Anyone have any insights on potential layoffs within GDIA? I know it’s considered a “high growth” area but others have said that layoffs are expected here too.
18 replies (most recent on top)
dear god please say GDIA is hacked to shreds. So tired of getting their stupid, half baked reports on what and how I should do my job. That is made up of absolute garbage.
@ 2qey+1ncOMKCn I used $1,000 per year only to make the math simple for the simpletons. I don’t believe for a minute that most vehicle purchasers will spend anywhere near that annual amount for any vehicle subscriptions. I know for certain I won’t.
@1fnn+1ncOMKCn I'm not sure you're good at math at all.
$1000/year is $83/month. People flip out when Netflix raises their subscription by $1. So just how much do you think customers that are paying $40k, $50k, $60k or more for a vehicle are willing to pay in monthly subscriptions?!? Because I'm willing to bet it is way lower than $83/month!!!
Fact is, the revenue potential for subscriptions is going to be a drop in the bucket.
@1fnn+1ncOMKCn That is a “hope” not a fact.
It reminds me of a town hall years back where our leadership stated no more sedans would be made. An audience member asked what should be the message to our customers who want sedans? The response “We hope you buy a truck or SUV”. There were snickers in the audience and BF stood up and did a ditty about how wonderful our truck and SUV line up was. What happened? — further erosion of market share. Which the entire audience save a few bootlickers knew would be the end result.
@1fnn And the thing you are missing is when will people get sick of paying monthly fees for cr@p that they dont need and doesnt provide them with anything useful? Basing financial forecasts on subscriptions is a red herring.
Post ID: @1jei+1ncOMKCn, you are the one that is wrong and fails math. There is a very important variable your calculation is forgetting, it is the fact that a single data/application subscriber can and will subscribe to multiple subscriptions. For example, a customer may subscribe to BlueCruise and another one of Ford's services, concurrently. Thus the revenue in the subscription business model has more reach that you thought.
Model developed from data has a fundamental assumption: what happens in the future must have happened in the past. Before this type of model, we have a thing called "experiences".
As much as individuals have different experiences, data model also has its variability. Driven by the needs to justify the huge expenses from the data gathering and data analysts, the data models are typically over-fitted to give "accurate prediction" in the model verification stage. An over-fitted model always gives very poor results in real-time/real-life. But it may not matter.
The best use of data model at Ford is to allow all the decision makers to hide behind the data instead of taking the responsibilities to make the decisions. GDIA must exist for this to continue. So GDIA is safe.
"Gur Arie and his wife decided to tap into downtown areas on the weekends. So far, they’ve hit several locations, including Plymouth, Birmingham, Novi and Northville."
Any downtown, but Detroit's. Well, I don't blame him. I like to stay as far as I can from Detroit. However, the train station and book repository, the pet projects of Bill Ford, are going to be used to force Ford employees into the lion's den (or should I say Tigers' den). I am not interested in RTO, but even less in RTO in Detroit.
@nbs+1ncOMKCn. You need some remedial math. Let’s start with our 2022 gross profit of $23,660,000,000 (before bad management decisions turned it into @ $2 billion net loss). Even if we could sell customers annual subscription services worth $1,000, we would need to sell to 23,600,000 subscribers to achieve that revenue. Then you need to sell them all again next year so they continue paying.
Where do you think Ford is going to get all those subscribers?
Farley and Ford management don't utilize data. They are government science believers. Was there data supporting mandated Covid shots for young healthy WFH employees who had recovered from Covid infections? Of course not - it was absurd, but let's be quiet about that and hope everyone forgets. What about data showing actual impact of the Paris Accord on climate change? How about data showing the tremendous competitive disadvantage the Paris Accord puts the state of Michigan in relation to China? Come on, all you data scientists.
@fja+1ncOMKCn
They can’t possibly be leaving, he was to be our Data and Subscription savior, from the Jewish News, January 2022:
In the biography of Steve Jobs on Gil Gur Arie’s bookshelf, author Walter Isaacson shares a story about the day Jobs unveiled the Macintosh computer. A reporter from Popular Science asked Jobs what type of market research he had done. Jobs responded by scoffing, “Did Alexander Graham Bell do any market research before he invented the telephone?”
Ford’s CEO Jim Farley, with decades of experience in marketing, is a strong believer in innovation but not the kind where you just trust your gut. His vision is for Ford to be a data-first company and to keep data in mind for everything the company does, both miniscule and major. Since becoming president and CEO in October 2020, he’s been recruiting near and far to help the company determine how data can guide the direction of the company’s future. These new recruits have come from noted names like Apple, the technology company founded by Jobs.
Gil Gur Arie, who became an executive at Ford on May 1, 2020, is another such recruit. He now serves as the chief data and analytics officer for Ford. His first day at the office, during the start of the pandemic, ended up also being his last day at the office as he transitioned quickly to remote work.
The Israeli native now has a home base in West Bloomfield, along with his wife, Hagit, and four children (ages 8, 10, 14 and 17). “As I reflect on my first year here with my family (relocating to Michigan), it was tough at the beginning. I would say the pandemic definitely didn’t help connecting, but I found a nice community here in West Bloomfield. The Jewish community as well. We got a bunch of challahs the very first Friday and my wife, who is a great cook and baker, made some for the neighbors as well,” Gur Arie told the Jewish News.
