumni, which cascaded into broader nepotism and preferential treatment in hiring and promotions. When P833 ships, the results will speak for themselves.
@m2+1kppak392 Phoebe has some valid points. I spent the first half of my career working for small startups before moving back to MI and working for Ford.
The pattern back then was we’d work like crazy develop and sell a software product and then IBM would buy the company, blue-wash the product and sell it as their own. Inevitably there was a culture clash and the software developers would leave IBM and work at another startup, which in a couple of years IBM would acquire. Rinse and repeat.
IBM and Ford had a lot of similarities. Extremely bureaucratic and the leadership structure stifled innovation. It’s crazy when you think about it. IBM had thousands of software developers yet small startups with 10-20 software developers were running rings around IBM.
Similarly Ford had tons of seasoned talented auto engineers but they were stifled by the Ford leadership. Here is the thing Bill Ford knows that the Ford Friends and Family are Ford’s problem but he doesn’t have the stones to do what Henry II did. My grandfather use to tell stories of the 1940s Harry Bennett cabal and how Henry II took over and ruthlessly fired basically all of the Ford leadership and started over. Of course Henry II in older age he fell into the same thought patterns as Henry I and a new leadership cabal emerged.
Post ID: @m2+1kppak392
Phenomenal article about DF. Truly exhibits how great a leader and inspiration he has been. But also demonstrates the tremendous loss Ford will have to live with going forward.
https://phoebewallhoward.substack.com/p/top-exec-exits-ford-whats-next
It seems he had been preparing to leave for some time now. 3 years too late though.
DF wanted iPhones on wheels and convinced Bill this was the future. Now 40 billion down the cr-pper and 75% of ICE engineering shown the door. Young talent is leaving like crazy to get away from this Crazy train
Slate Auto hired an electrical engineer from GM in under 2 years they built a zonal architecture... Meanwhile Ford an earlier investor in Rivian could have adopted their technology, but wasted billions with nothing to show. It's a failure on multiple levels. Meanwhile we partner with VW. And VW turns around and partners with Rivian. The mentality of we know better is arrogance at its best.
How Rivian developed electrical architecture in under two years...
https://insideevs.com/news/761865/rivian-zonal-architecture-development/
https://leandesign.com/slate-ev-factory-tour/
Those same employees will watch as what passes for his "legacy" gets picked apart and absorbed into whence it came.
@f7 can you tell us with examples what has this guy done? When we all read his paperwork you see a man who has never stayed any one place for 3-5yrs. If he was as smart as you say than why did TESLA let him go? What has he delivered? Because at google he never made it to production only prototype.
@OP are you re--rded? Seriously, what's wrong? Blink twice if you're a hostage...
DF lives rent free in the heads of all the negative thinking people on this forum. This is how you know DF had a significant impact to the company.
Most employees believe he should stay with the company to see his vision of the Ford+ Transformation Plan to its successful completion.
Get yourself some Prozac, I guarantee 50mg a day and you won’t give a sh-t, should call it zero tears.
@ef I cry in my car in the parking lot every day, but that has nothing to do with Doug.
Yes I have been sobbing myself to sleep. Truly without Doug Field where would we be? Where will we go?
Shot clock. Hackett's fitness and "clock speed" (a computer term, no doubt). When are they going to start using cricket analogies now that there are so many cricket fans in the company? The pitch isn't what you throw, in cricket, haha.
DF legacy is instilling fear in the culture by micromanaging every $ and everything needs his approval. Essentially slowed down doing things what matters most. I wonder what people are $moking, when they DF legacy and blah blah and dont need anyone to fill the big bunny slippers.
DF should have been fired years ago. His only legacy is hiring friends and awarding no bid million-dollar contracts to friend's companies.
The downvotes are clearly being created by AI bots. Pretty obvious and somewhat concerning others out there simply cannot recognize that.
@a5 Legacy? Nope. STAIN!
I’ll say it again, this company is full of psychopaths.
@a5 How do you miss deadwood, it always floats to the top.
Go to the home page with the announcement, go to the comments and see how many downvotes the comments praising Doug have. Thats his true legacy.
He's a POS. Can't be gone soon enough. He has caused enough damage by losing this company Billions!
Doug didn’t walk into those town halls, he was escorted, with a check large enough to make the whole thing survivable. The session itself had the distinct energy of a hostage negotiation with worse production value. Kumar, for his part, was spotted throwing the framed pink bunny slippers directly into the trash, which felt like the only honest moment of the day.
Is was great...started out with why this is the right time...dusted that off of the speech when they announced bringing ranger back to US. Then they reused the shot clock analogy agaaaain. I thought that was done when JB went to FoE. Can't they just admit 2 teams was a mistake so we are going back to the way it was and move on?
He will be missed, that’s for sure. It’s inevitable when you leave the legacy that DF did. Unfortunate times.