Ford CEO Alan Mulally said Friday he plans to merge Ford’s regional divisions and brands into a single global operation similar to that of Toyota, reports the Detroit News. Mulally has a great admiration for Toyota’s business model, and hopes something similar can be applied at Ford.
“There’s not one Ford. There’s Ford of North America, there’s Ford of South America, there’s probably three Fords that make up Ford of Europe. There’s Australia. There’s China, India — there’s a lot of Fords, and they’re operated very separately as business units,” Mulally said. “We’ve got to go from where we are to leverage our global assets to compete as one company going forward.”
At Boeing, one of Mulally key strategies was reducing the company’s portfolio of more than a dozen airplanes to four. Mulally hopes to use a similar strategy at Ford, sharing more cars globally rather than having multiple vehicles doing virtually the same thing, only in different markets.



11/13, 1:03 PM
posted by:
nowei
this could be very good or very bad.
/no
11/13, 1:04 PM
posted by:
YourNameHere
Euro focus….now…no..yesterday
11/13, 1:11 PM
posted by:
Random Jerk
Finally, an actual real BOLD MOVE.
11/13, 1:12 PM
posted by:
mujician
Awsome, to see all the best ford has to offer around the world come to all markets.
11/13, 1:41 PM
posted by:
A4
DOES THIS MEAN WE GET THE GOOD FOCUS
11/13, 1:42 PM
posted by:
A4
finally something good, finally
execute it well
11/13, 1:59 PM
posted by:
rey323
Agreed with Mr. Jerk. That is a Bold Move. About friggin’ time.
11/13, 2:29 PM
posted by:
Lucifer
does this mean we get the mondeo instead of the fusion? and the euro focus? wow, ford could be great again..
11/13, 2:36 PM
posted by:
A4
maybe the mondeo AND the fusion… they could market the mondeo instead of the five hundred. please
11/13, 2:45 PM
posted by:
Endeavor1776
Bring in the Australian fords, rear wheel drive V8, UTEs / Rancheros
11/13, 2:53 PM
posted by:
maxim303
yes, this is a good move — they can realize significant economices of scale and spread R&D and production expenditures among many more uints, bringing the average unit costs down. however, this is a strategy you cover in introductory MBA classes… what took Ford so long?
11/13, 2:59 PM
posted by:
kellyp
dude’s got balls. hopefully the old guys will let him get away with it.
11/13, 3:07 PM
posted by:
Zanary
For all of you praying for a C1 Focus in the States…either sneak it in or buy a Mazda 3. The Mazdaspeed model would seem a fun compromise….
As far as the “new” Bill…either he succeeds or the ocmpany dies. Both Bills and Mark seem to be proceeding with that reality in mind.
11/13, 3:36 PM
posted by:
Brendino
I actually like Ford’s current and future lineup (Mustang, F150, Fusion, Edge, Expedition, refreshed Focus, 500 with new engine, Freestyle with a little style, Fairlane, even the Explorer is solid albeit outdated-looking, and the new Escape looks promising)…I can see this benefiting Mercury more than anything. Give Merc some new and unique stuff via platform sharing, then pour some money into a unique model or 3 for Lincoln, and Ford will have completed their turnaround.
11/13, 4:50 PM
posted by:
04focus
Mulally just saying he wants to mimic Toyota boosted Ford’s stock by 29 cents. Impressive.
11/13, 5:02 PM
posted by:
A4
zanary what are you talking about
lets hope they have it in mind that they need to succeed otherwise theyre asses should be out the door
and nodody wants a focus THAT bad that theyll black market it in for 40k
11/13, 5:30 PM
posted by:
A4
just saying
11/13, 5:37 PM
posted by:
peter g
The obvious thing to do. The Focus is a great car, especially the Focus ST. And so is the Mondeo, even though both models slowly are aging.
11/13, 6:54 PM
posted by:
davidg1977
This is the absolute perfect opportunity to import Ford of Europe products as Mercury vehicles. C-MAX, Mondeo, C1 Focus… put a waterfall grill and make it happen. The price points will be a bit higher than Ford but that’s exactly what they should be… a nicer version for 10-20% greater price but less than a Lincoln. I see platform sharing for the Lincoln/Volvos and then differentiated Mercury’s (akin to the Opel / Saturn relationship that is emerging).
On a side note, I saw a Saturn Outlook in my in-laws neighborhood yesterday… much larger vehicle than I had expected. This with the GMC/Buick versions will completely push the Trailblazer/Envoy to the scrap heap.
11/13, 7:17 PM
posted by:
Hyperion
Ford wants to mimic Toyota’s business model…….
That means they need to discontinue the Mustang and all the halo cars.
Then improve their interiors and exterior designs and the quality of their paint.
And they need to go back to FWD engines.
11/13, 8:32 PM
posted by:
leviathan18
you dont need to discontinue mustang at all just offer something like mondeo and good mid size cars like corolla or civic ……
11/13, 9:20 PM
posted by:
LamborghiniZ
Of course he does, because Toyota is a brilliant company that knows what the public wants and knows how to make money, Ford would be making a good move if they did this, because what they’re doing now IS NOT WORKING and Toyota is only making more , and more money.
11/14, 1:43 AM
posted by:
Manster
Well, if Mulally can pull it off, that would be the best move that Ford could possibly make. Ford has some really great cars in Euroe and Australia, but for some reason the North American market gets the short end of the stick…..
11/14, 2:59 AM
posted by:
Hyperion
My suggestion that Ford kill the Mustang to fit this business model is in essence a poke at Toyota for offering nothing similar of their own in that product category.
Other than my quip that Toyota builds boring vehicles that I’d never care about buying (but which do sell in truckloads for some reason), I’d commend them for doing this to fix their business.
11/14, 6:14 AM
posted by:
Carnut4ever
Why did it took so long for them to realize this. And with Ford’s US styling studios in a boring mess, they need a lot more realizatons before they can fix things up. Shooting themselves on the foot like not making a V-8 available to their upcoming top Lincoln sedan surely will not help.
11/14, 9:10 AM
posted by:
Aussie#1
Does this mean that cars like the Ford Falcon will no longer just be built in Australia??? like the Camry or something if thats the case its going to destroy all of Ford Australia and manybe even Ford Europe and thats not what i want.
11/14, 3:10 PM
posted by:
A4
peter g, the new mondeo everyone wants hasnt aged a day, considering its not even out yet
11/14, 11:11 PM
posted by:
VDuv Kux Klan
bah bull****, they need to copy the japanese companys to make some money