Thread regarding Ford layoffs

I agree with the “Mullally days” comment below. Everyone made those days to be the cream of the crop for Ford. Truth is they were just OK while our culture didn’t shift away from the good ol’ boys while our competitors GM and STLA were forced to change due to bankruptcies.
Our culture needs a shift, we have too many layers of leadership, too much talking and not enough action. I’m still a bit skeptical of Farley but he at least knows we’re falling behind. We either work to compete with Tesla or we die, there’s no other way about it. The rest of the world is going all EV, like it or not, and if we don’t try to compete we’ll cease to exist.
Some areas in the company are starting to get it and the work coming out of it is really making a difference, but there’s still so many areas that we need to revamp. I worked so many years in the “sit down and shut up” area of Ford where the old way of working always prevailed and anything new is “flavor of the week.” Well the past 3 years I’ve seen more and more of these “flavor of the week” sayers leave, and new non-auto people come in and make changes that led to improvements.
I can’t wait to see the last of the naysayers to leave or get cut, y’all are dragging us down and making the environment 10x more toxic.

And to all the downvotes I’m very much expecting I’ll say this “your boos mean nothing I’ve seen what makes you cheer.”

With all the cuts at the working level, Ford will soon have Tesla's quality scores. Funny how they miss that Tesla can barely build a car during all this benchmarking.

Ford will NEVER EVER be like Tesla.

What Tesla did in in 19 years Ford couldn't do in a 120 years!

Why? Stupidity, incompetence and arrogance of upper management. PERDC is a perfect example of that.

PD here. Prior to Tesla it was Audi we were chasing from a luxury stand point. J Mays was infatuated with his former employer.

i have worked with few incompetent engineers at ford...if i was the ceo we would easily can 30% of the workforce overnight....

As far as Mullaly goes, he among all leaders seemed to start a change to culture and approach. It didn't stick unfortunately and the hiring spree after he left ignored the talk of being profitable at certain share. That art us up for cost overruns later

Trying to benchmark competition has always been something Ford has done, from vehicle teardowns to discussions on various topics. People have to be clear status quo isn't sufficient. Problem is that over decades the same issues occur (quality/recalls, complexity, material cost concerns, etc) and no change in management or org change of the year has fixed it. Call it company culture or whatever you want, roadblocks exist

To the OP and others - Ford has always been a follower. It has never been a leader - Ever! (Well, maybe it was during the reign of the company founder Henry Ford - that was a long time ago though)

The OP mentions Mulally - Well, Mulally's time at Ford was just a small slice of the entire timeline of Ford history. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on the state of the company just because he was CEO for that period. After all, the Ford family still called the shots while he was CEO - and there is very little good the family does - except for being incompetent (not really a good attribute), being born wealthy, and fooling decades of employees that they are part of the Ford family. It is a very dysfunctional family (not the family we all want it to be or have visions of what the word family should mean) - and if you aren't dysfunctional - you don't fit in "the family" - it is that simple.

And even the great Mulally wanted Ford to be more like Toyota (i.e. - substitute the words "Toyota" and "Tesla" - albeit not mentioned as frequently though). You might despise the constant references/talk of Tesla (and I really don't disagree with that sentiment), but I also despise the constant references of the "Great" Mulally. His timing of coming to Ford was perfect - right after the "Great Recession". Everything in the overall economy was improving, back room govt deals made the financials of US automakers better (including Ford), previous company leaders had already put a plan in place to leverage the company to survive the recession and recover from it, etc. It was a good time to become CEO for ole Alan. Did he make some small changes - Yes. Did he do anything that was culture changing for future prosperity lasting for decades, even years at Ford - NO! Nothing more, nothing less. He came to Ford as an outsider - made millions of dollars (many more millions than previous CEO's) - gave a few years of "Hope and Change" (it was a theme that other charlatans also used during that time period in history) - and then left.

Just like you are saying to get over using the word "Tesla" - I say to you and others to get over the "Great Mulally" or thinking that Ford is going to someday magically turn around and become this great, innovative, attractive place for your career.

You stay for the paycheck and accept the company as it is - or you leave to try and find the career most people wanted when they hired into Ford.

It is really Ford vs Ford - the company has to transform or risk becoming obsolete. Mullaly always said it was important to understand the competitor...it's important to understand Tesla and every competitor that is trying to compete in our space. That's just my two cents...

@ias+1gtfOjSw Amen to that. It's almost embarrassing and it seems to discount the minority of employees who try to bust their rears and turn things around.

To some extent, I get looking at the competition. You have to understand the market and what other companies are doin. But it's problematic to constantly benchmark yourself against another company, who you will never catch up to or be. I'm not one of these people who idolizes Tesla and their sheer blessing to exist on this Earth. We have very talented people pigeonholed in departments in this company who could make actual tangible efforts to improve it drastically. But the yes men and people who play politics make it impossible to get anything done.

There's a quote from Henry Ford that's essentially, "The competitor to be feared is the one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on to make their business better all the time." Stop worrying about what everyone else is doing and focus on our own affairs.

"Be tesla". I personally do not agree this is the path to take. We have something that tesla will never have, ICE capability.

Why we are not leveraging that along with combining it to electrification to make the best hybrids with capabilities over a BEV can do is beyond me.

What has Ford ever been first at? Recalls? They are diluting the F-150 platform and alienating current customers, exited the car segment, and keep trying to keep the Lincoln dinosaur alive. They have told their employees that they are wrong for the market and need to be replaced. They are late to the EV market and not prepared to make any vehicle in volume. Behind the scenes the leadership wants to be a data company. They will never lead the auto industry in anything worthy or notable.

I agree too. Was just thinking during the Townhall that if I were CEO my first move would be to ban the utterance of Tesla, throughout the entire company.

I'd sit Botox Bill down and say to him "I know you want to be Elon, but that will never happen. Stop obsessing!"

Agree 100%