How to Save Tesla, in One Step

The early 2000s were a terrible time for Ford Motor Co. It was losing billions of dollars — $6 billion in the third quarter of 2006 alone — while shuttering factories and laying off tens of thousands of workers. Its products were stale, its stock was in the single digits and its executives were at war with each other. Oh, and its chief executive, Bill Ford, then in his mid-40s, was in way over his head.

Ford, of course, was a member of the founding family, whose control of the special Class B shares gave them 40 percent of the voting power. As part of the cutbacks, the company had reduced its dividend, which directly affected the pocketbooks of the CEO’s relatives. Bill Ford was thus highly motivated to right the ship, so much so that he was willing to recognize that he needed to find someone who could manage the company better than he could.