Ford, America’s No 2 carmaker, must change its business model in order to reverse the company’s sliding fortunes, its chairman and chief executive has told staff. In an e-mail to Ford’s 300,000 employees, Bill Ford said that the company would consider turning to outside executives and alliances with other carmakers. He said: ‘The business model that sustained us for decades is no longer sufficient to sustain profitability.’ Mr Ford said that he had organised his approach to solving the company’s problems by focusing on three areas: accelerating its North American turnaround effort; leveraging its global assets; and leadership. ‘It is important to note that all of the issues that some onlookers view as ‘problems’ for our company are issues that I view as opportunities,’ he wrote. ‘These should not be days of ‘fear’ for the people of the Ford Motor Company, as one headline put it recently.’ He added that there was a ‘sense of uncertainty over specific tactics until some key decisions are made’. He said the company was updating its business model and altering its structure to make Ford ‘a stronger, more competitive company’. Last week The Times reported that the pace […]