Ford Motor Co. President and CEO Alan Mulally said Friday that he plans to weld Ford's disparate regional divisions and brands into a single global operation capable of competing with the company he most admires in the world: Toyota Motor Corp.
Mulally, who joined Ford six weeks ago, delivered the message in an hour-long interview Friday with The Detroit News that covered the myriad challenges facing Ford today and his plan for reversing crippling financial losses that threaten the company's future.
The 61-year-old former Boeing Co. executive expressed optimism but did not sugarcoat Ford's problems or the need for a fundamental and far-reaching reorganization of the company.
"There's not one Ford. There's Ford of North America, there's Ford of South America, there's probably three Fords that make up Ford of Europe. There's Australia. There's China, India -- there's a lot of Fords, and they're operated very separately as business units," Mulally said. "We've got to go from where we are to leverage our global assets to compete as one company going forward."
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