Ford reported terrible results for the quarter. Like Intel, the company believes their cost structure is bloated vs. competition. Ford execs thing they have $8B excess cost vs comp... They recognize just cutting heads or cost here or there will not fix the problem.
“We can cut the cost, we can cut people, we can do that really quickly and we’ll do whatever we need to,” Farley said. “My job as the CEO is to make sure, far after I’m gone, that it doesn’t grow back.”
I have seen decades of Intel expanding heads, organizations and programs... When times get rough, heads are cut. However, what you will notice about Intel is that it never really changes its core processes, org design (many layers of non producers) or strategies. Intel ELT hires expensive consultants from time to time to come in and make efficiency changes. However, change and org innovation never persist because Intel culture is not designed for that. Intel culture thrives on building large bureaucratic orgs with massively redundant teams and useless processes. When was the last time a mid level manager was rewarded for suggesting wats to cut cost or redundant team?
Ford and Intel were once great companies, but if they can't build a culture and systems to innovate and re-engineer to focus on low cost from within, the failures will continue until there is nothing left. What does B school teach about mature companies in mature market? They need to focus on cost and quality as much as innovation. Intel is definitely not a lean, mean machine it runs at 2-3X the headcount per revenue dollar as competition.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/ford-says-8-billion-cost-disadvantage-is-weighing-on-profit/ar-AA17wAQM