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4 Ford Motor Company | 2007 Annual Report
PROGRESS AND PRIORITIES
The year 2007 marked a major turning point for
Ford Motor Company.
We made significant progress toward our plan to
return to profitability in North America and in our total
Automotive operations in 2009. At the same time,
we laid the foundation for future growth. Our efforts
centered on improving our cost structure, introducing
exciting new products, improving our balance sheet,
and operating as a single global team.
The results were very encouraging.
With the exception of North America, all
of our Automotive operations were profitable,
excluding special items, and all achieved significant
improvements. In North America, we made substantial
progress on our plan to aggressively restructure in
order to operate profitably. We continued to align
capacity to demand, and reached an agreement with
the United Auto Workers which significantly improves
our competitiveness going forward.
Around the world, our new vehicles are being
acclaimed for their styling, quality and safety.
Environmental stewardship also is a key element
of our revitalized product plans. In the near term,
we are introducing EcoBoost, an affordable engine
technology that will give our customers substantial
fuel economy improvements at a competitive
price. Longer term, we are investing in a variety of
alternative fuel technologies to meet the energy and
environmental challenges of the future.
We have also appointed the industry’s first
senior executive for sustainability and formed a
Transformation Advisory Council to help us shape our
thinking about future technologies and global trends.
This group includes nationally known thought leaders
from outside Ford who will come together several
times a year with our own experts with the goal of
making us the leader in sustainability.
The outlook for the automotive industry remains
challenging. However, based on the progress we are
making and the product portfolio we have coming,
I believe we are starting to write an exciting new
chapter in Ford history.
Under the outstanding leadership of Ford President
and CEO Alan Mulally, our worldwide team continues
to press forward urgently to achieve our priorities. We
all share the same goal – creating exciting, desirable
and responsible vehicles so we can grow our business
profitably. By doing that we will create value for our
shareholders, our communities and our world.
William Clay Ford, Jr.
Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board
March 6, 2008
A MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN