Alexander Trotman, Baron Trotman

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Alexander James Trotman, Baron Trotman (born July 22, 1933 in Isleworth , London , England , † April 25, 2005 in Northallerton , Yorkshire ) was a British - American manager and CEO of Ford .

Life

Alexander James Trotman was born in England as the son of an upholsterer in simple circumstances; during the Blitz , his family moved to Scotland from greater London . On a scholarship he attended Boroughmuir High School in Edinburgh . He graduated from the University of East London ; later he graduated from the US Michigan State University the Master in Business Administration.

Act

Trotman served in the Royal Air Force before joining Ford in the UK as a management trainee in 1955 . He was involved in the development of the Ford Cortina , which is why Henry Ford II became aware of him. In 1969 he went to Ford in Detroit . In 1984 he became head of Ford in Europe, in 1989 head of Ford in North America and in 1993 chairman of the board of directors of the entire company until he stepped down in 1998 after 43 years with Ford. He was the first Ford boss who was not from the USA. After his resignation, Trotman retired to a cottage in Yorkshire, where he died in 2005 after a brief illness.

Worked at Ford

Two years before Trotman took his position as chairman of the board, Ford posted its largest loss in history, at $ 7.4 billion. It was Trotman's task to counter this deficit with a rigorous austerity program and restructuring in the group. For example, he installed the “Ford 2000” program, which meant that uniform vehicle types were produced in all Ford plants around the world, and he introduced a rotation for top managers. In addition, the production of vehicle parts was outsourced and a separate company was founded for this purpose, the supplier Visteon , which, like other suppliers, had to apply for contracts. This led to a bitter price war among the suppliers. This will save around five billion dollars.

Trotman also centralized the company's design and engineering departments. In Europe, small and medium-sized cars were developed in North America, the larger cars and light trucks and Geländelimousen (SUV). The concept also envisaged that externally different models were built on identical basic structures. In this way Trotman led the group back into the profit zone. But it also showed that the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique models , which were built on the basis of the European Ford Mondeo , were not particularly popular in the USA. In 1996 he led Ford back into Formula 1 .

Ultimately, Ford led to problems within the company in 2000 , so that Trotman resigned a year before his contract expired. His successor as chairman of the board was William Clay Ford Junior .

Varia

In 1988 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh , a Knight Bachelor degree in 1996 and a life peer promotion in 1999 as Baron Trotman of Osmotherley in the County of North Yorkshire .

He referred to himself as an Atlantic person : He was British and US citizens and spoke with a Scottish accent.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sir Alexander (Alex) Trotman on scottish-places.info
  2. ↑ Back on the Fast Track , Time Magazine . December 13, 1993. Retrieved January 12, 2008. 
  3. ↑ Talking Shop with Detroit's Big Three , Time Magazine . December 13, 1993. Retrieved January 14, 2008. 
  4. ↑ a b The swing policy is part of everyday life for US companies on welt.de from January 30, 1996
  5. ↑ a b Lord Trotman: Ford trainee who rose to be chairman on independent.co.uk of April 27, 2005
  6. ↑ grandprix.com
  7. ^ Obituary: Lord Trotman on telegraph.co.uk v. May 3, 2005

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Trotman, Alexander, Baron Trotman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Trotman, Alexander James, Baron Trotman
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British manager
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Isleworth , Middlesex
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 2005
Place of death Northallerton , Yorkshire