SEEING GREEN

While Bill Ford has struggled to win over his own workers, Toyota has captured the environmental high ground. Building on the Prius's success, Toyota will launch as many as four new hybrids next year. Ford's next hybrid, a Mercury version of the Escape, won't arrive until 2006. Bill Ford clearly doesn't like playing catch-up. "I can't control what people think of Toyota," he says. "All I can control is what they think of us. And that's what I'm working really hard to get right." He knows it will take more than one hybrid and one clean factory. And he insists he won't veer off the garden path again. "Ultimately, if people judge this is the wrong road to be on, then I'm not the guy to do the job," he says. "Because I'm not changing." Don't expect Bill Ford to be job hunting. At Ford, the guy whose name is on the building ultimately wins all arguments.

© 2004