The automotive industry needs to quickly develop a new roadmap and press harder for innovation to “connect the industry’s great past with the needs of tomorrow,” two Ford Motor Company executives told industry leaders at this weekend’s “Global Leadership Conference at The Greenbrier.â€? Mark Fields, Ford executive vice president and president of the Americas, and Anne Stevens, newly appointed Ford executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Americas, made the comments as part of keynote addresses at the Society of Automotive Engineers’ prestigious industry conference, attended annually by automakers, suppliers and business leaders.
“The auto industry events of the past week prove that the roadmaps our companies followed for 100 years are no longer valid,� Fields said. “Business models have changed. Consumers and markets have changed. We have to change, too. From now on, only those automakers and supplier companies that find new ways to work together – and strike down some new, uncharted paths – are going to survive.�
Fields said the auto industry faces seven specific and serious challenges:
- Globalization is bringing more competition to the U.S.
- The “balance of power� in the industry has shifted with China and India emerging as top markets
- Market dynamics are changing, causing intense competition in every part of the market
- Customers are becoming even more demanding
- Customers’ views of their automobiles are changing faster than ever, with cars increasingly becoming an expression of who people are rather than mere transportation
- Legislative pressure is increasing
- Oil production is peaking, and concern for the environment is growing.
“We must grapple with all seven of these challenges,” Fields said. “Guts, grit and new ideas will be the key to winning in the automotive game today.”
At Ford , Fields says, the team is using the best lessons from around the world to develop the roadmap and innovation for the future. Personally, Fields says, he is bringing the lessons he learned from 10 years outside the United States – at Mazda in Japan and in Europe running the Premier Automotive Group and Ford of Europe – to his new role leading Ford’s American operations.
“The task is to fix the business and then seek competitive advantage through innovation,” Fields said. “All actions in North America are going to be fast, focused and fundamental. We will jettison excess bureaucratic baggage. We will break constraints. And we will make firm decisions.”
“We are poised to win because we have a group of leaders who will not tolerate failure,� Fields continues. “It’s going to be uncomfortable but exhilarating at Ford Motor Company in the months ahead.�
“Innovation is at the heart of American progress, and it is right up there with ‘individual rights’ and ‘liberty’ as attitudes that literally put this country on the map,� COO Anne Stevens said.
Additional steps need to be taken by all automakers in areas such as alternative fuels, biodiesel, fuel cells and hydrogen powered vehicles, she said. The industry can accomplish the goals in a timely and orderly fashion by using “good old American innovation.”
