Detroit Free Press: Marick Masters on Ford talent needs
Finding balance at Ford Motor Co. right now is, well, delicate. Wall Street has applauded recent restructuring changes while some workers cringe. The "disruption at the human level" will be "very difficult" as the legacy automaker continues making dramatic staff changes designed to help the company compete in an increasingly dynamic environment, Ford CEO Jim Farley said this month. Pivoting from internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric, and dividing the company into gasoline- and electric-focused teams, carries uncertainty and fear. Marick Masters, a professor at the Mike Ilitch School of Business at Wayne State University, said time is too precious to not make more strategic acquisitions to fulfill immediate needs at Ford. "It's probably too time-consuming for Farley to groom and develop that talent in-house. The scope of tasks that he has to complete in order to deal with issues associated with supply chain in a highly turbulent environment are too complex to take on on your own," Masters told the Free Press. "I think what he needs to do is acquire companies that have the capacity to do this, to a large extent, stand-alone operations that can feed into an existing corporate structure."