 BILL FORD |
June 16, 2003
 The 10 most significant stories Stories 1 to 25 Stories 26 to 50 Stories 51 to 75 Stories 76 to 100 Introduction to Ford 100Stories 76 - 100 76.Escort put Ford into subcompact fight The Ford Escort and Mercury Lynx arrived in October 1980 to replace the Ford Pinto and Mercury Bobcat, and the change couldn’t come soon enough. View story Q&A: Henry Ford II was the last of dying breed: The tycoon Ben Bidwell recalls Henry Ford II as one of the nation’s last industrial tycoons. View story |
Henry Ford II retired as an officer and employee of Ford Motor Co. on Oct. 1, 1982, four weeks after his 65th birthday. But he continued to be a member of the board of directors and chairman of the powerful finance committee. View story Fond memories of an auto aristocrat Many countries have automotive families that have contributed to the culture and history of the automotive world — Peugeot in France, Porsche in Germany, Toyoda in Japan and Agnelli in Italy, to name a few. In America, it has been the Fords. View story   78.Taurus revived Ford - for a whileThe auto industry's hits don't come much bigger than the 1986 Ford Taurus. View story Q&A: Petersen fondly recalls presidency In his 40 years with Ford Motor Co., Donald Petersen worked on the team that created the 1955 Thunderbird, the original Mustang, F-series trucks and the Taurus - some of the most successful vehicles the industry has produced. He spoke with Richard Truett. View story Q&A: Taurus intro was a thrill Many car designers can only dream about the success that Jack Telnack, 66, Ford Motor Co.'s former vice president of corporate design, had during his 40-year career. Telnack spoke with Chaz Osburn. View story  Ford design highlightsIn the 100 years of Ford Motor Co., consumers have lusted after, scorned and laughed at the company's designs. Here is our list of the company's top 10 design highlights. View story 79.Ford suffers setbacks in Italy Italy long has tantalized Ford Motor Co. And that insular market has been the site of two stunning Ford setbacks: failed attempts to buy Ferrari and Alfa Romeo. View story 80.Ford’s top subsidiaries stay close to its core Perhaps all that soybeans and the Internet have in common is that Ford Motor has invested in both — and many things in between. For Henry Ford, diversification was mostly a matter of tinkering with his company the way he had tinkered with the machinery on his father’s farm. For his successors, the search for new revenue streams has been driven by more traditional business motives. View story Ford acquires a diamond in the rough In 1978, baseball history became entwined with that of Ford Motor Co. That year, Ford Motor Credit Co. became the sole owner of the Houston Astros baseball team as well as the sole operator of their stadium, the Houston Astrodome. View story 81.Petersen clashes with Fords over their role on the board Henry Ford II issued one of the landmark decrees in Ford Motor Co.'s history at the automaker's annual meeting in 1979. Referring to other Ford family members who might want to follow in his footsteps, Henry Ford II said, "There are no crown princes in the Ford Motor Co., and there is no privileged route to the top." View story Q&A: SAE presentation with dad was a highlight for Edsel II Edsel Ford II is the great-grandson of Henry Ford, grandson of Edsel Ford and son of Henry Ford II. Ford, 54, spoke with Larry Edsall. View story 82.Ford rebounds to riches In 1988, Ford Motor Co. was on top of the automotive world. Profits were at an all-time industry high. Ford had the best-selling car and the best-selling truck in the United States, and its market share was rising as that of archrival General Motors was in free fall. But as is so often true in the auto industry, Ford Motor’s success followed earlier problems. View story 83.A Nissan-Ford partnership - at least for a while Sometimes a bitter rival can become a chief ally. Sometimes the pragmatic necessities of business require rivals to behave like allies - temporarily, anyway. And sometimes a partnership leads nowhere in the long run. Such was the case when Ford Motor Co. locked arms with Nissan Motor Co. in 1988 to solve a mutual minivan problem. View story 84.Rejuvenating Jaguar In the late 1980s, Ford Motor Co. strategists realized that they needed a luxury brand with global pulling power to rival BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Enter Jaguar. View story  85.Explorer was key player in SUV boomBy the late 1980s, Ford's product planners knew consumers wanted a new personal truck. The Explorer was that truck. View story Q&A: Ross Roberts to Ford: Remember your strengths Ross Roberts retired from Ford in 1999 but is still on call to the company's top executives, including Chairman Bill Ford. He was interviewed by Mary Connelly. View story 86.Ford is latecomer to several world markets Sometimes it takes a while to establish a footprint in a market. Take Ford Motor Co. and China, for example. Ford's Model T went on sale in China in 1913, but it wasn't until 1993 that the company set up its first formal dealerships. China isn't the only place in which Ford has been a slow starter. View story 87.Ford has flair for developing international talent The appointment of Alex Trotman as chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Co. in 1993 affirmed a process begun just a little over 80 years earlier, when the automaker opened its first overseas plant in Manchester, England. View story Nasser's outsider status gave him 'different perspectives' at Ford Jacques Nasser, who succeeded Alex Trotman in 