Building cars and trucks that people actually wanted This might seem like a no-brainer, but in Detroit in 2006 it bordered on radical thinking. Like General Motors and Chrysler, Ford was locked into union contracts negotiated in better times that prevented it from laying off workers or closing plants. So it filled those factories with cheap vehicles and sold them at a loss.top-to-bottom reboot of the product lineup. From now on, every new Ford would be the best vehicle in its class. This product renaissance would not be cheap and Ford was running out of cash, but Mulally insisted on it. “You’ve been going out of business for 30 years,” Mulally told Bill Ford. “This is how to get back in it.” … [Read more...] about Saving An Iconic Brand: Five Ways Alan Mulally Changed Ford’s Culture