First Fatality of Brave New World
“Oh, for Ford’s sake, we had to let him go”! goes one of the adages in Huxley’s dystopian novel “Brave New World” where Henry Ford, the creator of the original assembly line, is the deity of the World State.
Mark Fields will now have enough time to read Brave New World after a forced early retirement as the CEO of Ford Motors while Jim Hackett, the incoming CEO is looking forward to tell his grandchildren, “Back in my day, we actually DROVE cars”
Wall St. is abuzz with all sorts of whodunnit theories that led to this ouster, but a few that stand out are the fact that Ford has seen a decline in profits and its share prices under Mark Fields; Mexican factory tiff with Donald Trump; and lack of focus on “future” apparently! Though Mark Fields just delivered one of the most profitable years in Ford’s history (2016 profits were $10–11 billion), Henry Ford’s great-grandson Willam Ford Jr. and his board felt the need for an outsider to shake things up.
Ford does have a history of short-tenured CEOs — remember Jacques Nasser (1999–2001) who in the name of diversification even bought workshops & scrapyards! The parallels between Nasser and Fields are striking — both had short tenures and during both tenures, the shares tanked 40% from their highs. Goes on to prove that one cannot last without winning the hearts Wall St.!
Jim Hackett, the ergonomics guru from Steelcase who’s been a long-time Board member and the head of its crystal ball gazing “mobility” division has his job cut out and we hope he will cut a deal with one of the top 3 silicon valley autonomous techie giants soon.
He may also have to worry about the rising subprime-like auto loans situation soon.