1999 to become the second foreign-born CEO of Ford Motor Co., now says it makes sense to have Americans run the company. View story Q&A: Cortina has special place in Trotman's heart Former Ford Motor Co. Chairman and CEO Alex Trotman was the first foreign-born executive to hold those posts. He retired Jan. 1, 1999. He spoke with James R. Crate about his 44 years at Ford. View story 88.'Billy' was always the Ford to watch Growing up, William Clay Ford Jr. didn't appear to be a likely candidate to head the company that bears his name. Looks can be deceiving. View story 89.Ford 2000: A global program that failed Alex Trotman believed Ford's future was threatened by its own slow-moving bureaucracy, and he was ready for a shake-up. Could Ford unify its disparate regional operations? Trotman thought so. He was about to start the company's most ambitious reorganization of the last 50 years. View story 90.Retail misadventure struck a nerve with dealers Ford Motor Co.'s dealer relations hit rock bottom in the late 1990s. Problems arose when Ford jumped into the retail business, trying to keep up with brash new entrants that were shaking up the industry by promising a retail revolution. View story Bitter lesson was costly Ford Motor Co.'s ill-fated attempts to participate in the retail revolution cost the company millions of dollars and soured relations with dealers. View story 91.Bill Ford picks up pieces after Nasser's reign Bill Ford ascended to CEO at Ford Motor Co. with a primary mission: Take the company back to basics. View story 92.From kismet to crash landing It seemed like kismet. Ford had a collection of luxury brands and didn't know what to do with them. Wolfgang Reitzle had just quit as a top executive at BMW and was looking for a job. It ended in a mess. View story 93.Ford's dot-com bomb The Internet, which has done so much to change the way the world works and plays, proved to be a dangerous distraction for Ford Motor Co. View story 94.Visteon: Ready or not, independent By the late 1990s, Ford Motor Co. was eager to shed its high-cost, marginally competitive parts operation. But the automaker failed to fix the parts unit's problems - including high UAW labor rates and several money-losing operations - before spinning it off as Visteon Corp. on June 29, 2000. View story 95.Firestone crisis: Shredded tires, lives, longtime company ties If you look at Ford Explorer sales since 2000, you could conclude that Ford Motor Co. rebounded quickly and almost painlessly from one of the most wrenching episodes in its 100-year history, the Firestone tire fiasco. But you would be wrong. View story 96.Make or buy parts? The strategy has shifted David Thursfield took command of Ford Motor Co.'s purchasing operations on Aug. 1, 2002, when the company was six months into its recovery effort. Among its goals was the task of rebuilding broken relations with dealers, employees and parts makers. In his new role, Thursfield told suppliers that it was time to work as a team again, instead of being adversaries. View story 97.Oldest dealership is older than Ford Motor Throughout its 100 years, Tenvoorde Motor Co., the oldest family-owned Ford dealership, has risen and fallen with the tides of the auto industry. But that is just part of automotive retailing for the St. Cloud, Minn., dealership, which was established on March 21, 1903, three months before Ford Motor Co. was incorporated. View story  98.The long quest for future powerSqueezing miles from something other than gasoline always has been part of Ford Motor Co.'s manufacturing quest. View story 99.Signs remain of Henry and his legacy The air hangs still in the sunlit office, where a massive grandfather clock keeps companionable silence with a green-veined marble fireplace. Outside, there's a maze of modern cubicles in the former Ford Engineering Laboratories in Dearborn, now the home of powertrain development. But here, just off the wood-paneled corridor, is Henry Ford's former sanctuary. View story 100.History waits to write Bill Ford's chapter When Bill Ford took over as CEO of Ford Motor Co. on Oct. 30, 2001, the automaker founded by his great-grandfather was in turmoil. Bill Ford, 46, is the first Ford family member to serve as CEO in 22 years. He is working hard to fix the company, but he is learning on the job. View story Bill Ford: 4th generation takes on 2nd century Like many of us, Bill Ford keeps knickknacks made by his children on his desk, a massive walnut piece that belonged to his grandfather, Edsel Ford. They're not out of place because generations of the Ford family blend easily in the corner office on the top floor of Ford Motor Co. world headquarters. View story Q&A: 'This company means everything to me' In an interview to mark the company's centennial, Bill Ford spoke with Edward Lapham on April 17 about future leadership at Ford Motor Co. as well as his own future. View story Ahead: New sourcing but no radical changes Bill Ford, the Ford most likely to have the biggest influence on the company's fortunes over the next quarter century, described what Ford Motor Co. will look like in 25 years. View story Henry II's predictions were on the mark In 1978, when Ford Motor Co. celebrated its 75th anniversary, CEO Henry Ford II was near the end of his career. In an interview to mark the anniversary, he discussed the company's history and his own role. What follows is an excerpt from an article by Robert W. Irvin, editor-at-large of Automotive News, published June 16, 1978, in our special Ford 75th Anniversary Issue. View story |
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