If you step back and apply those same lessons to business, countless examples certainly exist, and here’s a couple that I thought of immediately:

The Big Three (Ford, GM and Chrysler): in the 1960′s, those three companies had 87.6% market share in the United States; GM alone had 48.3%. Imagine that, almost one out of two cars was a GM brand. In August of 2009, the Big Three’s share stood at about 41.7%. What caused that massive decline in just about 40 years?

Well, when Honda, Toyota and other imports started entering the market in the 1970′s, the Big Three didn’t take them serious enough. The Arab oil embargo caught them with lines of big, gas-guzzling cars and thus began the rise of the import. Even after the embargo ceased, the Big Three didn’t change their ways and as the 80′s began, the quality of American cars continued to decline as more and more people began buying their cars from Japan.

However, there were moments of glory for the Big Three.  Inventing the minivan in 1984 was a huge win for Chrysler, and even through decades of turmoil, they’ve continued to be a force in that market segment; unfortunately, they didn’t adapt as the segment declined from its heyday in the 90′s. Ford had two massive success stories too. In 1986, they introduced the first Taurus and, hard as it is to believe, it was a groundbreaking design at the time and for the next six years, it was at the top of the sales charts, or very near it. But they let the innovation and quality slide until the car’s 21st century death and rebirth in 2009. Ford followed that up by producing the first SUV to really go mainstream, with the Explorer in 1991. Again, Ford was happy to bring in big profits instead of continuing to innovate and the Explorer went from the best-selling non-pickup truck in the US to barely a blip on the radar today.

It wasn’t until the hiring of Alan Mulally that Ford really woke up from its long slumber of arrogance. It remains to be seen if GM or Chrysler has done the same.

The events of the past few months have shown us again the cost of arrogance; Toyota’s arrogance and desire for market share made them abandon their core principles and damage their painstakingly-built brand heavily.

Microsoft: the company at the center of the computer revolution for over twenty years has never ceased to be a powerful force, yet I can’t help but think about the opportunities they’ve blown over the years. Think of the areas of technology where they surely could have innovated, yet sat back and let other companies become the dominant force:

• Portable Music Players: in less than ten years, the iPod has revolutionized music distribution, saved a company on the verge of bankruptcy and left Microsoft scrambling to catch up (Zune) and now they’ve seemingly given up the fight.
• Video Games: Sony came out of nowhere in the 1994, catching market leaders Nintendo and Sega off-guard, and Microsoft was nowhere to be seen. For seven years, Sony made huge profits with the Playstation console and subsequent Playstation2 and 3. It took Microsoft until 2001 to get their own contender on the market and many more years to pass Sony.
• Search: back in the days of WebCrawler, Lycos, AskJeeves, Yahoo and MSN, there were a ton of choices and no dominant force. Then, here comes Google and the rest is history.

So many opportunities to continue their dominance, and instead Microsoft was happy to keep cashing in on profits of Windows and Office, rather than finding the next big thing.

So what am I trying to say here?  In business, just as in sports, you’ve got to act like you’re never the best, compete and innovate like you’re still the little guy and maintain a culture built on ideas. You’ve got to prepare better and smarter than your competitors. And never, ever rest on your laurels. It’s the culture Avis built in an industry dominated by others – “We’re #2 – we try harder.”

That’s the culture Apple, McDonald’s and Google have, what Honda and Toyota had, what Ford has again, and what the Northern Iowa Panthers had today.

Sources:

http://www.carofthecentury.com/answer_to_gm%27s_market_share_plunge.htm

http://www.automotivedigest.com/content/displayArticle.aspx?a=61337

http://www.tgdaily.com/trendwatch-features/43289-nintendo-wii-surrenders-market-share-in-weak-game-console-market

Clifton and I got our form in and waited with baited breath for the rest of the week, visiting www.fiestamovement.com over and over, refreshing my TweetDeck search for #fiestamovement and grabbing my phone every time it vibrated, hoping for a call.  And it never came but we did see a few different agents post that they’d been chosen and on their way to Detroit. We were disappointed but figured it was over.

