Never Never Take Ford Motor Company for Granted!
Never take FoMoCo for granted! How Can I say that? Well I spent my first 10 years of my working life "working for Henry!" You learn fast that the Ford name is as precious as one of the world's most recognised symbols, the Ford Oval.
In my 20's I was entrusted with the guardianship of The Oval for some time in my role at Ford of Europe Advertising. It was a privilege and an honour and it drilled into my Marketing and Communication DNA the power of a symbol, a corporate logo.
Yes, Ford planned to wrong-foot Honda's supercar at the Detroit Show. Of course they would. That's what Ford does. The reputation of Ford is so precious that when the automotive sector went into corporate meltdown in the heat of the recession, GM and Chrysler failed and filed for Chapter 11, but Ford did not. It could not as the Family is too proud and too prepared for the worst a market can throw at them to take President Obama's money.
Fisker, now rescued from obscurity by Chinese funders, MODEC, the much vaunted electric van maker of Coventry, England and several other potential entrants to the EV market have bitten the dust in trying to do what TESLA is doing.
The reality of the auto sector is that it is a big boy's game. Designing a new car is the easy bit. Making it, honing it and keeping it on the road costs and costs and costs. You need real skills, real money and real grit to play with the big lads in the car game. Not that Honda is not a big boy. Honda is a great company and re-enters F1 in 2015, but Ford is the ICONIC player.
I joined Ford after the GT40 had already become a Legend. Built to give Ferrari a bloody nose at Le Mans, and it did - 3 times! I remember as a young Car Product Planner with my office in The Holy Ground, the area above the mysterious Dunton Design Studios near Basildon Essex. One morning I looked out of the window and there being reversed off a low loader was a Mint Metallic Green GT80! It was rumoured to exist and I saw it! It never went into production but now the new 2016 Ford GT looks like it's going to battle with the new world represented by the Honda Acura Hybrid and BMW's i-brand's i-8. Oh this will be a battle to savour.
May the best supercar win! Check the inside track with the US Automotive News right here! What a way to start 2015!
https://www.autonews.com/article/20150119/OEM04/301199917/while-supercar-world-awaited-acura-nsx-nobody-saw-ford-gt-coming?cciid=email-autonews-weeklyhttps://www.autonews.com/article/20150119/OEM04/301199917/while-supercar-world-awaited-acura-nsx-nobody-saw-ford-gt-coming?cciid=email-autonews-weekly
Managing Partner at Gupta Smart Energy - Putting network resilience at the top of the agenda for water utilities, DNOs and manufacturing to cope with the increasing demands of EVs and renewables.
10 年And this is another reason why you don't poke a sleeping giant with a stick when it can turn out one bomber every every 55 minutes and that was in 1940! Why do I say this? We are all getting excited about Tesla. But look at the scale you need to SUSTAIN a market presence with multiple product lines. https://www.youtube.com/embed/iKlt6rNciTo?rel=0 The automotive industry is a game for big players, certainly in the long run. Agile entrants can innovate and help show the way but scale and depth of management is key when it comes to industrial complexity.
Managing Partner at Gupta Smart Energy - Putting network resilience at the top of the agenda for water utilities, DNOs and manufacturing to cope with the increasing demands of EVs and renewables.
10 年When Ford wants to keep a new product secret it really does! I have been on one such, Project "Bobcat." Here is the story behind how the Ford GT Secret was contained within FoMoCo https://www.autonews.com/article/20150202/OEM04/302029927/how-ford-kept-the-gt-a-secret?cciid=email-autonews-weekly
Managing Partner at Gupta Smart Energy - Putting network resilience at the top of the agenda for water utilities, DNOs and manufacturing to cope with the increasing demands of EVs and renewables.
10 年As I suspected, Ford Motor Company really did plan to steal Honda's thunder at the Detroit Motor Show, as you can see in this clip from the show dramatic reveal of the Ford GT. Mark Fields, CEO of Ford, said they had planned to "Put The Show back into Motor Show!" As a former Ford Of Europe GmbH Sales Promotion Manager I can attest to the fact that Ford Motor Company, of all auto OEMs, sure knows how to do show-time! You can catch the action and a feature comparison, 2016 Ford GT versus Honda of America Mfg., Inc. NSX Acura right here on this link. https://www.autonews.com/article/20150120/VIDEO/301209996/autonews-now-detroits-supercar-showdown?cciid=email-autonews-annow
Managing Partner at Gupta Smart Energy - Putting network resilience at the top of the agenda for water utilities, DNOs and manufacturing to cope with the increasing demands of EVs and renewables.
10 年Digital design & manufacture has made limited editions and niche cars a possibility so tooling, machine tool design and manufacture has all been streamlined. The Quant is a good example. You should find a post on that in my profile earlier in H2 2014.
Amazon Bestselling Author. Owner of Stark Consulting Engineers Ltd, Owner of Stark Residential Designs, Director of "Ask the Structural Engineer"
10 年i saw this a few days ago - not your post Ash but the new car! very impressive. has some similarities to a mansory clad lotus evora GT4 which i own so it instantly interested me. It does show that even a mainstream car maker, when it allows its staff to do their own thing, can achieve something quite incredible. not sure i like the back end of the car tho, but it is none the less something the high end car manufacturers should be very worried about.