Mark Fields
Mark Fields
canadian continuing course decline increased joe key market north sales share stopped
Joe not only stopped a continuing market share decline in one of our key North American markets, he reversed course and increased sales in the very competitive Canadian environment.
actions business decisions difficult help idling later necessary north obviously plants reducing restore staff
Idling plants and reducing staff are obviously very difficult decisions for all of us, but they also are necessary actions to help restore our North American business to profitability no later than 2008.
agenda asked best bill brand brightest business emotional ford ground group hit innovative jim knows leaders north operation people product running strong team turn wins work
I asked Bill Ford and Jim Padilla for not only the best and the brightest leaders in our company, but for the kind of people who can work as one team on one agenda. That agenda is to turn around our North American operation with a team that knows how to win, an innovative product line-up that wins in the marketplace and a brand that has strong emotional appeal. We now have in place an outstanding group of leaders in The Americas, and they already have hit the ground running to turn the business around.
arrogant degree past
I think to one degree or another we have been arrogant in the past.
continue incentives path
We can't continue on the same path of incentives our competitors have introduced.
arts center cultural diverse goals groups progress promoted realize served
We were making significant progress to realize the goals set some 20 years ago for an arts center that promoted the region's cultural groups and served a diverse community.
build including increasing investment product truck
We will build on our strengths, including increasing our product investment to fortify our F-Series truck leadership.
buy cars chrysler command deeper ford given huge insight larger likely market percent potential remains research roughly share together using vehicle
Who's most likely to buy our products, who's least likely to buy them and who's up for grabs. This has given us a much deeper insight than we've ever had before using traditional demographic or vehicle segment-based models. One of the most important findings from this research is that there remains a huge market for American cars in this country. And the potential is significantly larger than the roughly 55 percent market share than GM, Ford and Chrysler together command today.
date return
We are not going to put a date on when Jaguar will return to profitability.
flexible investment number production reducing thanks
We are reducing the number of plants, not necessarily production capacity, thanks to our investment in flexible manufacturing.
committed remain
We remain very committed to the low-cost facility.
actual bring cap cars clear fusion higher introduce line margins prices pricing protect proves sticker success trucks
We started introducing clear pricing two years ago. The success of Mustang and Fusion proves that it works. We will bring sticker prices more in line with actual transaction prices and cap 'cash on the hood' rebates as we introduce new cars and trucks into the marketplace. It will protect our margins and consumers, too, through higher resale values.
cars compelling hot question
There is no question that crossovers are where we need to be, and that they have to be as hot and compelling as cars like our Mustang.
behind message stronger
We have to get a stronger message behind that.