Everyone’s talking about a future in which vehicles are shared rather than owned, autonomous rather than driven, and where car companies make large shares of their profits on digital “mobility services.” But if you are the Ford Motor Company and face the prospect of investing billions in new technology while your century-old business model is overturned, you might first have a few questions. How are consumers going to react to all of this? What do they really want? How can you tell which opportunities are real and which are science fiction?
How Ford Is Thinking About the Future
Dealing with the uncertainty of new, disruptive business models is one of the biggest challenges that faces any large, established company. To gain insight into how to think through these obstacles, the author offers five lessons from Ford’s approach to recent advances in the mobility industry: First, be ambitious with new projects, but don’t over-invest in any one idea. Second, be sure to think not just about the physical functionality of your product, but also about the social and emotional roles it fulfills. Third, constantly examine and update your business model. Fourth, be openminded about creating new rules and metrics for your organization. Finally, to reduce risk, consider building a portfolio of new business models. While there’s no predicting the future, these strategies can position you to take advantage of new opportunities as they emerge.