Ford chief's legacy

Marin Burela's departure from the top job at Ford Australia closes a significant chapter in the company's history
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There's good luck and then there's good management. Marin Burela has probably drawn on both as head of Ford Australia. Burela has presided over Ford's local arm for the past two years, but has been offered a posting to China and will officially take up the new role from November 1.

There was some luck in steering Ford Australia through the rocks and shallows of the GFC, which hurt sales of Toyota's large car, the Aurion, and conversely boosted Ford's share of the large-car segment -- which looks good on paper. Falcon's figure of 22,951 is less than 400 units ahead of where it was for the same period in 2009. But at least it's ahead of last year's tally. The Aurion has lost over a thousand units over the same period.

Burela has relied much more on his marketing savvy than luck however, and he has additionally brought passion and commitment to the job here. For anyone who thinks Ford Australia was just a stepping stone for Burela on the way to bigger and better things, he has a message.

"I don't think you'll ever have a bigger supporter of Australia in China and in AP&A [the Asia/Pacific and Africa region] than the person that you're talking to..."

When he arrived back in Australia at the end of 2008, Burela found a company that was demoralised by the decision to close the Geelong engine factory and lay off 450 workers at the Broadmeadows car plant.

A plan to build the Focus small car on the same production line as Falcon and Territory was meeting unexpected resistance or ambivalence: from the media, from Ford fans -- and even from Toyota, based on that company's experience of building a small car in Australia, one that ultimately failed.

The FG Falcon, just six months old at that time, had received critical praise, but hadn't fired up the large-car market in the way that the company had hoped; consumers were holding their breath waiting for a global financial crisis to hit and new-car buying was off the agenda.

In this scenario, Burela's talk seemed at times over-ambitious, to say the least. Yet looking back with the benefit of two years' hindsight, what he has promised has been largely delivered. Some of those promises won't be fulfilled until after he has left these shores, but the end results are in sight.

While many of the gains Ford has made in Australia during Burela's tenure were either based on the groundwork of his predecessors or were proposed and implemented by his executive team, it was Burela who faced the media or government to relay the tidings. Many of the changes in Ford's situation during the past couple of years were due to the direct involvement of the bloke at the top himself. But during the teleconference earlier this week for the announcement of his new role, he was generous in his praise of those working under him.

"The last two years... I've felt incredibly blessed; working with true professionals that have really driven the organisation in a way that has delivered the results that we have. There would be no T6 and global Ranger if it wasn't for the development team in Australia, working the way they have in the last few years.

"If you look at our manufacturing organisation, just look at what they've delivered: the complexity, the changes, the movements, the quality, the launching... it's just been continuous change. They've done this without even a simple glimmer of a flaw... just launched 'Miami' [supercharged V8 for FPV models] -- look at Miami, look at the accolades we're receiving right now. [And] the team is now getting ready for the new Territory."

"As much as I'd love to continue the journey with the team here, they are such a strong, viable and professional team, that they will just continue to bat on and deliver great results in 2011 and beyond..."

Burela doesn't subscribe to the view that he leaves loose ends at Ford Australia. There are new models still in the pipeline, but these are virtually a fait accompli.

"I walk away from Ford Australia with my head held very high, because when I look at what this team has delivered in such a short period of time, one can write books about this.

"To take a company that lost nearly $300 million in 2008 and to make a profit in 2009; to stabilise our business; to go out there and launch a brand positioning that is equal to none in the world; to go out there and have the most fuel-efficient car in the world; to go out there and announce $230 million of further investment when we were in the middle of a global financial crisis -- we did that.

"And then to go out there and put in a strategic plan for our casting division in Geelong that will make it a viable component supplier -- not only to Ford, but to industry suppliers -- we've done this at a time when others were out there licking their wounds."

The question of profit is an important rebuttal of the argument that Ford's overall market share in Australia is on the wane -- a point put to him during the teleconference. In answer to that, Burela spoke of the richer mix of Falcon and Territory sales, among other things.

"2010 was going to be a year for us that we were driving and looking for the quality of the share, not necessarily the share itself. Why? Because we knew that we were going to go through turbulent times, with segmentation shifts, we knew that we were bringing in different products and new model line-ups, new derivatives from our overseas locations; we knew that we needed to continue to enhance our current product line-up in Australia. We also knew that we were going to be coming out of [Falcon] wagon, we also knew that we were going to be transitioning out of Euro III e-Gas into the Euro IV e-Gas -- and when you start to look at all of that, all of those things have impacted on our share.

"The great news is though, that the share that we're holding is very good and solid quality of share -- and it's very profitable share. That has driven us here in Ford Australia. Our objective has always been profitable growth...

"I'm very happy with where we are and where we're heading."

Where Ford is headed in 2011 includes the introduction of many new or upgraded products, according to Burela.

"You're going to see some exciting things going on. 80 to 85 per cent of our total showroom will be either new or fully updated for 2011. For us to be driving and delivering the profits that we will be this year -- and then bouncing into 2011 -- we're in a good place and we're charging forward."

On his watch, Burela, either alone or with prompting and assistance from his management team, can take credit for the following:

    Successfully rolling out the WS Fiesta,
    Giving the go-ahead for a diesel engine and upgrade for the locally-manufactured SUV (due next year),
    Approving an EcoBoost four-cylinder and the long-awaited LPI system for the Falcon (also for 2011),
    Resetting the framework for the company's marketing -- particularly the more 'visible' TV commercials,
    Raising awareness of Falcon's fuel economy credentials with the six-speed ZF box,
    Promoting sustainable production of the Territory and Falcon, producing individual cars to order and 'right-sizing' the company's production capacity,
    Steering buyers into higher profit models of Falcon and Territory (with fleet queen Falcon XT reduced to just five per cent of total Falcon production),
    Putting the Falcon wagon out to pasture finally,
    Taking care to leverage the reduction of the imported passenger-vehicle tariff to five per cent without hurting the resale values of cars sold prior,
    Obtaining significantly stronger sales from Territory, despite the subtlety of the facelift and upgrade,
    Rescinding the decision to close the Geelong engine plant and end six-cylinder production,
    Opening the ACART research facility,
    Engaging Bosch as a customer for disc brake components from the Geelong casting plant,
    Canning the move to build the Focus 'C-segment car' in Australia,
    Supporting and promoting local R&D efforts, which will culminate in the T6 Ranger when it goes on sale here next year,
    Turning around the company's financial situation -- from a $274 million loss in 2008 to $13 million in the black from 2009.

On the other side of the balance sheet, he and his team cannot take credit for:

    Retreating from retail finance,
    Doubling sales of Mondeo (just 19 per cent ahead of last year's figures, year to date),
    Losing Team Vodafone (and Craig Lowndes) to Holden,
    Securing the Kuga SUV for this market (still yet to happen, if it ever does),
    Putting the Falcon wagon out to pasture finally (it depends on one's point of view).

So the scoreboard appears to hand Burela a win -- and you can bet that his record in Australia has not passed unnoticed in Dearborn, which is why he's moving to head up Ford's joint venture in China -- and join fellow Aussie Kevin Wale in one of the fastest-growing markets in the world.

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