Ford's Success is in the Showrooms

Ford is currently seen as the best bet for success of the Detroit Three.  Ford has avoided taking government bailout money because it secured enough loans to keep it going prior to the financial collapse.  But this money wasn't borrowed to make the payroll, it was intended to restructure the company and invest in new products.  Ford understands that survival in today's automotive climate demands product leadership.  But when it comes down to it, Ford is afraid to lead.

There are hints of leadership in the refreshing of existing products, the F150, and the class leading but certainly-not-a-new-idea Fusion hybrid.  But these are examples of Ford doing the only thing it has the guts to do: follow the trends and hope to get a product out the door that is marginally better than the competition.

The evidence of the failing of Ford is in its new products.  Take the new Ford Flex.  My father walked into a large Ford dealership in Virginia a month or so ago, showing interest in this new Vehicle. He asked the salesman what "Flex" meant, and the salesman just shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't know."  My father walked away without a test drive.  This shows a company unable to execute; unable to create a product and craft a consistent message throughout its development and marketing and deliver it to the customer.  I cringe to even call the Flex by its name, because that name signifies how entirely out of touch Ford is with its own products, its own creativity, its own product leadership.

The Flex is a product that has the potential to be the next big thing.  Its the holy grail that all product planners look for, the people hauler that isn't a smells-like-diapers minivan, that isn't a been-there-done-that SUV.  Its a product that oozes sophistication, luxury, practicality, functionality and smartness all at once.  And what does Ford do?  Gives it a name that anyone I can think of would be embarrassed to utter at a dinner party.  A name that fades into the background, signifies yet another attempt to market yet another cross-over SUV.  What is a cross over, a cross between a sedan and an SUV.  The flex is neither of these.  The Flex is a great American station wagon, reinvented for the 21st century.  Let it be real, authentic and proud, not hiding behind the latest quickly fading marketing trend.

The name and marketing campaign attached to the Flex is Ford refusing to take risks. Refusing to be first. Refusing to take a gamble, create something new and stand behind it.  Ford is afraid that consumers won't get what the best and brightest at the company are creating.  Afraid to believe in itself.

There are many more examples of the stumbling of Ford.  There is the Ford Five Hundred that should have been called Taurus from the get go.  The Five Hundred was an innovative car (granted, with bland styling) with an interior perfect for aging boomers, bigger and more usable than you'd expect for your next Taurus.  Ford attempted to sell it an alternative to the low and swanky Chrysler 300.  The Five Hundred is now years later called the Taurus, a leadership opportunity lost.  Then there is the Lincoln Zephyr that becomes the Mark Z, now restyled for the second time.  Lincoln's tagline "American Luxury" becomes "Travel Well" and now "Reach Higher."  Higher indeed.  Ford is currently bringing the small European commercial hauler TransitConnect to the US market.  They are hinting at selling it as a family hauler.  If they don't jump into this head first, another opportunity will be lost.

Ford needs to believe in itself.  It has the talent, it has the products.  It needs to empower those in the company that have the vision, and make the rest of the company march to their orders.  Ford needs to streamline its operations, cut out the politics, and make sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.  Ford's success is sitting in its showrooms, but they don't even know it.