Hyundai is fast taking over the American automotive landscape. They originally targeted GM and Ford, but now have Honda, Toyota and even luxury automotive names like Lexus and Acura in their sites. Ford has tried to keep up by purchasing Jaguar and reinventing the classic GT40, but it cannot keep up as these are small profit areas and Fords bread and butter was its Taurus in the 80s and early 90s. It lost this market share to Honda and Toyota in the 90s. Ford is trying to reinvent itself and find a new profitable niche, but it appears that the time for its demise is soon approaching.



Ford Motor Co. announced just this last week that it was going to cut another 30,000 or so workers, shut down several plants and cut production by over 20 percent. That is not a good sign. They even announced that they will be giving some dealers the boot. That is an even worse indicator. A cardinal rule of business according to the Harvard Business Review is that you never cut your sales force except to replace them with a more effective sales force. Else all you will do is reduce your sales. While Ford is closing down and circling its wagons, Hyundai is opening more dealers and rewarding and paying its sales staff better than ever.

If you have a good sales staff or organization and you reward them properly they can sell anything to anybody. Look, when Hyundai started selling in America, people were leary, there were new upstarts Kia and Daewoo was going down the drain. People did not trust or even want to consider Hyundai. Even with great incentives and a longer warranty they were not selling well. Then Hyundai revamped things and focused solely on its sales. According to Hyundai Motor America (HMA) President and CEO, Ok Suk (Owen) Koh:

We knew that our sales would make us or break us so we made that our number one issue. We took every thing positive that was being done in the entire industry and brought it all together at Hyundai. From innovation and new technology like Toyota to owner loyalty like Lexus. We knew that if we did this and kept sales as our top priority that we would come out on top.

Basically, Hyundai is gunning for top sales in America and worldwide and companies that cannot keep up, like Ford, are destined to fall unless they take drastic steps or measures.

Instead of cutting its production and, more importantly, its sales staff and dealerships, Ford should focus on fixing the problem. By cutting back you will only make it worse. What Ford needs to do is rekindle itself with the younger generation. It has tried and failed miserably. Expensive ads on American Idol did not work, reinventing the mustang has not yielded the results that were expected. It is time to get help. What Ford needs is a new leader. One that could easily revamp their product line and reputation and bring them back from the brink. Lee Iacocca, was the wonder boy of Chrysler. He brought them out of the same identical financial hole. Bill Ford is not and will not ever be capable of this. This is true in most mega rich and entrepreneurial families, the kids will never attain 1 millionth of the accomplishments of their fathers. They do not have the ability or the drive. It is not in them and never will be. It is not something you are born with or something you learn at Princeton or other Ivy League colleges, its something you learn through experience and hardship (something Bill Ford knows nothing about). What Ford desperately needs is Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs has become one of the greatest success stories of all time. In the 70s and 80s he created Apple Computer and dominated the personal computer market all from his garage and a few dollars. In the 90s he came back and brought Apple back from the brink and then he created and dominated the personal music player industry with the iPod. He also created Pixar animation studios and has dominated that area. Steve Jobs has the uncanny ability to take companies in entirely different fields and make them super successful. Ford and the automotive industry would be a cake walk for him. So, Ford, here is a bonafide guaranteed solution to your problems. Get rid of Mr. Ford and do whatever it takes to get Steve Jobs on board. You will then be able to open plants, increase the number of dealers, and increase jobs. Someone should email this article to Ford before it is too late.