USA: Ford focusing more on customer – Nasser

Ford”s
president and chief executive officer Jacques Nasser has told a business conference
that his number one goal after the Firestone tyre recall debacle is a greater
focus on the customer, Associated Press (AP) reported.

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Last year Nasser had to deal with the fall-out from a Bridgestone/Firestone
recall of 6.5 million tyres, many of which were fitted to Ford Explorers and
linked by U.S. government safety officials to 174 deaths and over 700 injuries,
AP said.

“That was a tremendously difficult period for our customers,” Nasser
reportedly said in an address to the Harvard Business School’s 17th annual global
alumni conference.

“One of the lessons that I look back on is that when that tyre issue first
came up, what was important was having a vision that we could all point to and
say we’re going to do what’s right for our customers,” AP quoted the Ford
boss as saying.

AP said that Ford voluntarily replaced the tyres and subsequently planned to
provide tyre warranties with all Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brand vehicles so
it could be alerted about problems.

Nasser also told the conference that Ford would apply technology to make its
vehicles more environment-friendly, AP said.

Achieving reduced emissions and good fuel economy require widely available,
affordable technology which is not restricted to “boutique models that only
the rich can afford,” he added, according to AP”s report.

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