Yesterday was a tough day for thousands of salaried employees at Ford who took the buyout and called it quits. One worker described engineering offices that "look like Swiss cheese with all of the empty cubicles that have opened up." When you spend 30 years at a company, it's hard to walk out at the end of your shift knowing you won't be coming back. Even so, it turns out that more people opted for the package than Ford was prepared to accommodate — and what does that say about Ford's future?
So the question arises: With so much Detroit talent getting the heave-ho from the Big Three, is there a New Detroit out there waiting to be born — made up of innovative companies that would welcome an influx of skill and dedication to help them reinvent America's auto industry? Will more companies like Tesla put down roots in Michigan's automotive ecosystem and give people something to get excited about — sucking talent from the Big Three the way Google has from Microsoft? Are Ford and Chrysler and GM slowly drifting into irrelevance — and if so, what will supplant them? If you work in the auto industry, in or out of Detroit — especially if you're one of those who got caught up in Ford's "restructuring" — I'd like to hear your thoughts. Where do you see the industry going from here? What would make you excited to be part of it?
[Source: The Detroit News]
