Fields Got Caught in Crosshairs Of Trump -- WSJ
May 23 2017 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By John D. Stoll
Ford Motor Co.'s board of directors is replacing Chief Executive
Mark Fields with industry outsider Jim Hackett amid a sagging stock
price. It is not just poor communication with Wall Street that cost
Mr. Fields his job -- he also struggled with Washington.
A longtime Ford executive, Mr. Fields is seen as having
unnecessarily put the iconic car company on President Donald
Trump's radar during last year's campaign, according to a person
familiar with the board's thinking. As then-candidate Mr. Trump was
railing on companies that make products in Mexico and ship them to
U.S. stores, Mr. Fields boldly told shareholders about a plan to
move production of the Ford Focus from Michigan to San Luis
Potosí.
What Mr. Fields didn't make clear was that the auto maker had
specific products in mind to replace the Focus and preserve jobs,
the person said. Mr. Trump pounced, painting the 114-year-old auto
maker founded by Henry Ford as the poster child for outsourcing and
Exhibit A of why the North American Free Trade Agreement was bad
for American workers, including the roughly 150,000 factory workers
employed by Detroit's Big 3.
The spotlight came at a bad time for Mr. Fields because he was
working to change the perception of Ford by making a slew of
announcements about so-called mobility projects (such as ride
hailing or car sharing) at a time when the auto maker is primarily
dependent on pickups and sport utilities. The timing of Mr. Fields'
Mexico announcement was seen internally as a major gaffe,
reinforcing a growing perception internally that his management
team struggled to connect with constituents ranging from wealthy
investors to everyday Americans, according to the person.
The actions Mr. Fields took in the span between Mr. Trump's
nomination as the Republican candidate for president and
Inauguration Day only created more confusion, the person said, and
ended up costing the company hundreds of millions of dollars in
lost investment due to the cancellation of the San Luis Potosi
plant.
Mr. Fields couldn't be reached for comment. A Ford spokeswoman
declined to comment on management moves.
Almost as soon as he announced the Mexico strategy for
outsourcing small cars, Mr. Fields worked to clarify it, saying the
company would invest heavily to retool the Michigan factory for
production of more popular trucks ad SUVs. The company also worked
to highlight its North American footprint, providing stats that
showed an overwhelming amount of the products sold in America were
built in the U.S.
The company, for instance, said it had created 28,000 new jobs
in the U.S. since 2011, part of $12 billion worth of investments.
Employees also highlighted 488 open U.S. positions at the company,
and pointed out that the trucks taking the compact Focus model's
place on the Michigan assembly line are more profitable for
Ford.
Mr. Trump, however, wouldn't let Ford off the hook, highlighting
Ford's strategy in debates with Democratic rival Hillary Clinton,
at campaign stops and on Twitter. The United Auto Workers union,
long seen as cooperating with Ford more than it typically
cooperated with General Motors Co. or Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV,
supported Mr. Trump's sentiments.
Mr. Trump didn't solely target Ford, having taken aim at the
overseas manufacturing plans of Carrier Corp., Whirlpool Corp. and
the makers of Oreo cookies and Sentry Safe. Criticism of Ford
reflected wider concern about a U.S. manufacturing base in which
car factories have long been the backbone. Ford, GM and several
other major auto makers committed more than $26 billion to
investment in Mexico since 2013, sparking a factory-building spree
there at a time when new U.S. vehicle plants are rare and some Rust
Belt car facilities have closed.
Mr. Fields fielded questions about the Mexico strategy on
earnings calls and at auto shows, occasions where he would rather
talk about profit growth prospects or new products and moonshot
projects like autonomous cars. In December, he told The Wall Street
Journal the Mexico plan was set even after Mr. Trump was elected
and turned up pressure on Ford. Mr. Fields insisted it was too late
to stop a construction project because small Focus sedans needed to
start rolling off the line in 2018.
Then, Mr. Fields abruptly changed course, announcing the $1.6
billion San Luis Potosi factory project would be stopped, and the
small cars would be built at an existing Mexico facility. The
company had earlier told Mr. Trump that it was also reversing
course on sending a Lincoln product to Mexico.
The auto maker booked a $200 million hit related to the factory
cancellation, but said some of the money saved on the overall
investment would be used to create hundreds of jobs in Flat Rock,
Mich. Mr. Trump has since highlighted Ford as one of the companies
investing in America due to political pressure he applied during
and after the campaign.
Write to John D. Stoll at john.stoll@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 23, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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