Working as One Team

As part of our "One Team" approach, Ford has implemented a disciplined business plan process to regularly review our business environment, risks and opportunities, as well as our strategy and our plan. Through this process we also identify areas of our plan that need special attention and pursue opportunities to improve our plan. Everyone is included and contributes, openness is encouraged, and our leaders are responsible and accountable. We use facts and data to make our decisions, and high-performance teamwork is a performance criteria. We follow this process every week, every month and every quarter, driving continuous improvement. We believe this process gives us a clear picture of our business in real time and the ability to respond quickly and decisively to new issues and changing conditions – as we have done in the face of rapid changes in the market and business environment in 2009.

At our weekly business plan meeting, management teams review every element of the business, both by business unit and by skill team. We also look at every metric of our business, from research and development to marketing to evolving emissions standards. Each item is coded red, yellow or green, and the team collaborates to turn reds (indicating problems) into greens as quickly as possible. This is an important shift within Ford's corporate culture, in which potential problems were previously not always identified early enough. Now, defects are addressed before cars reach showrooms, and production levels are trimmed at the first sign of trouble.

In addition, we are enlisting our stakeholders to help us create an exciting and viable Ford business going forward. We are reaching out and listening to customers, dealers, employees, the UAW, suppliers, investors, communities, retirees, and federal, state and local governments. Each of these constituencies is a critical part of, and critical to, the success of our business going forward. Realizing our goal of profitable growth for all is as important to these stakeholders as it is to our shareholders.

This section addresses two key facets relating to our One Team approach: increasing global integration and our product development process.