Business Reinvention - the winds of change

Im reading this article on Ford posting a huge loss.

 

Ford Posts Loss of $5.8 Billion, Worst Since ’92
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/business/24ford.html

DEARBORN, Mich., Oct. 23 — The Ford Motor Company reported its worst financial results in more than 14 years Monday and warned that its business was likely to worsen further in the months ahead, as it and other Detroit auto companies struggle to reinvent themselves.

 

I have to wonder though - is it time for a major change in this industry? IT surely has had multiple major changes moving from mainframes to PC architectures to the web to businesses on the web etc. The car industry is relatively unchanged since its inception - sure the manufacturing processes have become more efficient but hey - the car is still a fossil fuel powered transportation device. Is there opportunity for change? I believe there absolutely is! Take a look at a blog post I wrote on the Tesla electric car. They have already sold out their initial production batch. There is strong demand for electric cars that dont perform like a slug and probably more so than fossil fueled cars....heck Id buy one!

Could Ford cream them? I believe so but it would require business and manufacturing transformation to seize the niche opportunity. Reinventing means taking a new look at the market and finding opportunities to differentiate from your lower cost competitors. I think Ford could look at reinventing transportation like Henry Ford did so many years ago.