I Think I'm A Ford Fan

Or , after reading this story in the Wall Street Journal, at least a fan of Alan Mulally, the CEO. As a voyeur of the American auto industry crisis, it's hard not to notice how often GM and Chrysler seem to stumble and bumble in, out and around bankruptcy. And how Ford has managed to mostly do the right thing and make smarter choices than their Detroit neighbors. At first I thought it was because Mulally was an outsider but, then again, so is Ed Whiteacre ( former Chairman and CEO of AT&T) and so was Bob Nardelli (former CEO of The Home Depot) who was brought in by Cerebus Capital to run Chrysler after they acquired it. Sergio Marchionne is a certainly a Detroit outsider albeit not an automotive industry outsider as the CEO of Fiat.

So while outsiders now abound in Detroit and the American auto industry, what is it that makes
BusinessWeek story so interesting is how so not like a car guy Mulally comes off as. Which is probably why Ford continues to be a better story than the rest of the American auto industry (although I'm pulling hard for all of them and even starting to feel a bit optimistic about GM, too). Ed Whiteacre, in particular, seems like he could have had an entire career at GM and doesn't seem that different from Rick Wagoner and is only having more success because he doesn't own the baggage of too many years at the same company. I don't know if he's really doing much that's so different but he is just free to do it.

But the big difference, I think, is that because Ford didn't take bailout money, Ford can continue to run itself like a car company while the others have to run themselves as a government subsidiary. I don't think there's many people, if any, that think that having to include government bureaucracy with giant legacy corporate bureaucracy is going to do anyone any good, particularly the public. And that's the other difference between Ford and the other companies: Ford is still working for it's owners, chiefly shareholders. The other companies are working for the government; how inspiring.

Pork-Barrel Advertising

It looks like a bailout program for Detroit's big three automakers is getting closer to being approved in Washington although it's no done deal yet. And we're all familiar with the many billions of taxpayer dollars that will be doled out to various financial services firms (what it's being spent on I can't tell you).

Not surprisingly, all of this money comes with government involvement in the way these business are actually run. Including, presumably, something of a say — or possibly a big say — in the marketing and marketing budget.

Think about the (potentially) imminent "car czar". According to AdAge, this car czar would control a media budget upwards of $7.3 billion. That's the biggest media budget of any advertiser in the US. Not to mention agency fees associated with all those (unnecessary?) GM, Ford and Chrysler brands (note: not to be insensitive, but you know all of these numbers will be shrinking).

All I can say to this is "Holy shit."

Can you imagine what special circle of hell it would be to have the "car czar", the Senate, Congress and White House as a collective client? Imagine trying to get a creative brief approved. Or getting any actual creative work developed, much less approved. Think about all of the special interest groups that would be lining up to get in on the action: film this on my state road; show my biggest campaign contributors in the ads; hell, put me in the ad...I'm a senator; only use the cars from the plants in my state. It could go on endlessly. It will go on endlessly.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. Just think about what's going to happen with product development and design. With the approval ratings of our politicians at the lowest levels ever, it's obvious that they're completely out of touch with the general public and don't seem to have any idea what citizens want.

Arrogant, out-of-touch, self-serving people trying to run a business that needs fresh, innovative and compelling thinking.

Wait a minute...that's the way the car companies are today. Maybe I'm over reacting; looks like it might be status quo. Let's all sleep easier.