Now "battered by soaring gas prices and plummeting sales" Ford has been "forced to slash production of the trucks that have been its lifeblood -- from half of its vehicles today (and 70% in 2005) to a projected "one-third by 2012" (Warner 2008). Congress is calling for Ford along with the other American car companies demanding a bailout to show a real commitment to raising fuel economy standards and creating a leaner, meaner production machine. Ford must point to its previous good-faith attempts to raise fuel standards to support its calls for government assistance. Many point to previous CEO Bill Ford's inability to sell his vision to other members of the company: "no matter his personal convictions, Bill Ford had neither the operational skills nor the management talent to make his green aspirations a reality. Instead, the chairman tried to tack environmental changes onto a business model focused obsessively on bigger, badder trucks -- 'Built Ford Tough'" (Warner 2008). Ford's image remained consistent on 'toughness' and focused on short-term consumer demand for large vehicles. The large "Flex" was sold on its hipness, not on fuel economy, meanwhile the company's plants focused on a single type of vehicle, making introducing smaller models increasingly difficult and costly when consumer demand dropped for...

Choosing the slogan "Built Ford Tough," versus "25 by 5" may have spelled the company's downfall and it must embrace it once again -- "25% reductions in fuel emissions by 2012," if it is not already too late.
Works Cited

Bray, Jim. (2008, October 28). Ford flexes its marketing muscles with new crossover. The Post

Chronicle. Retrieved 19 Nov 2008 at http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=102&num=181770

Currie, Alan. (2008). Ford, GM, Chrysler chiefs should have gone by fuel-efficient car to bailout.

Telegraph. Retrieved 19 Nov 2008 at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/breakingviewscom/3488678/GM-Ford-and-Chrysler-chiefs-should-have-gone-by-fuel-efficient-car-to-bail-out.html

Warner, Fara. (2008, Nov/Dec). How Ford lost focus. Mother Jones. Retrieved 19 Nov 2008 at http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2008/11/losing-focus.html

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