“I would say, despite the pandemic, we have felt a warm welcome and a sense of belonging,” he added. His children, who began school on Zoom, now are back to in-person learning in the Bloomfield Hills School District.
Gur Arie and his wife decided to tap into downtown areas on the weekends. So far, they’ve hit several locations, including Plymouth, Birmingham, Novi and Northville.
Jewish Legacy at Ford
Wesley Sherwood, on the mobility communications team at Ford, mentioned that Ford had the distinction of having a prior CEO from the Jewish community, Mark Fields, as well as a previous treasurer within the community, Neil Schloss. With Gil’s appointment, he is now the most prominent Israeli and Jewish executive at the firm and also one of the most prominent Israel executives within the automotive world.
Ford, with the largest revenue and employee base of any company in Michigan, has a history of global recruitment in recent decades. Norman Lewis, as one such example, previously served as the director of information systems at the company after having impressed the U.S. executives with his work around computer systems in the European office of Ford. The South Africa native, who made aliyah to Israel and completed a Ph.D. at Hebrew University, continues to reside in Metro Detroit.
Gur Arie’s role is focused on transforming Ford into a data-led business, which includes modernizing all aspects of the company, including “translating connected vehicle data into quicker actions for customers.”
Sherwood shares that Gur Arie’s team is leading Ford’s advanced artificial intelligence applications and is integrating artificial intelligence to improve its manufacturing efficiencies as well as its massive logistics and shipping operations. Ford’s team of global data and analytics members now spans 1,000 data scientists globally. The objectives for the team focus on key company priorities including the development of mobility, electrification, connective vehicles and autonomous driving technologies.
A key objective for the global data team has been on logistics over the last year with significant shipping challenges confronting the industry. Gur Arie mentioned how a year ago, Ford launched a system that uses historical data and machine learning algorithms to optimize shipments around the globe, which spans over 600,000 different parts, to send less freight while making sure the parts arrive at the right time. While optimizing all these moving parts across 80 plants has been challenging, the new system already saves more than $20 million a year.
Thoughts on Detroit
Gur Arie is a retired colonel in the Israeli Military Intelligence Corps, Unit 8200, who comes to Detroit with more than two decades of experience in data science, research and development, cybersecurity and intelligence technologies experience. His work in the IDF included establishing a technological unit with more than 1,000 employees, advancing hundreds of solutions within the intelligence community and establishing the profession of data engineer within the IDF where he was appointed as the data science representative.
“I’m proud and humble to be part of the leadership of this company, coming from my background. Ford is highly open to diversity of thoughts, diversity of culture, trying to get to the best decision on day-to-day meetings and, overall, on the strategy creation. So, I’m proud to be part of that,” Gur Arie said.
“I do see the connection to the Israeli ecosystem and in using the research center in Israel to tap into the local talent. So, I’m quite optimistic. I hope I’m not the last one from an Israeli perspective into the automotive business. I hope others will follow.”
Gur Arie articulated what he witnessed firsthand since he began: The pandemic changed the face of the relationship between workers and employers. The company, more than ever before, is looking for talent wherever it is and to connect with the full global ecosystem — even if it means hiring remote workers.”
Gur Arie said that he and his boss are passionate about talent in the tech area whether they be in Israel, India, Europe, China or other locations.
Gur Arie, 46, has come a long way from his upbringing in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area of Hod Hasharon. Gil, whose name is often given in Hebrew by parents that want their children to embody a bright promise, not only carries with him a joyful demeanor — but also a sense of promise for the region he now resides in.
“We see great opportunities here in Detroit.”
The Ford Jewish group is part of the Ford Interfaith Network (FIN) Employee Resource Group, founded in 2000 as one of the original faith affinity groups. Prior to COVID restrictions, the FIN Jewish Group typically met for a lunch-and-learn type of event several times a year, inviting a guest speaker such as Rabbi Yisrael Pinson of Chabad in the D to lead a discussion.
The FIN Jewish Group also participates in Ford Interfaith events such as the National Day of Prayer, the monthly Interfaith Discussion Forum (where each faith presents a short explanation of its teachings on the selected topic) and a FIN annual community service event.
The Ford Fund (Ford’s charitable arm) has supported several Jewish charities and events in Southeast Michigan area over the years, including Yeshiva Beth Yehudah’s annual dinner (Mark Fields was honored one year), the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and support for the Yad Ezra food bank through grants and the Ford Volunteer Corps
GDIA should be cut in half. Then it should be chopped into little pieces and embedded back into the business units so the data geeks understand the business again . . .
Brazil and Mexico are SAFE.
Didn't GDIA just lose their top man Ari "the Mosad agent" who left to spend more time with family. ?
I have it on good authority from a higher up.....
No one safe. NO ONE
@nbs+1ncOMKCn. If Ford's future revenue will be dominated by data and subscriptions, it won't be much of a company. Many people can be laid off. The trivial data tasks can be easily done in lcc.
@OP you’re in GDIA, use your big data to predict if you getting laid off.
Knowing that Ford's future revenue stream will be dominated by data and software based subscription services, why would anyone think resources would be reduced in GDIA?
Makes no sense at all.
I recommend getting familiar with the Ford+ transformation plan. This should ease any concerns.