He was among the first person to talk about ride-hailing, car sharing, etc. to keep disruptive outsiders from decimating profits and sales in the country.
Mr. Fields has no problem with thinking outside of the box.
But as a number of top competitors begin aligning with Silicon Valley, Ford had something else on its mind. Ford announced small scale experiments with e-bikes, on-demand shuttles, etc. but nothing on a grand scale because Ford it seems is focusing more on mobility than anything else. And when you have the F-150 under your belt and the entire F-series for that matter, you do not need to do anything drastic or radical. Ford’s bread and butter is sound and sales are strong.
Bill Ford, the executive chairman of Ford, said in May that they were going to make more announcements as the year progresses. He also added that they were defining their strategy right now and were going to consider a number of acquisitions if they believe it is the right way to go. And there are plenty of smaller but strong players out there that are hanging pretty close to the ground right about now and we are not talking about auto manufactures.
Even though Ford spends a lot of time talking about mobility services, other companies are not very far behind. This has led many experts to wonder if the automaker is looking for partners or is plotting a different strategy altogether. Ford is known to keep its secrets tight under the wraps and why not, the world has only become more competitive and no business wants to show its cards too early.
Smart Mobility
Analysts are looking for insights at the Investor Day, which has been scheduled in September by Ford. It promises to share details on the latest products and mobility innovations they have planned after postponing an event just like this one last fall.
Smart Mobility was formalized into a subsidiary by Ford in March. A spokesperson for Ford said that they were working with a number of companies and were also trying to pursue some solutions themselves.
Ford opened their first research & innovation lab a year ago in Silicon Valley to try and integrate itself into the ecosystem of the region.
They also invested $182.2 million in a San Francisco company called Pivotal to create FordPass, an app which helps drivers reach destinations and find parking. This app was announced at the Detroit Auto Show this January and was then launched in the spring with zero fanfare. They say that they have a plan in place and are pursuing it. They will have more news in the time to come.
At a tech conference this May in Southern California, Fields had been asked a number of times why talks with Google didn't work out. He dodged this question initially but eventually gave in and suggested that Ford didn't consider Google to be the right partner.
Mutual Benefits
Fields said that they wanted to ensure every company brought equal levels of benefit to the party. He said that he has been involved in deals with many companies where the balance hasn't been right, and the dynamics always goes awry when someone is thinking that they are getting undermined by someone else. That's why they are focusing on relationships that bring a mutual benefit so much.
He also said that a cohesive and sensible cultural fit is another thing they are focusing on. This is because the people are going to be working together and they need to ensure that the culture is fit beyond just what you see on the spreadsheets.