Ford Motor Co. has been working for six years now developing its “One Ford” global product strategy. As Mark Fields explained recently at a roundtable at the LA Auto Show, “The priorities are almost exactly identical to the priorities we’ve been working on. First off is delivering the ‘One Ford’. It’s a timeless plan.”
Fields, who has been leading Ford’s business until for seven years, is now viewed as the front runner to become the next CEO. Mulally plans to stay on through 2014, approximately a year longer than had been expected.
Now, Fields will be Ford’s first COO since 2006, and he plans to implement the One Ford plan around the world. In South America, for instance, Ford plans to have almost 100% global models by 2014.
As he said, “We are just starting to see the full potential of the global scale and the operating margin benefits through the One Ford plan. We are really still at the beginning stages of operating truly as a global company.”

Whether you love or hate the Thanksgiving shopping rush, it looks like it’s here to stay. As Marshal Cohen, the chief industry analyst for market research firm NPD explained, “Not everybody’s going to watch 12 hours of football on Thanksgiving Day.
Most people, after 20 minutes of sitting at the dinner table, are ready to get out and do something. Why not cater to the people who are into the sport of shopping?” Now, the pressure is mounting to actually stay open on Thanksgiving, a day that is a national holiday. Target, Sears, Toys R Us, Wal-Mart and Gap are all staying open on Thursday for your shopping pleasure and for their bottom line.
Some people, however, think it’s a terrible thing that the stores are open on Thanksgiving. They argue, understandably, that people should have one day where they can just relax and that employees shouldn’t be expected to work. There is a petition, for instance, on change.org asking Target to “save Thanksgiving” and stay closed. They have over 355,000 supporters at this time who have signed.
Some argue that being open on Thanksgiving only shifts spending but doesn’t accelerate it. It just means that more people will shop that day and not during the rest of the holiday weekend.

American Airlines, in an attempt to get out of bankruptcy, has gotten closer to reaching a new contract agreement with its pilots. AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines, had to file a Chapter 11 protection last November. Up until now, it has been able to reach labor agreements with all of its unions except for its pilots.
Now, the board of directors for the pilots’ union will vote on the latest agreement. They predict that the new vote will be supported, as a similar proposal was already accepted 13-2. The board’s next vote is expected to happen within the week. The airline pilots are then given two weeks to look over the contract before voting.
American Airline, being cautious, has said that it is pleased to be moving ahead on an agreement. They say that they have worked “to structure an agreement that addresses the priorities identified as most important to our pilots, while staying within the economic framework.” —

Get ready for a whole new opportunity to brew your own coffee. Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) is now getting into the market with the Verismo coffee and espresso brewer. They are trying to get their hands on a piece of the single-serve market that is currently dominated by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. and Nestle SA.

At the moment, Green Mountain’s Keurig single-cup coffee machines control the market with over 75% of the US market. Netle’s Nespresso espresso makers have 35% of the market. Starbuck’s new machine will be made available in 4300 company stores starting tomorrow. It is already available online and through some other US retailers. The single-serve coffee market is an $8 billion market. It’s certainly not a surprise that Starbucks has gotten itself into this market – the only surprise is that it took them this long to do so.

Here is an interesting list by 24/7 Wall Street where they looked at the richest and poorest states in America. They reviewed state data on income, poverty and health insurance from the US Census Bureau’s 2011 American Community Survey (ACS) for their research. They also looked at unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and 2011 ACS data for individual cities.

The richest states were Maryland (medium household income $70,000), Alaska ($67,825) and New Jersey ($67,458).

The poorest states were Mississippi ($36,919), West Virginia ($38,482), and Arkansas ($38,758). Learn more about their study and the results to see the full picture.