Well, after a few searches and tweets, I discovered that there was a bunch of people who’d had the exact same experience.  That is, until @FordFiesta posted this:

The last info we've gotten from Ford...

Since then, myself and the other applicants have all been contacting Ford, trying to find out what’s going on.  I’ve left two voicemails with the guy who interviewed me, DM’d Sam De La Garza and tweeted once or twice a day.  All that sort of culminated in this chain of Tweets today:

There's some confusion happening...

@fordfiesta is not tweeting anywhere near its normal volume and nobody seems to be responding.  So I guess we’ll continue to wait, but it’s highly disappointing to see Ford handling it this way. It certainly doesn’t reflect the reputation and work that they’ve put into their social media efforts over the past couple years.  They’re late on their own self-imposed deadline – see the screenshot from fiestamovement.com taken tonight at 11:10 CST.

Feb 22? Didn't happen...

I hope we get some kind of explanation from Ford at least; I don’t expect the world but after all the work we put in and them taking the time to interview me and conduct a background check, the promised follow-up would be nice. Guess I’ll start working on my video for the Mustang Movement – how about it Ford?  All I want is a new GT convertible with the all-new 412 HP 5.0.

EDIT 2/25 around 10:30 AM: it appears the mini-firestorm this started prompted a response this morning.  I’ve exchanged three DM’s this morning with Sam De La Garza, which you can see below.  My response to his first DM was “Thanks Sam – not a big deal in the end just surprising not to get more comm. from you guys. Hope my team still has a chance!”  And my response to his second DM was “Figured that was part of it – would love to tell u all why KC is a strong creative market if it’s in question. Mind if I share these DM’s?.”

A much-appreciated response

So I’m glad I have an update now; it’s still a bit odd that they’ve chosen not to simply post via @fordfiesta and let us all know these same things.  Soon after Sam’s DMs, I also got a call from the agency partner to give me some more insight/details, which I won’t share here.  This is the kind of response I expected from Ford from the beginning.

Thanks Sam…now choose Team KC and everything will be good!

• Applications are in pairs, instead of individual.
• What the chosen agents will be doing is sort of a mystery – here’s the description:

In anticipation of the Fiesta’s US launch, for the next chapter of the Fiesta Movement we’re handing over creative direction for the all-new 2011 Ford Fiesta’s advertising and promotion to our fans.

You’ll need a creative vision and passion for the Fiesta. We’ll provide the public spaces and help connect you to local creative talent. Together, we’ll bring your ideas to life.

Your team will also have access to an all-new 2011 Ford Fiesta for the duration of the program (with gas and insurance) and a shot at winning a brand new Fiesta for yourself and your teammate.

• In the application, there were lots of questions about your creativity, from examples of it you’ve produced to creative people you know.
• For the creative people you know question, I put down the team at Liquid 9, Austin Walsh Photography, and Chris Evans at C3. Wish I would have had room for John January & Tug McTighe of American Copywriter fame, my talented friends at Barkley, VML, Bernstein-Rein, Sullivan Higdon & Sink and lots of other KC folks.

All that leads me to believe there’s going to be a lot of event marketing, local promotions and other marketing related parts in this Fiesta Movement, which is why I think I found the perfect partner in Clifton Alexander of Reactor Design Studio. Clifton and I spent a lot of time thinking about what would help us stand out among the likely huge crowd of applicants, and it came down to a couple simple things.

First, Clifton and I know each other, but we’re not best friends.  Most of the applicants will be best friends, spouses/couples or even family members.  He and I will get to know each other as part of this Movement, and that should make our thought process a little different. Second, we both love cars and are involved in the creative industry but on different parts of the spectrum.  I’m an account guy at a B2B shop; Clifton’s the owner/creative director at a small design shop. And the contrasts between us gave us the inspiration for our video entry, which you can see below:

So there we are – the application is in and I’m ready to get started.

To Scott Monty, Sam DeLaGarza and the rest of the Fiesta Movement team, you may find a pair as good as Clifton and I, but you won’t find better. We’re ready to prove it, so let’s get started!

What does Ray Lewis have to do with the 2010 Taurus??

