Bill Ford is known throughout the motor industry as "a nice guy". Less certain is whether Henry Ford's great-grandson is assertive and tough enough to steer the family company out of the ditch it now finds itself in.
On Thursday when Ford Motor reports third-quarter results, the chairman and chief executive may announce plant closures and other cost-cutting measures as part of his latest revitalisation plan.
Mr Ford, who is 48, has already shaken up the top ranks of Ford's troubled North American operations and has set out a plan to overhaul relations with suppliers. Last month, he pledged a 10-fold increase in production of hybrid petrol-electric vehicles over the next five years.
The recovery entails more than just "cutting, cutting, cutting", Mr Ford told the Detroit News recently. Still, he has yet to disclose how Ford will deal with two of its biggest burdens - excess production capacity and fast-rising healthcare and pension costs. Last month the company played down the chances of a "big bang" announcement. Mr Ford's record gives only slight cause for optimism that his plan - the second in four years - will succeed.
"I often wonder if he's got the stomach for devising a really, really aggressive restructuring, and implementing it," says Joseph Phillippi, a New Jersey consultant. Under the earlier plan, Mr Ford set a 2006 pre-tax profit goal of $7 billion. Instead, he has overseen a steep slide in market share and profits. The car-maker's key North American operations lost $657 million (€544 million) in the first half of the year against a $2.3 billion (€1.9 billion) profit a year earlier.
The international luxury car division, which was intended to contribute a third of profits, remains in the red.
Rating agencies have pushed Ford's credit rating into junk status. Its shares have lost two thirds of their value under Mr Ford's stewardship. The family controls 40 per cent of the voting shares.
Mr Ford has at times shown a decisive streak. In 2001, he fired Jac Nasser, his chief lieutenant, who had spearheaded - with the chairman's support - a costly diversification drive. More recently, Ford won kudos for quickly agreeing to a labour contract for its Canadian subsidiary.
But many outsiders have yet to be convinced Mr Ford is the person to turn round the business. One Detroit automotive consultant describes him as "average in a world that needs excellence".
The car-maker continues to be buffeted by management turmoil. Its North American division has gone through four chiefs in as many years.
Ford's reputation as a hotbed of corporate politics remains intact. "I'm not sure the bad news gets up to him," says one industry observer.
Mr Ford is the first member of the Ford family to run the company since his uncle, Henry Ford II, retired in 1979. In some ways, he is unmistakably part of Detroit's automotive aristocracy.
His mother was Martha Firestone, grand-daughter of the tyre company's founder.But Mr Ford has a common touch. He has forfeited his salary until Ford returns to "sustainable profitability" and has donated several million dollars to scholarships for children of Ford employees.
The planned increase in hybrid production suggests Mr Ford is seeking to regain the high ground he once held on environmental issues. He blotted his copybook by backing away from a promise to improve the fuel efficiency of sport utility vehicles by a quarter within five years.
Some outsiders speculate that Mr Ford may pull back from active management at the car-maker well before normal retirement age. The fastest-rising star in Dearborn, where the company has its headquarters, is Mark Fields, 44, who took over this month as head of all Ford's western hemisphere operations. "I have asked Mark Fields to do what's necessary to turn round our North American automotive operations," Mr Ford said last week.
As for the chairman, "there are times when I think he'd rather be fly-fishing than running Ford," says Mr Phillippi.
(Financial Times Service)