Ford's Perfect Storm: Beyond the Firestone fiasco, the carmaker is facing a host of other problems. The pressure is on CEO Nasser to steer the ship to safety.(Business)(Ford Motor Co. CEO Jacques Nasser)

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 17-SEP-01

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Ford CEO Jacques Nasser was exhausted and looking forward to a quiet dinner in the glass-walled executive dining room atop the company's world headquarters. It was late June and he had just returned to Detroit from Washington, where he'd defended the carmaker in a grueling round of congressional hearings into the 203 deaths linked to shredding Firestone tires on Ford Explorers. But as Nasser arrived in the dining room, a drumbeat suddenly sounded and his top 20 executives jumped out, chanting "We back Jac." They wore masks bearing his likeness and T shirts emblazoned with the WE BACK JAC slogan. Over their T shirts, the executives wore bulletproof vests, with buttons attached proclaiming: WE'LL TAKE A BULLET FOR JAC.

In the cross hairs for Ford's rapidly declining fortunes, Nasser could use one of those bulletproof vests himself. Sources close to Ford's board tell NEWSWEEK that Nasser has until the end of the year to present the board with a convincing turnaround plan. Speculation about Nasser's tenure has reached such a level that last week chairman William Clay Ford Jr. found it necessary to issue a companywide memo supporting his embattled CEO. "Jacques has provided strong leadership and continues to meet the challenges head on,'' Ford wrote. That hasn't been easy since the wheels are falling off at Ford, which just...

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