Ford CEO Mark Shields Talks Mobility, Not Just Cars

Ford, a 111 year old car company is turning the corner with improved customer ratings, the re-introduction of flashy favorites and changing the way people think about transportation. The company has its highest customer approval ratings since 2010, when it introduced MyFord Touch. The service, developed along with Microsoft, was not a success, as customers reported the difficulty of doing basic functions, such as changing a radio station or adjusting climate controls. Product development chief Raj Nair said, “We’ve really turned the corner on quality, ” according to Autonews, “We put the resources and the investment in place to fix our quality issues.”

At the Detroit auto show, Ford dazzled the audience with the re-introduction of its legendary GT. The car has buttresses behind each door and creates wind tunnels that are aerodynamically functional. The car wasn’t produced in the years after the financial crisis as consumers were tightening their belts, but it is on the road again. When asked if the supercar would be used to race at LeMans, CEO Mark Fields said simply, “We have nothing else to talk about except presenting a great looking car.”

CEO Mark Shields, the first Jewish CEO of Ford, is not only interested in producing cars, but in changing the way people think about transportation. His vision is to transform Ford into a “mobility company” with features in cars that will locate parking spaces, eliminating nerve wracking searches, environmentally friendly cars, and car sharing schemes in highly populated areas. Shields also envisions a “dynamic social shuttle” that will revolutionize mass transit in the form of mini buses that will pick up and drop off riders through communication on smartphones.