After the Detroit debacle of a couple of weeks ago in which all three Big 3 CEOs managed to distinguish themselves by being indistinguishable, there’s been a strong public relations effort by Ford to reestablish its own identity and convince the public that it has been restructuring all along.

It’s always a good move for a company to set itself apart from its competition, and perhaps no more so than when you’re sitting at the same table with a privately held company run by a guy (Chrysler’s Bob Nardelli) who could lose a publicity contest to Attila the Hun and a publicly held company (GM) whose only plan up until now seemed to be to keep doing what hasn’t been working.

I’m no expert on Ford or its CEO, but I’ve always thought of the company as the U.S. automaker with the best chance of retooling. Now Ford has launched a new Web site, The Ford Story, that talks about its plan, its progress, and “how very far Ford has come and how we’re doing business differently.” In so doing, the company is redirecting the conversation about its brand away from bailouts and back toward Henry Ford’s vision to create cars that are affordable to ordinary Americans.

The company’s also using social media very effectively to spread the word. Ford’s head of social media, Scott Monty, has been using his personal blog and his Twitter stream to reinforce the Ford story. He’s written an excellent post on why he went to work for Ford earlier this year, what the company’s been working on, and how each of us can help. The blog has generated 66 comments as of today — remarkable in and of itself, and that doesn’t even begin to take into account how many others have read and shared the blog post. Meanwhile, he’s been Tweeting about Ford. My favorite Scott Monty Tweet from today: “P.S.: It’s not a bailout plan. We’re asking for access to a line of credit should we need it.” Talk about getting your message out.

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

©2012 Independent Thinking. All Rights Reserved.

Did you ever wonder what it would be like if Barney Frank and Ben Stein agreed on something?

It happened the other day when the two men concurred that it would be catastrophic for the U.S. economy if the Big 3 automakers were to fold. That was, of course, before the 3 CEOs took their 3 corporate jets for a jaunt to Washington to ask for billions of dollars of government money. Now, who knows?

I guess “jet-pooling” was out of the question. Umair Haque points out in his Edge Economy blog that the automakers spent the 20th century lobbying against public transportation. Isn’t that an irony: cars are ubiquitous–but most of them aren’t from Ford, GM, or Chrysler.

Far smarter people than me will have to sort what to do with the Big 3, but I have a few thoughts on the subject:

• 2.5 million jobs. That’s the estimate I keep hearing of the number of people who will be out of work along the supply chain. And that doesn’t even begin to touch the ripple effect in communities across the country. The U.S. economy can’t handle that big a shock–especially now.
• It’s not about labor costs, it’s about selling a product no one wants to buy. I’ve heard that $2,000 per car is attributable to labor costs. But people don’t say these cars are overpriced; they say they’re gas guzzlers and unsexy–and that’s the polite critique.
• These companies need vision and new leaders (lots of them). The current team has no strategy for viability.

I agree with both Frank and Stein: Our economy and 2.5 million jobs is too big a risk to take. But I also agree with Mike Enzi, who said that “if this package were taken to a banker with a request for $25,000, he’d send the applicant back to work to actually do a business plan.”

And that brings up the $25 billion question: is there any vision left in Detroit? From 3 guys in 3 planes, I’m not sure we have 1 person with common sense. If we bail them out without a plan to change how they do business, it’ll be deja vu all over again in a few months.

Can GM, Chrysler, and Ford restructure? What do you think?

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

©2012 Independent Thinking. All Rights Reserved.