Thread regarding Ford layoffs

In five years depends on the F-Series since that makes up 90%+ of our profits. if those volumes start to go down game over. Simple our company has lost it focus.. more concerned about political causes than the one major thing. Product. build cars and trucks people want. We seemed to have stepped away from that. I am not racist in fact my best friend and best man was black. But put competent people in charge I don't care if they are all the same as long as we make money. When we make good profits everyone benefits man women whites blacks Hispanics all of them benefit. Now we care more about stupid things like that train station which makes no sense as to why we are there, talk about a waste. If his name were not on the side of the building he would have been fired as COB. We are a laughing stalk right now.

In Dearborn.

You want to see a company that is innovating BEVs, watch the Tesla battery day presentation from a few weeks ago. In that you will see they are exploring all facets of the battery to increase energy, improve sustainability, and lower costs. Basically all barriers or excuses they are working to eliminate. It was not polished like a Farley or Hackett presentation; the owner actually has intimate knowledge in the topics discussed. They are doing stuff like Ford did in the 60s; actually researching their own ideas as opposed to replicating someone elses. Anyone who thinks they are not a credible threat is foolish. My viewpoint as a non fanboy engineer.

Gutter

@2mrs and therein lies the funny part.....in a few years, Bill is going to be sitting in the old folks home thinking "I am the guy who p-ssed away a once great company, but it wasnt REALLY my fault. It was all those gosh darned other people. Great grandpa, i'm sorry that those other people messed up what you built."

Sorry Henry I did the best I could.......Bill

This video was interesting to see a perspective that was not the most balanced or informed analysis. Were they paid by Tesla or something? Better to compare several automakers and analyze the market they exist within and do a better job being objective. Ford has some good IP, and it was too bad they shared a patented idea to make Ford look bad. That could have been old, who knows, but it was just a choice to support their confirmation bias.

Saw Hendiricks speak a couple years ago xross the street from the Village - Convention Center. This was just after the launch disaster - Aviator/Explorer

Joe was very adamant that without Lincoln getting their act together going forward Ford was not a sustainable business. This was without Covid disaster and all of the other shenanigans the Senior Management has pulled since then.

Since trucks have become "grocery getter" and with EV's coming on board those 2 guys in the vid may be on to something.

One caveat however is that Ram has made big inroads into the Light Duty 1500 segment and F150 has been able to hold it's own.

I agree with this 1,000,000,000%. I was a Ford engineer in PD and left in 2004. I sold a very successful company and am now retired. Ford lacks the visionary and leadership and won’t be able to compete with the EV market. Ford is a sinking ship. Ford is considered a joke and “has been” by Silicon Valley. It’s all due to the arrogance, resistance to change, and old school thinking of management. If I was a Ford employee now, I’d jump ship and get another job.

These Tesla video fan boys (borrowed this term from a previous poster) discussed a one-sided story about balance sheets and financials in their video. As if running a business is all about money. However, they conveniently left out some of Ford's greatest strengths that Tesla DOES not have and probably never will such as:

• ability to invest in a 100 year old dilapidated train station in a "world-class" city where less than 1% of their workforce would even dare ever live and none of their management/executive team ever would live there (well, they might buy a condo, put 2 chairs there, just to say they have property there!) The Tesla video fan boys sure made a lot of fun near the end of the video about innovation - but they didn't mention this wonderful Ford idea at all! Who is innovating now guys???

• a UAW partner who delivers time and time again (i.e. think every 4 years!)

• a One-Ford vision and plan (that is why the union still gets pensions and other perks and salaried do not, plus it obviously makes good financial sense)

• the ability to cover up for years huge quality issues (e.g. - Ford Focus and now the Ford Superduty trucks)

• an entire engineering department called "Scientific Research Labs" full of people with advanced engineering degrees (I mean think PHd's). The return on investment on this facility might be very low ( 2%), but we at Ford have bragging rights that Tesla will never have with this type of useless facility. I guess those Tesla video boys think that this isn't a good business deal since our suppliers are researching all the same technologies (and more)

• a salaried workforce that consistently claims to work 60+ hour work weeks, but prior to Covid, most of my PD co-workers spent most of their time drinking coffee, talking endlessly about everything but work (including rumors about Tesla), taking walks, planning lunch, and leaving before 3pm (many times right after lunch on Fridays) even though they show up at 9am. I guess the advanced math required to determine how many hours a person works per week confused the Tesla video fan boys so they didn't want to discuss it. Many of my co-workers have engineering degrees from the University of Michigan and they understand the math - maybe the Tesla video fan boys only have a high school diploma so it is just too difficult to comprehend.

• and don't forget, we now have a salaried workforce that tells everyone they meet how they are getting more done from home remotely than they ever did working in the office. I have to admit, my Ford co-worker neighbor does now spend at least 8 hours a day working on his hobby race car (and it does look really good and he IS getting a lot done on it), but tells me he checks emails a couple of times a day. I wish the Tesla video fan boys would have discussed this topic in their video. I mean Ford pays engineers 6 figures to read their emails a couple of times a day and hasn't gone bankrupt yet! Can Tesla do that!

• Ford has a diversified workforce! I never hear Tesla bragging about that talent, and the Tesla video fan boys didn't even bring it up in the video. I've even heard of 2 women sharing a director level position at Ford (so that they can achieve work-life balance). Of course, the engineers that worked in that department had no idea who was actually in charge or what the direction of their group was. In the words of Joe Biden - I mean "Come on man!!!" - Does Tesla do that ????

I am too old to believe some guys with a camera and an internet connection to lose my mind right off the bat. I am IT and wont pretend to be an expert on balance sheets. I would like to hear what some of the finance people think of this analysis. Is it correct or is this more slanted BS?

I am by no means a fan of Ford, but these Tesla fan boys really are comparing apples to oranges.,
Not the least that Tesla has not ever made a full tyear profit yet - and remove their carbon offset sales, and they have never made even a quarterly profit.

Is Ford losing sales this year - yes, and so are all full line up automakers in this year of covid. Is Ford not doing well - yes, we are dong c-appy now. However, to say we are a sinking ship is a bit strong - more like we have taken on water and riding s bit too low for comfort. Can still be salvaged however..

My fav part 17:20 to 17:30 ... excellent analysis

Wow.