Pros

• Ray Lewis: I’ve decided that the Taurus is the automotive equivalent of Ray Lewis (or a linebacker in general).  By that, I mean there’s no getting around that this thing is a big car.  It weights 4,015 pounds* and that makes for a big car. But dang does it move, just like Ray Lewis.  It handles & moves that weight well, both in a straight line and through the curves. I can only imagine how well the SHO model does.

* For comparison, my 2003 Mazda 6 weighs about 3,300 pounds and a 2WD 2009 Ford F-150 weighs in around 4,700 pounds.

• Power: The 3.5 liter V6 in the Taurus make 265 horsepower and it moves the two-tons along surprisingly well – it blows away the 3.0 liter 220 hp V6 (a Ford/Mazda engine) in my Mazda, both in outright speed and in smoothness.  It pulls well throughout the rev range and really takes off after 3,000 RPM and never feels strained.  And it’s quiet…even when the go pedal is on the floor.
• Control of that Power: the 6-speed automatic transmission managing all that power is a gem.  It shifts smoothly and handles hard driving using the manual shifting mode (with paddle shifters) great.  It’s also geared wonderfully, with the engine only turning around 2,100 RPMs at 80 MPH.
• Looks: I think the 2010 Taurus is one damn good-looking car.  I love the front/side profiles the most.  The back looks a little too high-up and I wish it had dual exhaust pipes, rather than the single muffler with twin tailpipes.  But I’m nit-picking – I love the looks of this thing.
• Gas mileage: though I do it with my own car, I didn’t keep exact mileage with the Taurus during my time with it.  However, I’m pretty sure I got about 25-26 MPG with the thing, which is phenomenal considering it’s weight, the speed I was driving (80 for the most part) and the fact that I was definitely not hypermiling.
• Quiet: even at those speeds, it is still incredibly quiet inside.  I think my pre-production test car had a slight driver’s side window air seal leak, so I imagine the production ones are even better.  I will state with almost certainty that it’s quieter than my parents’ 2006 Lexus ES330, the quietest (until now) highway I car I have experience with.
• Comfort: anybody should be able to find a comfortable seating position in the Taurus.  It’s got the usual power seats, plus the pedals are adjustable and the steering wheel tilts & telescopes.  If all that wasn’t enough, it also has Multicontour Seats with Active Motion™, which basically means massaging seats.  Going into this trip, I thought they would be a gimmick, another gadget to make the car seem high-tech.  I tried them out during the 4 hour trip across Missouri and they definitely helped keep my butt/thighs comfortable.  Ford’s website says it also massages your back, but I couldn’t feel it and my back felt no different than it does after trips in other cars.  Oh yeah, those seats were also heated and can be also be cooled, though my loaner didn’t have that feature.
• The Cockpit Feel: I’ve been excited about this car since the first spy shots over a year ago.  I strongly encouraged my parents to go check one out, which they did.  One of the things they ended up not liking about it is the center console, which is massive.  When you get in the car, it’s one of the first things you notice because it’s wide and high up, probably 3-4″ higher-up than most cars you’re used to. I ended up liking it though, because my elbow rests perfect on it and all the controls are right there for you to use, without any need to look away from the road – they’re all right in your field of vision, which may be why it’s designed the way it is.

Yes, it's big. But I ended up liking it.

