On May 6, the first working day after International Labor Day, Ford China announced two major personnel appointments.
The first is that Changan Ford's national sales and service organization (referred to as NDSD) announced personnel adjustments, and Yang Song, former vice president of marketing, sales and service and president of the national sales and service organization of Changan Ford, was appointed as the deputy general manager of Ford's China Ford brand passenger car business unit, reporting to Lyle Watters, general manager of The Ford brand passenger car business unit.
(Yang Song, Deputy General Manager of Ford China's Ford Brand Passenger Car Division)
The second is that Lu Yi, former executive vice president of Audi China, officially joined the company, succeeding Yang Song as vice president of marketing, sales and service and president of the national sales and service organization of Changan Ford, and served as a member of the executive management committee of Changan Ford.
(Lu Yi, Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Service and President of National Sales and Service Organization of Changan Ford)
Not only the replacement and transfer of joint venture business executives, on April 28, a week before the release of this news, Ford China also sorted out and adjusted the management mode of business operations in China, established the core layout of the future automotive business in the Chinese market - Ford brand passenger cars and commercial vehicles, further strengthened the Lincoln brand, quickly promoted the electric vehicle business, and issued a series of related personnel appointments.
This series of changes is also the biggest and most profound change two years after the release of the "Ford China 2.0" strategy, and compared with the previous institutional reforms and personnel adjustments, Ford China's changes have entered the "deep water area". Behind the changes is Ford's new layout and renewed efforts in the face of changes in China's overall auto market.
Reform remains imperative
In 2020, the global auto industry is struggling with the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, and the Chinese auto market, which is the first to recover from the epidemic, has become the hope of global car companies, and Ford Motor is no exception.
The data shows that under the background of the overall decline of the automobile market, Ford Motor has achieved a counter-trend increase in sales in China, with cumulative sales reaching 600,000 vehicles, an increase of 6.1% year-on-year. This is also the first time since 2017 that Ford has achieved full-year positive sales growth in the domestic market.
In the first quarter of this year, Ford's sales in China reached 153822 vehicles, an increase of 73.3% over the same period last year. Among them, with the acceleration of localization, lincoln brand sales reached 19,325 units in the first quarter, an increase of 217% year-on-year, January sales reached 8,200 units, becoming Lincoln's highest monthly sales record since entering China; Ford brand sales in the first quarter of a total of 76,611 units, an increase of 44.7%; Changan Ford national sales and service agencies in the first quarter sold a total of 49,325 new cars, an increase of 46.3% year-on-year; JMC brand commercial vehicles sold 57,886 units in the first quarter. The year-on-year increase was 94.7%.
Thanks to the growth of sales in the Chinese auto market, Ford Motor achieved revenue of $36.2 billion in the first quarter and a net profit of $3.3 billion, the best first quarter since 2011; Ford China's EBIT improved year-on-year for the fourth consecutive quarter, close to breakeven.
The Chinese auto market remains crucial for Ford.
Jim Farley, Ford's chief operating officer, clearly has bigger ambitions for the growing Chinese auto market — to reinvigorate Ford's business and restore Ford China to profitable, healthy, and sustainable growth.
However, the competitive environment facing Ford at this moment has changed significantly.
On the one hand, the new forces of car manufacturing have grown and expanded, and have become a force to be reckoned with in the field of intelligent electric vehicles; on the other hand, technology companies such as Xiaomi and Baidu have entered the game, and the car-making track has become more and more crowded.
More critically, as a traditional automobile giant, it seems that it does not have an advantage in the track of intelligent networking and new energy vehicle markets, and how to catch up with competitors in new business while maintaining its own advantages, it is not easy to "turn around".
In the past two years, under the premise that the "Ford China 2.0" plan has been promoted and implemented, the business transformation has been basically completed, and the business of Changan Ford and the national sales and service agencies has gradually recovered, Ford's reform is still imperative, because Ford China as a whole is not running fast enough.
Therefore, after establishing a new management model for business operations in China, Ford Motor established the Ford brand passenger car division and the Ford brand commercial vehicle division in China.
Among them, The Ford Brand Passenger Car Division is currently the general manager of Lyle Watters, the current president of Ford Motor's South America and International Markets, and reported to Chen Anning, president and CEO of Ford China. The appointment took effect on 1 July.
At the same time, He Xiaoqing succeeded Steven Armstrong as president of Changan Ford, fully responsible for the operation of Changan Ford, and by accelerating product introduction, continuously improving product quality, and accelerating the promotion of Changan Ford's revitalization plan, he strives to lead Changan Ford back to the leading camp of joint venture car companies at an early date, and become the main force in the promotion of Ford's China passenger car strategy.
It is worth noting that He Xiaoqing is also the first Chinese president of Changan Ford in the past 10 years, and before joining Ford Motor, he served as vice president of Chery Automobile and vice president of Nanqi Group.
While accelerating the recovery of Ford brand passenger cars, Ford China has also established the China Commercial Vehicle Division, which will make full use of Ford's brand and product advantages in the global commercial vehicle field to accelerate the strategic layout and business development in China's commercial vehicle market.
