Summary
Not only is Ford in the best position to ride out this economic crisi(of the Big 3) it isn't even close. Mulally's background at Boeing taught him early and often that you can't have a big enough war chest ...just in case. In that regard he may not have been able to predict that this day was coming so soon or even that it was coming at all but as a street smart leader of american icons like Ford and Boeing, he knew that should this day come there would be no prizes or excuses for not being ready to respond and coming up short.
Analysis
Mulally's decision in 06 to mortgage the company’s name to ensure her had a war chest larger than anyone thought was necessary was either luck or the type of forward thinking leadership necessary for the US Automakers to buy themselves the time they need to turn things around and become more responsive to the needs of its customers. Of the 3 Ford is the only one to make a convincing case that they have a viable plan they intend to execute and the money to last them until the expected economic turnaround they believe (along with many economic forecasters) will occur in 2010-11. GM is in the deepest ditch and their decision to withhold payments to its dealers (but not its credit terms for new vehicles i.e. pay for it when a VIN is generated and not when it's delivered) may have been received publicly with the support and approval of its dealer network, privately it was tantamount to a paying your employees with checks that won't clear. The dealer network feels they have pulled the wagon (or Waggoner) more than its share already and sees itself now being forced into the role of the "bank" in the old "farmer and the bank" analogy ...they simply can't afford not to be okay with it because the alternative appears to be worse. I warned readers here almost a year ago that things were much much worse than the papers were reporting and even today the big foot has yet to fall on the overly populated GM dealer network and GM has shown that it has no shame in passing around the pain and suffering of their own cash crunch. If the delayed payments to dealers happening now; at a time I believed was early in the process, is any indication of how deeply in trouble GM really is then we are a lot closer to seeing the use of ‘end game” “drastic measures” than even I thought or would have guessed. Paying its employees (dealers) with 30 day IOU’s is the last thing a company usually does before taking a deep, oxygen challenged breath of water. Expect to see alot of suppliers and dealers resting peacefully at the bottom of the ocean before you see GM there. Just like the guy who quickly puts on his running shoes while walking through the woods said in response to his buddies question of "what are you thinking ...you can't outrun a bear" to which his newly sneaker clad friend responds ..."I don't have to outrun the bear I only have to outrun you!" Ford put it's Nike's on 2 years ago ...GM is trying to borrow a pair of good running (or dancing) shoes from Congress and Chrysler is asking them both how they plan on outrunning a bear!
