SOUNDBITES: MARK FIELDS
He is the new man spearheading the North American Automotive Operations for Ford Motor Company, Mark Fields. The Executive vice president and President of the Americas reflecting on the Company and it's future for 2006.
to hear audio. Use right mouse click to download.
|
Cut# 1:
|
"Well where we are going in the future is changing our business model as a company….at first and formost starts and centers everything about understanding our customers. Understanding their wants and needs, understanding who our target customers are and then fashioning all our efforts from design, development, manufacturing and sales and marketing, right down to the showroom floor. Delivering products and services that appeal to the customers we're going after". :30 sec. |
| (Fields sees the industry dramatically changing from the Big Three to the Big Six. ) |
|
| Cut# 2:
|
"So the thought of the Big Three, that's old thinking those days are gone. It's more like the up for grabs Big 6 and I think that's a positive way for us at Ford to think about it…because it changes our mind set about how we approach the business, one from going from entitlement to going to let's compete and let's compete effectively." 19 sec. |
| (While change is part of the industry one of the icons that remains in the stable for Ford Motor Company is the Mustang and this year Ford will be unveiling the Shelby GT 500, making it the most powerful Mustang ever to be built.) |
|
| Cut# 3:
|
"We extending the franchise and doing it with Carroll Shelby who has a long history in the Mustang car segment and we feel the combination between our Mustang and Carroll Shelby and Ford is a fantastic combination. |
| (While there will always be a segment of car buyers who idolize the Mustang, the consumer change happening today is in the form of Cross Over Vehicles demands. Fields says it's the fastest growing segment in the industry.) |
|
| Cut# 4:
|
"But more importantly,we have to look as a company to look at where the trends are going, and a lot of customers are saying, we want more car-like, more fuel efficient, vehicles that still have, to one degree or another, the flexability and the capacity.
From an interior stand point of SUVs. And that is why the crossover vehicle segment is growing so fast." :22 sec |
| |
|
|
|
| (According to Fields, the Cross Over vehicle is just one of the many Ford products that should help to stabalize the Ford's all important Market Share.) |
|
| Cut# 5:
|
I think it's very important that we stabilize our market share, will it help? Absolutely, but we have vehicles like the Mustang GT 500 and continued success of the Mustang, very importantly what we're starting to gain a lot of traction with our new Fusion, which is an outstanding product, we just launched it and every month it's improving its sales and we really haven't started the real marketing efforts on that yet. So between those products as well as our traditional trucks like F-Series etc…we think we have a lot of arrows in our quiver to help us stabilize our market share and it's going to be up to the team to do that.:37 sec. |
|
|
| (When Fields talk about the strengths of the company he eluded to the F-Series, selling over 900,000 units in 2005, the Mustang, restablishing itself with the Fusion, and the over all product strength in the Ford brand…but the one area he believes can be and is the strongest-strength of Ford Motor company….. it's employees.) |
|
| Cut# 6:
|
"I think finally our hugh strength at Ford Motor Company is our people….we really do have excellent people in this organization and our challenge as a management team is to channel that in a very positive way cut out a lot of the bureaucratic drag and let people get on with their jobs, and let us win." :18sec. |