Word: mazda
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...president, Fields shuttered a factory in Mazda's hometown of Hiroshima, slashed the white-collar payroll by 20% and tied bonuses for directors and middle managers to year-end targets. To improve Mazda's balance sheet, he wrote off a $1.3 billion pension liability. And he had all salaried workers attend a two-day off-site, at which they were told that "Mazda must change or die." Says Katsumi Yoshitake, a 10-year veteran: "We knew we were in bad shape, but it seemed abstract." At the off-site, "a lot of it was bad news, but it made...
Fields comes with a reputation as a cost cutter and fix-it guy. Before taking over Mazda, he spent two years in Argentina restoring a troubled Ford operation to profitability. At Mazda, where he started as sales and marketing senior adviser, he found a remarkably inefficient bureaucracy. Shortly after arriving, he requested a report on Japan's domestic-car market. Three days later, a tome the size of the New York City phone book, and about as illuminating, appeared on his desk. "Its conclusions were severely lacking," Fields says. "Our investment bankers knew more about our business than some...
...Mazda squeaked out an operating profit as a result of such changes. But its real test is just starting. The firm's turnaround was based on cost cutting and boosted by a weak yen, which makes Mazda's vehicles cheaper abroad. The key to long-term growth is hot new models, but under Fields' regime, Mazda delayed new rollouts, concentrating instead on bolstering existing brands with better marketing and dealer support. "We were chasing Toyota and ended up with cars that didn't have personality," Fields says. In the coming months, Mazda will phase out two models and introduce three...
...Fields faces challenges that he never had at Mazda. He is taking over from the veteran Wolfgang Reitzle, a former BMW honcho respected for his product-development and engineering acumen. Analysts say Jaguar would not be in the black without Reitzle's insistence that the automaker not skimp on such engineering details as the six-speed gearbox in the S-Type. Some Ford watchers, though, say Reitzle's departure was timely. "Wolfgang was great on the brand side, but he was always banging heads against people on the cost side of the business," says analyst Scott Hill of Sanford...
...baby boomers entering their peak buying years, launch a slew of new models. Analysts estimate that margins on PAG brands now hover around 1%--compared with almost 9% at BMW--and that narrowing the gap will be a critical factor in how long Fields lasts in this job. At Mazda, he says, "I was very clear about confronting reality, focusing on accountability and execution." It's a game plan he hopes will work as well in London as it did in Japan...