Damage Control?
by CP Staff
January 24 - Tucked among a flurry of high level Ford announcements in December was one that didn't - initially - get much press. After all, two architects of the Ford three-year turnaround plan were retiring. Jim Padilla was moving to the top slot at the right hand of Bill Ford.
Oh, and J Mays is appointed Chief Creative Officer for the entire company and is moving to London, England to oversee global design operations from there.
Shortly after, Peter DeLorenzo at The Auto Extremist published an online piece entitled "Ford Moves J Mays Up - And Out", the premise of which was that Mays was being pushed aside in an out of sight, out of mind fashion. The Detroit News followed up with an article a week or so later, exploring the issues directly with Mays in Detroit. Public support for Mays' move and it's importance to the company was made known by Ford's higher-ups.
The bland styling of the Ford Five Hundred seems to be the lightning rod for criticism of Ford's recent styling efforts. That it may have been overly conservative has been acknowledged by several Ford execs.
Still, it seems that the "Up and Out" issue won't die. A couple of articles today, in European publications, have Ford spokespeople likening Mays' potential to that of Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell within the GM ranks. Is this damage control by Ford?
Recently, the Motor Trend 2005 Power List ranked Mays in tenth spot, five places ahead of Bill Ford. Certainly, Mays has garnered more public visibility than his boss with the plethora of new vehicle introductions last year, including the new Mustang.
Now, it is interesting to speculate a little, because what does a dynamo like Mays do after writing the new chapter in a four decade long American success story? Does he content himself with overseeing the rediscovery of the Mercury line, or the apparent re-socializing of Lincoln products?
I think not. This is a guy that needs to move forward and is unlikely to settle for any assignment that smacks of treading water. If the Mays announcement went largely unnoticed before the automotive press animated it, there was another bit Ford design personnel shuffling that was completely ignored. Likely because it all happened in Europe.
In November, Ford of Europe's Design Group announced a reorganization of their functions into three categories: Interior, Exterior and the newly-recognized "Exterior Execution and Feasibility". Each group has a mandate to perform their function across all car lines, where designers were previously assigned by individual models.
While we do not, for a moment, confuse Styling with Design, the concept of having someone in charge of "Execution and Feasibility" may well indicate a closer tie between the two than has been evident in the past. Certainly, the exploration of limits to styling freedom is far more encouraged in Europe than in North America. Across the pond, if you're not moving ahead, you're falling behind.
It may also be that Ford is preparing to, or is in the process of, writing a new chapter for the European market. After all, many Europeans could point out the Mustang as a known or famous example of Ford U.S. vehicles. If you surveyed North Americans for an equally famous example of Ford Europe product, they would not likely mention the Ka. Conceivably, somebody might possibly recall the Mondeo, but not much else comes immediately to mind.
In fact, on the basis of inclusion in movies, for which the Mustang has more than five hundred credits, the Ford of Europe leader would have to be the Transit van. That needs to change.
Perhaps sending J Mays to Europe is the damage control.
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