• Sync Technology: it’s advertised a lot on every Ford, Lincoln or Mercury model now…and for good reason, it rocks.  Basically, it lets you quickly & easily control almost any MP3 player or phone using voice commands.  It also provides you with 911 Assist, emailed Vehicle Health Reports, real-time traffic conditions, turn-by-turn directions and other information.  I didn’t try any of those features, but within five minutes, I had my Palm Pre hooked up via Bluetooth and my iPod via USB, with both of them connected via Sync.  Driving down the road, I was quickly able to pick out a song by artist or song name and have the car play it, then pause it automatically and pick out anyone from my phone’s contact list to call.  Incredibly seamless and easy…and a great way to impress your friends.  However, Sync is not good at recognizing a lot of song names/artists and has a lot of trouble picking up sound if you have the windows down.  Hopefully those are the kinds of things that can be improved via software updates over time.  The other nice thing about Sync is that it’s available on models like the Focus all the way to up to the Lincoln Navigator, though specific features vary by model.
• Music, Music and more Music!: with my iPod and phone hooked up through Sync, plus the Sirius satellite radio built in, I didn’t even notice that the Taurus also had a 6-disc CD changer and AM/FM radio.  Amazing amount of options for in-car entertainment, all of which was welcome on the road trip.
• Quality: through & through, the car feels high-quality.  The doors are heavy and close with that heavy, satisfying “thunk” noise that the best luxury cars have.  Most of the interior materials are soft and of the proper quality for a car in this price range too.
• Creating Believers: when people see, drive or ride in this car, their perception of Ford is going to be altered.  It happened when I took one of my bosses to lunch in it – he’s someone that probably wouldn’t consider Ford for his next car.  He told me that, and he also told me that he’ll probably take a hard look at Ford now, even if he doesn’t want the Taurus or a car in that range.
• Other Features/Technology: my car was an SEL, which is the second of four levels of price.  Besides the things I’ve talked about, the Taurus featured these things:
  • Reverse sensing system: being a male and a car fanatic, I dismissed this option as stupid, for “people who don’t know how to drive.”  Well, after driving that car, I’m glad it has it.  The back end of the Taurus is so big that it’s really, really tough to tell how close you are to anything.  I’d welcome the rear-view camera available on the SHO model.
  • Intelligent Access/SecuriCode: it’s the newest fad in the car world – eliminating the key and giving the driver a key fob to carry and a button for starting/stopping the car.  And SecuriCode isn’t new – Ford’s had it on lots of different vehicles since the 90′s – it’s convenient but always was kind of an eyesore below the driver’s door handle – they fixed that on the Taurus (see below).  I enjoyed being able to access the car by pushing the bottom of the SecuriCode pad and not needing to take the fob out of my pocket.
  

  Appears with touch, invisible otherwise

  • Ambient Lighting: this feature adds subtle lighting all over the cabin.  The lighting can be changed to six different colors, with three levels of brightness for each color.  It adds a huge touch of class/luxury to the car, and it’s useful for seeing things at night too.  Best of all, it’s not distracting in the least to the driver.

Ambient Lighting - Classy and Luxurious

Cons

• Cost-Cutting: even with a feeling of quality in many places, there are still obvious areas where Ford cut costs. The most obvious of these, to me, is the power windows.  The driver’s side window has full automatic up/down capability – the other three windows are regular power ones…like my ’88 Taurus had.  Lots of cars in this price range have this,  like my parents’ Lexus and their new Toyota Highlander – c’mon Ford, how much would adding that cost? This was also apparent in the overhead lighting area, where you normally find lights, a sunglasses holder, garage door opener, moonroof, thermostat/compass readout, etc.  In the Taurus, there was nothing but a couple lights that felt like they were right out of a $15,000 Focus.
• Gimmicky-Technology: as much as I liked a lot of the technology in the car, I started thinking about what this car might be like in 5 or 10 years…when some of that stuff needs to be repaired.  With the climate control, stereo, Sync, etc. all part of one large electronic unit, I shudder to think what repair/replacement for something like that might cost.  I’m also a little wary of the Intelligent Access – I think I’d just rather have a key still.  Maybe it’s silly, but I don’t know that the slightly-added convenience is worth the trouble you have the first time the batteries in the key fob go dead and you can’t start the car.  Or you accidentally get it wet or something… I haven’t even talked about some of the features this car has on higher-end models, like Adaptive Cruise Control and BLIS (Blind Spot Information System).  Features like these are becoming more common and I hate it – it makes things easier for bad drivers, and that’s scary.  With so many potential distractions in the car, the probability of people not paying attention goes up and, I know, these features are supposed to help cover against that…but I think they also contribute to people being terrible drivers.  And we don’t need any more of them in this country.
• Paddle-Shifters: I was fairly shocked to see that paddle shifters were in this car.  These allow you to manually shift the transmission without using a clutch – they’ve become common on luxury/sport sedans, sports cars, exotics, etc.  The ones in the Taurus functionally work well.  You can up or down shift on either one by pulling or pushing the paddle, respectively.  However, having driven a Ferrari 360 Modena with paddle shifters, I never got used to the Taurus’ setup and still would prefer the right-side paddle to upshift, and the left to downshift.  Call me a snob (the Ferrari thing), but the paddles themselves felt cheesy and breakable.  I also question how many people will really use this feature on the SE, SEL and Limited models – I think it’d be better off as an SHO-only option.

