In a room that smells of musty waders, surrounded by camouflage hunting jackets and power tools, a small group of men is plotting strategy -- not for catching the big one or bagging a 12-point buck, but to defend Ford Motor Co.'s leadership of the domestic pickup truck market.
"Can you smell it?" Ben Poore asks. "There's a purpose to that."
Poore, Ford's truck group marketing manager, said the purpose behind the smell and everything else in this simulacrum of your uncle's garage is maintaining a laser-like focus on the customer. It is the headquarters for Operation 34, Ford's plan to extend its 29-year leadership of the truck segment for another five years.
This is only one of a series of secret "war rooms" that have been set up in its Regents Court complex in Dearborn to encourage Ford's strategists to get outside their Detroit-centric mindset and into the heads of their customers and competitors.
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