Read Online American Icon by Bryce G. Hoffman - Free Book Online
Authors: Bryce G. Hoffman
Ads: Link
their cellphone calls and even installed cameras in rooms housing top-secret documents to see who accessed them and when.
Bill Ford knew his company had reached a critical point in its history. If it could not address its fundamental problems, it would not survive. He had tried to find someone to help him lead a global restructuring, but all of his overtures had been rebuffed and none of hisown executives was up to the challenge. Ford decided to narrow his focus and concentrate on fixing the North American automobile business because, if that continued to decline, nothing else would matter anyway. Everything else could wait.
“Our commitment must begin here in the United States,” Ford declared in that September speech. “While we’re a global company, our greatest challenges and the need for dramatic change are right here—North America.”
A s Ford delivered that speech, he was in the process of putting together a team to take on that task. Instead of relying on his top executives, he gathered together less senior managers from around the world who had demonstrated real potential. To lead them, he turned to the company’s brightest rising star, Mark Fields.
Fields was a handsome young executive with a wavy mullet and movie-star smile who exuded self-confidence. He was born in Brooklyn, grew up in New Jersey, and still had a bit of its air about him that a Rutgers economics degree and a Harvard MBA could not entirely dispel. Hired by Ford in 1989 after a stint at IBM, he started out in marketing and rose rapidly through the ranks thanks to a quick mind and an evident mastery of management science. Many who encountered Fields thought he was arrogant, but his belief in his own abilities was well founded. After extricating Ford’s Argentine subsidiary from a failed marriage with Volkswagen, he was transferred to Japan in 1999 and put in charge of Mazda. He was only thirty-eight, theyoungest person ever to lead a Japanese car company.
While Ghosn was making headlines as the savior of Nissan, Fields was working the same magic in Hiroshima, albeit without the media attention. Mazda had no clear idea of what it wanted to be. It had gotten into trouble by trying to match the bigger Japanese automakers with a full family of plain-vanilla models for the masses. But the world did not need another boring four-door sedan. Fields convinced the company to return to its roots and make sporty cars with edgy designs for people who were passionate about driving. The results were a new generation of vehicles that were widely regarded as some of the bestin the world and a new tagline, “Zoom-Zoom,” that was one of the catchiest in the industry. Mazda stood for something again, and it was soon back in the black. It was a stunning performance, and the lack of notice would have been far less chafing if another gaijin had not been making girls swoon in the streets of Tokyo. It would take Fields a long time to get over that. He was soon reassigned to London, where he was put in charge of Nasser’s Premier Automotive Group. In 2004, he became head of Ford of Europe, too.
In each of these postings, Fields made the brands stronger and the budgets leaner. After he arrived in Argentina, he was invited to the company’s annual polo tournament. He spent a pleasant afternoon sipping champagne with the Buenos Aires elite, then told his new employees that he hoped they had enjoyed the event, because it was the last one. At Mazda, he hadaxed 20 percent of the company’s workforce—this in a nation where lifetime employment was still the norm. When he took over the Premier Automotive Group, he closed its posh headquarters on London’s tony Berkeley Square and moved himself and the rest of the employees to a Ford design facility in Soho.
Bill Ford and the other directors had been following Fields’ career closely. They thought his tough-love approach was just the sort of thing the company needed in North America. However, while he was being
Bill Ford knew his company had reached a critical point in its history. If it could not address its fundamental problems, it would not survive. He had tried to find someone to help him lead a global restructuring, but all of his overtures had been rebuffed and none of hisown executives was up to the challenge. Ford decided to narrow his focus and concentrate on fixing the North American automobile business because, if that continued to decline, nothing else would matter anyway. Everything else could wait.
“Our commitment must begin here in the United States,” Ford declared in that September speech. “While we’re a global company, our greatest challenges and the need for dramatic change are right here—North America.”
A s Ford delivered that speech, he was in the process of putting together a team to take on that task. Instead of relying on his top executives, he gathered together less senior managers from around the world who had demonstrated real potential. To lead them, he turned to the company’s brightest rising star, Mark Fields.
Fields was a handsome young executive with a wavy mullet and movie-star smile who exuded self-confidence. He was born in Brooklyn, grew up in New Jersey, and still had a bit of its air about him that a Rutgers economics degree and a Harvard MBA could not entirely dispel. Hired by Ford in 1989 after a stint at IBM, he started out in marketing and rose rapidly through the ranks thanks to a quick mind and an evident mastery of management science. Many who encountered Fields thought he was arrogant, but his belief in his own abilities was well founded. After extricating Ford’s Argentine subsidiary from a failed marriage with Volkswagen, he was transferred to Japan in 1999 and put in charge of Mazda. He was only thirty-eight, theyoungest person ever to lead a Japanese car company.
While Ghosn was making headlines as the savior of Nissan, Fields was working the same magic in Hiroshima, albeit without the media attention. Mazda had no clear idea of what it wanted to be. It had gotten into trouble by trying to match the bigger Japanese automakers with a full family of plain-vanilla models for the masses. But the world did not need another boring four-door sedan. Fields convinced the company to return to its roots and make sporty cars with edgy designs for people who were passionate about driving. The results were a new generation of vehicles that were widely regarded as some of the bestin the world and a new tagline, “Zoom-Zoom,” that was one of the catchiest in the industry. Mazda stood for something again, and it was soon back in the black. It was a stunning performance, and the lack of notice would have been far less chafing if another gaijin had not been making girls swoon in the streets of Tokyo. It would take Fields a long time to get over that. He was soon reassigned to London, where he was put in charge of Nasser’s Premier Automotive Group. In 2004, he became head of Ford of Europe, too.
In each of these postings, Fields made the brands stronger and the budgets leaner. After he arrived in Argentina, he was invited to the company’s annual polo tournament. He spent a pleasant afternoon sipping champagne with the Buenos Aires elite, then told his new employees that he hoped they had enjoyed the event, because it was the last one. At Mazda, he hadaxed 20 percent of the company’s workforce—this in a nation where lifetime employment was still the norm. When he took over the Premier Automotive Group, he closed its posh headquarters on London’s tony Berkeley Square and moved himself and the rest of the employees to a Ford design facility in Soho.
Bill Ford and the other directors had been following Fields’ career closely. They thought his tough-love approach was just the sort of thing the company needed in North America. However, while he was being
Similar Books
