Personally I thought the presentations provided a good understanding of the factors influencing Ford’s business strategy moving forward over the next 10 years or so.
Whether you like Jim Hackett or not, he has a forward vision of how Ford will stay relevant as a mobility company as passenger vehicles ICE’s eventually get replaced by full electric and then full autonomous vehicles.
We baby boomer are fading away as the largest consumer being replaced by the millennials who have a much different vision of the world they want to live in. I thinks Hackett’s business plan is spot on to market to this next most relevant consumer group.
Retirement is just around the corner for me, I look forward to being around long enough to see how this plays out.
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On the pension issue... a good friend is a GM retiree and I believe she may have had a gap in her pension during the bailout period but she did start collecting her pension shortly after that because of PBGC. So technically she may have lost her GM pension but she still receives the same monthly benefit she received from GM. I believe PBGC insures up to somewhere around $67,000 per year.
Correction on pension issue, I recall the active and retired salaried Delphi (former GM) employees did lose their pensions during the bailout time period, those folks all went into the PBGC system.
Please don’t disrespect Stevie Wonder. Mr. Wonder has great vision (the kind we refer to) and remarkable talent. Mr Hackett... not so much.
Hackett as much vision as Stevie Wonder.
You are absolutely clueless, sorry
Dr Edward Demming tried to convince us automakers to use spc. They turned him down Japanese unbraced..... end of story
Hackett may have forward vision when strategizing for a desk, but does not have it when it comes to the automotive sector. How about building quality vehicles for starters. Got rid of a Focus with the DPS6 Transmission issue only to move into an Escape with a sewing machine sh– 1.5L engine, that was held up during the pre-production phase (was in the pipeline when the issue was discovered) for a leaking cylinder head. Guess what, issue was not resolved, vehicles were shipped, now all 1.5Ls are being recalled for potential water intrusion into the cylinders. Company is failing on the basic principles of manufacturing discipline. Yet, you want to believe they can build an electric vehicle?? As a side note, if anybody has had to deal with Allright Solutions (Ford Benefits), you would probably be smart in taking the lump sum. Hackett is just like the captain of the Titanic saying to the band “Keep playing men” as the ship is sinking into the Abyss.
Back to the original poster, the sessions were more of the same technobabble from Talking Heads, wizards, and magical millenial elves. The bottom line is we should be benchmarking, with everythingvwe got, all the best automobile companies, including Tesla if we really think that's where the future is going. Instead we're benchmarking soft drink, coffee companies, latte providers, and pizza chains as if they have something to teach Ford in building some of the most complex machines in a complex industry . Understanding customers IS NOT rocket scince. Ford needs to spend a lot more time building quality reliability and durability that is affordable. Toyota figured that out a long time ago.
Does not mean they cannot freeze pension contributions for folks who are way under 35 years of service. This is one more lever they have in their arsenal and imo the dividend is not getting cut before that lever is pulled.
As of 1/1/2020 Ford capped pensions at a max 35 years. People with more tan 35 years service continued to accrue until 12/31/19. People who have yet to reach 35 years pension service will continue to accrue until they reach the 35 year maximum.
I can see the company going the way of freezing any future contributions to the pension plan long before the dividend gets cut. Pension plan offerings were ended in Jan 04' so add 30 to that # and you can see a huge savings for the company over the next 14 years.
Either way all theses auto companies have to get through the next 5 years trying to remain profitable all the while trying to offload BEV's and an onslaught of Plugin Elecs they are now developing and phase 2 of that investment is the launch phase. All of this while gas prices plummet and talk of potential recession clouds since this is the longest stretch of economic growth without a recession in the history of the U.S.
Keep your head down, work hard and pull up your boot straps this is going to get very interesting.
Don't know anyone that bothered with that nonsense event. Some of us actually are buried nose deep in work. Would imagine the kids that do nothing but sit in front of their computers playing on their phones all day went because nobody is supposed to make them do anything. After all they are Hackett's golden children the future. Everyone else is to keep working while they play and give know field trips.
Why the OP got negative likes? It's sarcastic inside out, lol
It would be unlikely that Ford could eliminate pension obligations even if they did file bankruptcy. Look to GM and Chrysler as examples... they filed bankruptcy and retired individuals did not lose their pensions because the UAW and bankruptcy judges made it clear they would not agree to a bankruptcy plan that did not include pensions. A mom and pop company might get away with eliminating pensions but the UAW and the government wouldn’t approve eliminating income for thousands of retirees. Ford is doing everything possible now to reduce future pension obligations because they know it will be extremely difficult to eliminate the obligations they already have. Current employees are tense about their employment. Let’s try not to freak out the retirees as well.
Take your pension as a lump sum.