Ford’s outgoing Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally expressed hope that his successor and the team would remain focused on selling Ford vehicles to all markets across the globe.
It was one of the key decisions taken by Mr. Mulally (68), who saved the Michigan-headquartered global car maker from bankruptcy and turned it into one of the most competitive auto brands in the world during his 8-year stint with the company.
He hoped that Mark Fields (53), his successor, would stay on `One Ford’ strategy, which saw Ford selling off luxury brands such as Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin, and transforming the company into a globally integrated organisation.
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“The transformation under One Ford is one of the biggest in the history. It has worked, and the Ford team has experienced it. I have all confidence that Mark and his team will stay absolutely laser-focused on serving all the markets around the world with complete family of our best-in class vehicles,” Mr.Mulally, who was here in Chennai as part of his farewell visit, told journalists.
Mr. Mulally, who will retire on July 1 and leave behind a remarkable business turnaround story in the U.S. history, indicated that the company was well-prepared to serve and grow in the emerging markets with its global platform strategy, under which it could develop vehicles that could be sold in any market with minor tweaking to suit local tastes and requirements.
Ford had developed nine core vehicle platforms which covered about 85 per cent of the volumes worldwide, he said.
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Armed with these platforms, Ford, he said, is ideally positioned to have a larger play in major emerging markets such as China and India in the Asia Pacific region especially since these platforms could deliver products in smaller vehicle space.
Ford had projected that the Asia Pacific region would grow higher than global industry, he said. This could account for a little over 30 per cent of its volumes by 2020, he added.
Volume to growHe reiterated Ford’s confidence in the Indian market hoping that volumes would grow to seven million in the next few years from three million now.