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The Morgan sports car is one of the few cars I’ve loved but never owned. These fantastic little cars resemble cars from the 1930s more than today, but they are fully updated with modern conveniences, suspensions, and power plants. So, you get the look of a classic car but the experience of a well-done Restomod.
However, small companies like Morgan often suffer due to a lack of access to less expensive components and supply chains enjoyed by larger companies like Ford, something a COO from Ford of Europe could help address.
Let’s discuss why the choice of ex-Ford COO Steven Armstrong as Chairman of the Morgan Motor Company will benefit both Morgan and Steven.
The Problem Of A Small Bespoke Auto Company
Every car company started small, but some companies never grow out of their size disadvantage. Most of these fail over time due to a whole hose of competitive shortcomings, including an inability to scale, the need to use third-party manufacturing, the inability to assure parts sources, and supply chains that are comparatively weak against their larger rivals.
The advantage to being small is you typically don’t enjoy the regulatory pressures of larger firms, and you may get a pass for requirements that would apply to higher volume manufacturers. You can develop a closer relationship with relatively few customers by giving you a far cleaner direction because your customer base is less diverse than you need to design and build next.
Some of the most impressive cars ever existed came from small startup companies or skunk works-type efforts (which helped create my old beloved Jaguar I-Pace). Small makes you more agile, customer-focused, and fun than a prominent company that can get bogged down in groupthink, resulting in horrible cars like the Pontiac Aztec.
Why A COO Is Ideal
Overcoming these shortcomings typically requires partnerships with larger firms or acquiring talent from a better company with the contacts needed to address them. A COO from a big car company is better than a CEO because a CEO will likely be wedded to and dependent on the infrastructure they enjoy while leading a major car company.
However, a COO focuses on logistics and operations skills that scale up and down better than a CEO’s role and skills directly tied to a small car company, such as Morgan’s shortcomings. Now, a board Chairman is like any other board member except they sets the schedule and helps guide the meetings, which means the issues he cares about, like better logistics, will get priority, making Morgan far more cost-effective and dependable over time.
His contacts developed while working at Ford of Europe will help improve Morgan’s operating efficiency. His prior COO role will make it less likely he’ll challenge Morgan’s CEO for leadership (Executive Chairman are problematic because they have absolute control and very little oversight; the Chairman provides oversight for the CEO and helps keep the company on track).
Wrapping Up:
I can think of no better skill set to serve as Chairman for a small bespoke car company like Morgan than an ex-CEO out of the local region who has worked successfully in one of the large car companies like Ford. He likely enters this role with all the skills needed to help Morgan advance and is frustrated with dealing with the large company bureaucracy at Ford. As a result, he will likely enjoy working at Morgan as much as Morgan needs him to help the company advance.
I see many bad executive hires in my job, and the hiring of Steve Armstrong isn’t one of them. Impressive job; I expect good things from this new relationship.
Rob Enderle is a technology analyst at Torque News who covers automotive technology and battery development. You can learn more about Rob on Wikipedia and follow his articles on Forbes, X, and LinkedIn.
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