A Ford factory in Louisville, Ky. Its model line is short on the types of sport-utility vehicles and trucks that have become popular in the United States.
When Steelcase's former CEO Jim Hackett took over as chief executive of Ford Motor, he was charged with revitalizing a company suffering from slumping profits, rising costs and an uncertain outlook.
In the 11 months since then, Mr. Hackett has shuffled Ford’s executive ranks and outlined plans to introduce new sport-utility vehicles and electric cars. Other steps in his strategy, however, have been slow in coming.
New models — including updated Escape and Explorer S.U.V.s — are on the way, but most won’t begin arriving until the second half of 2019. The company’s stock price is still lagging. And while Mr. Hackett has vowed to cut engineering costs and improve Ford’s “fitness,” he has yet to specify how he’ll do that, what his overall turnaround plan entails, and what financial targets Ford hopes to hit.
The lack of detail has frustrated Wall Street analysts, and the tension spilled into the open during a conference call in January. In the call, Mr. Hackett noted that Ford was working on six efficiency initiatives but offered no specifics.
“When are we going to know these six?” Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley asked. “Because I asked you a pretty straightforward question. You’re alluding to the six in your slides. You’re clearly not willing to talk about them.” Then, with a tone of exasperation rarely heard in such calls, Mr. Jonas added, “That’s a problem, Jim.”
The slow rollout of a recovery plan has added a new layer to the challenges facing the No. 2 American automaker. It has trouble on several fronts: Operations in Europe, India, and South America are struggling; costs for key materials like aluminum and steel are rising; sales in China have stalled; and its model line is short on the new types of S.U.V.s and trucks that buyers are snapping up in the United States.
In a recent note to his clients, Mr. Jonas said investors were becoming skittish about Ford and saw General Motors and Fiat Chrysler as better bets, largely because of the uncertainty of how Mr. Hackett intends to fix the company. “Ford is seen as carrying unnecessarily high levels of risk and little transparency,” he wrote.
Ford is due to report its first-quarter earnings on Wednesday and is expected to offer some new information about cost-cutting. But investors probably won’t see a full-blown turnaround plan until September, three people familiar with the matter said.