In an exclusive interview with just-auto, Ford VP and President of the Americas Mark Fields said that Ford is making good progress on its Way Forward North America turnaround plan, writes Dave Leggett.
But consumer perceptions are lagging the progress that the company has made in terms of product and quality, he said.
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Fields also acknowledged the ‘wrenching transition’ of recent months in which a third of Ford’s US salaried workforce had left, but said the company ‘had not missed a beat in terms of delivering the things we need to deliver in the business’.
“As I look at what we’ve set out to do [regarding the North America turnaround plan], I am very, very pleased with the traction and performance we’re starting to get,” Fields said.
“Very importantly, one of our priorities has been successfully launching new product into the marketplace. How these products perform is an indicator of how we’re going to do going forward.
“And as I look at the launch of our new products, that’s a good indicator to me that we’re making progress,” Fields said.
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By GlobalData“When you look at the Fusion – in the market for 18 months now – last month we had record sales for that model.
“Our new super-duty truck is a very important vehicle for us, very profitable – and that’s off to a good start.”
Fields also highlighted Ford’s product efforts in the strategically important area of crossovers, spearheaded by the Ford Edge, and said that small cars would be a future growth area for the company.
Fields told just-auto that Ford is improving its product quality in North America and that the Ford Fusion is beating the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord on Ford’s measures.
“We have made a lot of very good progress on quality. Our own measures show that but also third party sources, such as Consumer Reports, are showing that we are making good strides, versus the competition.”
“We are very competitive across our product line-up. The problem is the perception of the quality of our product, the design of our product, the craftsmanship of our products and the performance….there’s a big gap.
“All that rolls up into a perception gap that presents an opportunity and challenge: how do we shrink that perception gap in as short a time as possible?”
Speaking ahead of Ford’s Q1 financial results (due later this week), Fields confirmed that Ford is looking for a profit on its North American operations in 2009.
“Here in North America, we have said that our objective is to be profitable by 2009 and we’re working very hard toward fulfilling that commitment. What we’ve said for this year is that we expect to see an improvement.”
The full interview transcript will be published on just-auto.
Dave Leggett
