WXYZ: Investigators

Update January 18, 2007: Ford’s Fields Finally Sacrifices

This was sent my way from a friend who works at a Ford-related company. I can’t imagine how the CEO of Ford can go to the White House and moan about the unfair business conditions surrounding them, then they throw around money like this for a top executive.

Mark Fields, Executive VP of Ford Motor Co, said in August, “We’re changing our culture to adopt a change or die mentality that is rejecting business as usual.”

That said, Fields enjoys some great perks:

For weeks, we’ve been watching as he usually slips off every Friday afternoon to Ford’s hangar at Detroit Metro Airport and then climbs aboard one of six Ford jets that whisks him to a private airport near his Palm Beach County Florida home.

Fields is usually the only passenger—plus an aircraft crew of three—but on occasion, we’ve spotted his family riding along for free, too. Well, it’s free for the Fields’ but far from free to the floundering Ford Motor Company.

The 1,100 mile, 2-and-a-half hour, one-way trip from Detroit to Boca Raton in a Gulfstream-5? It’s not cheap at $7,000 an hour but then, add in the costs of the crew and their weekend meals and lodging expenses at what is said to be a luxury Palm Beach area hotel, and then of course the costs to fly Fields back to Detroit Sunday night… can it be $70,000 a week or more?—it certainly can when the jet makes two trips to Florida, one to drop him off and another to go back and pick him up?

A Ford insider claims he’s seen paperwork that says it’s $50,000 a week but it’s unclear what’s not included in that number.

I guess they reject business as usual, except for pricey executive perks. Some of you will moan that the “free market” sets pay and benefit levels for executives. Sure, Mark Field *can* take that perk. But *should* he, as a leader, put himself in that position?

…Ford’s top leadership insists, “We’ll do everything we can to ease the burdens [on employees].” Those were the words of Ford Chairman William Clay Ford. “We all have to change and we all have to sacrifice but I believe this is the path to winning,”

With the problems Ford, the company, has had, I’m sure everyone has to cut back and make sacrifices.

…last year, [Fields] still collected a million-dollar bonus—part of a pay package that totaled well over $3 million.

“In some cases you have ‘critical-skill people’ that the company can’t function without. That might be in tool making, could be a UAW employee,” explains David Cole. We asked Cole whether he felt Mark Fields was among those employees. “Uh, I don’t think so,” he said.

Fields has said, “We are making sacrifices at every level.”

David Cole, you are my hero for saying that on TV.

The TV reporter sums it up:

Ford refuses to confirm or deny a figure, but it certainly could be the cost of one worker’s job every week Fields flies home.

Is this not a “lean” issue? Maybe not. Does anyone know what perks that Toyota execs get? I think that Fields’ jet trips don’t rank high on the “respect for people” scale. It’s certainly not the type of “we’re all in this together and need to sacrifice” behavior that inspires the troops to work together for the sake of the company. It’s behavior that says “I’ll take all I can get” and it encourages others to do the same. I’m sure an employee who takes a stapler home would get treated worse for his “theft.”

If Fields needs to sacrifice, maybe instead of staying at a “luxury resort”, his crew can stay someplace cheaper.

“You’re saving the company, you must be some sort of genius!!!”

“No, but my private airplane’s crew did stay at a Holiday Inn Express over the weekend.”

About LeanBlog.org: Mark Graban is a consultant, author, and speaker in the “lean healthcare” methodology, focused on improving quality and patient safety, improving access, reducing costs, and fully engaging healthcare professionals. He is also the Chief Improvement Officer for KaiNexus.

Tagged as: Ford, Respect for People