New York (AFP)
The American automaker Ford, engaged in a major restructuring that is still struggling to convince investors, announced Tuesday the replacement in October of its general manager Jim Hackett by the current director of operations, Jim Farley, a connoisseur of the sector.
Mr Hackett, 65, was no car seraglio when he took over as head of the company in 2017.
He quickly began an austerity cure aimed at saving $ 11 billion. To hope to be at the forefront of an automotive landscape shaken by Silicon Valley and Tesla, he has at the same time pushed investments in autonomous and electric vehicles.
He also repositioned Ford's lineup to meet Americans' demands for larger vehicles, focusing the company's efforts on pickups, city SUVs and utility vehicles and gradually moving away from city cars and sedans.
But the group also suffered from problems during the launch of new Ford Explorer or Lincoln Aviator models.
And investors seem to be struggling to understand the group's long-term strategy.
On Wall Street, Ford stock has lost about half of its value over the past five years just as a group like electric vehicle maker Tesla took to the stock market. Mr Hackett's predecessor, Mark Fields, had previously been pushed out due to market dissatisfaction.
Under Mr. Hackett's leadership, Ford's earnings also gradually declined.
The group, however, withstood the Covid-19 pandemic better than expected, which caused car sales to fall in the second quarter and led to the temporary closure of some of its factories.
Ford has said it has enough cash to cope with a drop in global car demand or a new wave of plant closures.
After several years at Toyota, Mr. Farley, 58, arrived at Ford in 2007 as Global Sales Manager and then led the Lincoln lineup, South America then Europe, before overseeing the whole. of the group's markets.
He was chosen in April 2019 to lead the team in charge of new activities, technologies and strategy before being appointed director of operations in February.
© 2020 AFP