Final Thoughts

I’m not the ideal target audience for this car  – I’m probably about 5-10 years of age and $25,000 of income from it. However, I walked away from this test thoroughly impressed with the 2010 Ford Taurus.  For about $32,000, you get a stylish, comfortable, technology-packed large sedan that won’t embarrass itself when driven hard.  For a daily driver and a road trip car, it’s fabulous.  At that price, I think it’s a tremendous value – I can’t think of a car in the segment with a better value proposition, though the Chrysler 300, Toyota Avalon and the new Buick LaCrosse are all worthy competitors. Once you start moving up the model range, the value lessens for me though – I’m not sure a lot of people will be willing to pay the $40,000+ cost for a loaded Limited or SHO model, even with the incredible amount of technology you get at that price (it makes my SEL look like a stripped-down model).  That’s BMW/Audi/Lexus territory and, as nice as it is, the Ford Taurus name doesn’t resonate in that stratosphere.  I have to wonder, also, what this does to Lincoln.  Why bother paying the premium price for a Lincoln MKZ or MKS model when you can get a car this good for a lower price.

I commend Ford for having the guts to take the Taurus upmarket like this though.  They’ve built a fantastic car – one that will change perceptions for the people that take a look at it.  And maybe that’s the point, even more than selling a car – maybe the Taurus can become a halo-type car for Ford, making people like my boss look at Ford when they otherwise wouldn’t.  When he buys his next car (currently driving a 2005 Dodge Durango), maybe he’ll look at a Flex or an Expedition.

The 2010 Taurus is a worthy successor to the game-changing one they built in 1986, the first Taurus since that first-generation one that truly is worthy.  If I were in the market for a family car, it’d be on my list for sure.  But for me, there’s still only one car I’m interested in (though I’m waiting until I can get the new 5.0 400 hp one):

2010 Mustang GT Convertible

Thanks again to Ford and Social Media Group (their social media agency) for this opportunity.  I had a blast with the 2010 Taurus and am proud that Ford, a company I’ve known & loved for a long time (and one I own stock in), built it.  I continue to be impressed with the change that’s taken place at that company, from the CEO’s office to product development and marketing – it’s truly been a revolution in Dearborn and I’m thrilled to see it.  This country needs Ford (and GM) to be successful, profitable companies going forward.

Once I got into the car, however, and started seeing everything this car had on it, I wasn’t so disappointed anymore – the SEL is the base model but it’s anything but a stripped-down version. Dan showed me the basic controls and left me to explore the rest of the car’s features myself, but I had to run inside and finish up some work before putting on my suit and heading for the Business Marketing Association of Kansas City’s Fountain Awards at Boulevard Brewery – a fabulous, fun place to have an event in KC.  Before setting off, I managed to get my Palm Pre and my iPod both hooked up with Sync (Ford & Microsoft’s in-car system that lets you hook up just about any MP3 player/phone and control it via voice control).  They’ve always touted it as plug & play, incredibly easy to use.  And it was – within five minutes, I was on my way and picking songs I wanted to play just by speaking the artist’s name to the car.  Very cool technology.

The Taurus at the Brewery - looks pretty darn good

The event honors the best B2B marketing in Kansas City, and ER Marketing (my company) took home eight awards, including the Best of Show award, which was pretty darn cool.

