Ford Motor Company: Staying "Ford Tough"

Henry Ford incorporated Ford Motor Company

Edsel Ford joined the company, assuming responsibility for the business side of the company

Purchased all outstanding shares for $105,820,894 and made Ford Motor a family-owned business

Edsel became president of the company

Edsel passed away

Henry returned from retirement to lead the company

Henry resigned at age 82 and Henry Ford II succeeded as the president and CEO of company

Henry II took up as the chairman of the board of directors

Henry II stepped down as president

Henry II stepped down as CEO

Henry II served as chairman of the finance committee

Henry II passed away

Bill Ford became chairman of the Board of Directors

Jacques A. Nasser, with 31 years of experience with Ford Motor, took over as CEO

Bill Ford took over as CEO

Jacques A. Nasser resigned from company

Alan R. Mulally took over as President and CEO

Bill stepped down as President and CEO

Produced 308,162 cars, more than all other US automakers combined

Ford’s US market share slipped to number three, behind General Motors (GM) and Chrysler

Ford Motor recaptured number two position

Sales of larger, heavier and less-fuel efficient vehicles decline while sales of Japanese imports such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan, which met the new fuel efficiency standards, increased

Achieved 22% market share in the US automotive industry, the largest in ten years

Reported $2 billion earnings was in fact a 42% decline from its 2004 profit of #3.5 billion, with international sales in Europe, Asia and other areas offset by $1.6 billion loss in North American operations

Posted a loss of $12.6 billion in 2006

Raised $23.6 billion in loans by using many of its North American assets as collateral, including the Ford logo

Fell to #3 position in the US vehicle market for the first time since the Great Depression, behind GM and Toyota

$14.7 billion loss, highest in its 105-year history

Profit of $2.7 billion, first in four years

Passed Toyota to regain the #2 position in terms of vehicles sold in the US, with GM being the first. Every region for Ford was profitable, especially North America

Ranked #8 on Fortune Magazine's Fortune 500 list of America's largest companies

For the first time in more than 50 years, Ford outsold GM (in overall) and at the end of 2010, Ford was the best-selling automaker in Canada

Have reduced its debt by $17.5 billion

Reduced outlook for US sales in 2011 with a lower second quarter compared to the same period in 2010

Following 2 weeks after the global expansion plan announcement, share price fell 23% since January 1 to $12.65, the lowest level in 2011

Ranked #10 on Fortune Magazine's Fortune 500 list of America's largest companies

Debuted Model A, amid offerings from 87 other car manufacturing companies in the USA.

First Model T

First moving conveyor belt introduced at Ford's Highland Park plant

More than doubled the existing minimum wage per day to $5

Increased production and lower production price from 20,277 cars at $780 each in 1910 to 585,388 cars at $360 each

Construction of the Rouge manufacturing plant

Entered the medium price market by debuting the Mercury brand

Henry II hired the “Whiz Kids” to create a sophisticated management system including accounting and financial controls

Responded to sales decline by cutting its workforce and closing plants

Introduce Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable

Began making a minibus line in China, before GM produced any vehicles for the Chinese

Retrench estimated 10% employees using early retirement incentives

Close three North American assembly plants, cut 35,000 worldwide jobs and discontinue four vehicle models, namely Ford Escort, Mercury Villager, Mercury Cougar and Lincoln Continental

Large-scale cost-cutting plans up to 2012 as part of a massive restructuring plan called “The Way Forward”, designed to reverse the $1.6 billion loss

Under Ford’s Executive Business and Technology Review (EBTR) program developed in 2006, Ford senior purchasing leaders and their engineering counterparts meet regularly with key suppliers to share Ford’s strategies
in great detail

Introduced Transit Connect commercial vans, a highly popular series in Europe, to fleet customers

Made a series of recalls for Lincoln and Ford vehicles, resulting quality ratings to drop from #8 to #17 and #5 to #23 respectively

Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia approved the Transit Connect Taxi, which are powered by lithium ion batteries, for use

Ford Motor bought Lincoln Motor Company

Ford Motor went public, offering 10.2 million shares in the largest stock issue at that time

Consolidation of US, Canadian and Mexican operations into its North American Automotive Operations

Purchased a 25% share in Mazda

Purchased luxury European brands such as Aston Martin and Jaguar

Purchased Swedish automaker Volvo and formed Premier Automotive Group (PAG)

Purchased Land Rover from BMW

Spun off its automotive systems supplier Visteon

Combined car and truck engineering groups

Reduced number of suppliers to create the Aligned Business Framework (ABF) and entered into long-term agreements with select diverse group of strategic global suppliers that help improve Ford quality and lower development and production costs

Sold Aston Martin

Sold Jaguar and Land Rover

Discontinued the Mercury brand and gave dealers permission to sell remaining new Mercury vehicles under the used vehicle category

Sold Volvo to China's Zhejiang Geely Holding

Consolidated dealerships by reducing the number of retail outlets

Signed an agreement with Azure Dynamics Corp. to install plug-in hybrid powertrains in the trucks.

Gas prices quadrupled over the span of a few months which the Middle Eastern OPEC nations' embargo to the US

Terrorist Attack in New York

Worst financial crisis since the Great Depression

Fukushima, Japan earthquake, nuclear and tsunami

Obama administration and the auto manufacturers enter negotiations over new environmental standards