It is understood that Wang Wentao, former president of Jiangling Motors, has officially served as the general manager of Ford China Commercial Vehicle Division since May 1, promoting the reform of Ford's Commercial Vehicle Operation Model in China from the strategic level, further deepening cooperation with Jiangling Motors, and accelerating the promotion of commercial vehicle strategy; Xiong Chunying, executive vice president of Jiangling Motors, also joined Ford China on the same day as President of Jiangling Motors, and is fully responsible for the operation of Jiangling Motors.
"With the establishment of Ford China Passenger Vehicle Division and Ford China Commercial Vehicle Division, Lincoln China has further accelerated its localization and full-speed electric vehicle business, and Ford China's business layout has become more focused on business areas with its own advantages and high growth potential." Regarding this series of institutional adjustments, Chen Anning, president and CEO of Ford China, said.
The "Positive and Negative" of Institutional Reform
From Ford China's series of layouts, it is not difficult to find that Ford's goals are very targeted: the electric vehicle division to develop the intelligent electric vehicle track; the Lincoln brand is deeply rooted in the high-end market; the passenger car and commercial vehicle division focuses on the more popular consumer demand and restores its position in the mainstream automobile market.
However, a series of problems have also arisen at the same time, which are also the key questions that need to be solved in this vigorous institutional reform: How can Ford China coordinate the business of the two joint ventures of Changan Ford and Jiangling Ford? How to promote the common development of the passenger car business of the two joint ventures? How will NDSD and the Ford Brand Passenger Car Division work together in the future? In terms of passenger car sales channels, will the channels of Changan Ford and Jiangling Ford be unified and return to NDSD again? After the establishment of the Commercial Vehicle Division, will resources be tilted towards Jiangling Ford, which has both commercial vehicle and passenger car businesses?
In the industry's view, Ford commercial vehicles have a leading edge in the world, with the continuous increase of Ford China's investment in the field of commercial vehicles, Jiangling Ford's future development can be expected.
It is understood that Jiangling Motors began to brew a transformation into the passenger car field as early as 2006. In 2015, with the introduction of Ford brand products and the listing of SUV roadbreakers and MPV Toureo, Jiangling Motors truly built a dual-brand passenger car pattern of Ford and Yisheng, and sales increased year by year.
In terms of channels, in June 2020, Jiangling Motors and Ford and Changan renegotiated, and reached a new agreement in the same month - Jiangling Ford passenger cars officially separated from NDSD, and a new sales system is gradually being built.
"There will be 120 Family Space in June and 180 by the end of the year. Road Shakers, Toureo, Lingjie and Lingyu are all placed in the sales system of the home space. ”
During the 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, Jin Wenhui, the first executive vice president of Jiangling Motors Co., Ltd., said in an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald that in addition to the experience store, Jiangling Ford will set up 65 supermarket booths.
In response to the background of Ford China's establishment of the passenger car division, on May 6, Ford China insiders told reporters, "The establishment of the passenger car division is more of a product of the transformation and change of Ford China's own operating model, in the past, Ford China's various business units had to carry out single-line docking with the corresponding departments of the joint venture company on business planning, and the efficiency of communication and cooperation will be relatively low, in order to change these situations, especially we propose to' The transformation of the consumer-centric' business operating model requires more rapid decisions or adjustments to changes in the market, which put forward the need to change the original operating model. ”
According to the plan, the establishment of the Passenger Car Division is to better solve the coordination between various business units within Ford China, form a unified business strategy and development plan for passenger cars through a special business unit, and also improve the work efficiency within the company and with the joint venture.
Specifically, on the issue of the relationship between each business unit and the joint venture company, each division of labor has its own division of labor. Among them, the scope of responsibilities and operations of the joint venture company remain unchanged. The responsibility of the passenger car business unit is to centralize Ford China's original relatively decentralized management model, have a team responsible for the business strategy of passenger cars as a whole, and deepen cooperation with the joint venture company, and promote the real implementation of the strategy through the operation of the joint venture company.
It is worth noting that in the passenger car business of Changan Ford and Jiangling Ford, unlike the product strategy of multinational car companies such as Volkswagen and Toyota to launch the same model in the two joint venture companies at the same time, Ford has adopted a "two-legged walking" model, releasing different models according to the positioning of the joint venture company, so that the two joint venture companies can truly form a joint force.
At the just-concluded 2021 Shanghai Auto Show, Ford China also joined hands with its joint venture brands - Changan Ford and Jiangling Ford for the first time to participate in the exhibition with a unified image with the theme of "E Wave". This change also conveys ford's new positioning and layout of China's business.
"The contribution and growth in sales is not the most important thing, the most important thing is that China can help Ford achieve the transformation of DNA, let us achieve a strategic move east, and win in China, just like 10 years ago." Jim Farley said in an interview with the media.
However, opportunities often go hand in hand with challenges. Just as Ford China is full of ambition and drastic reforms, there is also news of the departure of senior executives.
On May 6, a person familiar with the matter told reporters that Zhu Jiang, chief operating officer of Ford Motor (China) Electric Vehicle Division, who has been in office for less than a year, has resigned.
As the head of Ford China's Mach-E pure electric project, Zhu Jiang has worked for BMW Brilliance, BMW China, Amazon China, Lexus China, and NIO, and has rich experience in user operation and automobile marketing.
At this moment, it is at a critical moment when Mach-E has just been listed, and once Zhu Jiang leaves, it will undoubtedly be a big challenge for the fledgling Ford China Electric Division.
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