Friday morning, I drove the Taurus to work to show it off to my co-workers.  Everyone was pretty darn impressed with the Intelligent Access (no key, just a button to start/stop, car senses when you are near) and Sync.  Four of us got in and took it to one of Kansas City’s great hidden restaurant gems – the Woodswether Cafe in the West Bottoms.  It’s one of those classic truck stop-type places, with massive burgers, chicken fried steak and big slices of pie for dessert.

The Taurus Meets Woodswether Cafe

Saturday morning, I was up early and headed to Lawrence, Kansas for the KU vs. Southern Mississippi football game.  Game was at 11, so that means early-morning tailgating with eggs, biscuits & gravy, donuts and more.  KU let the game stay closer than it should, but they pulled out a 35-28 win and I was quickly headed back to the Taurus to begin the almost-300 mile journey from Lawrence to St. Louis.

I picked up my friend Corey back in KC and headed East.  I quickly fell in love with the massaging seats, which massage your thighs/butt as you drive, helping to prevent your legs from feeling tired.  I was a little disappointed, however, that they don’t massage your lower back, which is the part that ends up sore when driving a long way, at least for me.  Still wearing my KU polo shirt, we completed a fearful-for-my-life gas stop in Columbia, MO and I realized what awesome mileage I’d gotten so far.

Renaissance Hotel - Downtown St. Louis

Thanks to Ford, we were staying at the Renaissance St. Louis Downtown – a pretty sweet hotel.  It was right downtown near Washington Avenue, which is where a lot of the bars are in St. Louis, and only a few blocks from the Edward Jones Dome, where the game would be on Sunday.

We headed out to Soulard, one of St. Louis’s historic neighborhoods, for some fun with Corey’s cousin before finishing the evening off on Wash Avenue, where I ran into a client from work at around 2:00 AM.  Those kind of moments are always fun especially when your client buys you an Irish Car Bomb.

Sunday morning, we awoke to a gorgous day and headed out to see what football pre-game is like in St. Louis.  Having grown up in Wisconsin (the capital of tailgating) and living in Kansas City (a darn good tailgating town too), I know a good tailgate…and St. Louis does well, considering their lack of parking space for it.  It’s awesome that their stadium is downtown, but that sort of kills the possibility of a big parking lot, so they make do with smaller lots and plenty of parties at the bars on Washington Avenue.

We finally headed into the Edward Jones Dome – what a weird experience it is to be going inside for a football game.  It felt like we were walking into a concert or basketball game instead, especially with the lights turned down low for pregame ceremonies.

Me (on the left) and Corey at the Dome

Our tickets were up high but near the 50 yard lines, so the view was actually pretty good and let us really see the action well.  Plus, we were right in the middle of a huge section of Packers fans.  Sadly, the stadium was probably only 80% full for the Rams home opener; it’s amazing how a town that’s so crazy about the Cardinals can be so lackadaisical about it’s football team. The game turned into one of those ugly, drag-it-out battles that good teams like the Packers (I hope) have to fight through sometimes and they ended up winning handily.

I left amazed, as always, with how well Packers fans travel.  At least 15-20% of the fans were Packer fans, which is just how it was in 2007 when Green Bay came to Kansas City.  I was also amazed at the random jerseys from past Packers I saw.  Names like: Ken Ruettgers, Mark Tauscher, Gilbert Brown, Antonio Freeman, Robert Brooks, Desmond Howard and a fabulous anti-Brett Favre one.  I’m so mad I didn’t get a picture of this, but the guy was walking down Wash Ave with a #4 Packers jersey.  The 4 had an X over it in duct tape, with more tape over the name ‘Favre.’  He’d written “Trader” there instead…I’ll give you non-English majors a second to catch up.

After a miserable 60 minutes in bumper-to-bumper traffic, we headed back onto I-70 for the trip back across Missouri.  It’s a long trip but man, that car made it comfy.  What a fabulous long-distance cruising car – I only wish Ford would let me do another Game Day Experience the last weekend in October, when I’m going to Lubbock, Texas with my best friend and our girlfriends for KU vs. Texas Tech.  It’s about an 800 mile trip…Ford, it’d be a perfect chance for me to do further evaluation of the car.  Call me!

Check out the rest of my Game Day Experience pictures by clicking HERE.