I will ALWAYS remember the speech given by one of the finance higher-ups at Ford Motor back when I worked there in the early part of the decade. 9/11 had just happened, the economy was in a pretty strong downturn (though not a fullblown recession). But more importantly, the "foreign" automakers now had a full lineup of trucks and SUVs to compete with the "Detroit" offering. This wasn't just a rough patch in the economy, it was a fundamental tipping of the see-saw.
The finance big shot is speaking to a room of finance grunts like myself when he says "Tough times are ahead, but we'll pull through it and be stronger than ever" or something to that extent.
Here we are, seven years later, and look at this - the Blue Oval is in debt up to its eyeballs.
Selling Jaguar, Land Rover, and potentially Volvo will only keep the ship afloat just a little bit longer.
I wonder if the following speech is being given somewhere in Dearborn today. Given the ownership structure of the shares, it's probably not:
"Tough times are ahead. And we're not prepared to deal with what will happen. We need to do something now that's in the best interests of our shareholders."
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1 comment:
BK is coming. It has to. I am glad I didn't go back there. I suspect I would be unemployed and living in michigan if I did (in about a year). That is a bad combination!!!!
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