Martín Galdeano has been working in Ford. He went through the United States, Europe, and in 2020 he was appointed President of Argentina.
One of the first announcements he made was the investment of US$580 million to manufacture the new Ranger at the Pacheco plant, Where is your office from that moment?
The decision was not easy, since it involved a profound redesign of the business that took a long time to plan how and what they were going to do, leaving car production aside and focusing on trucks, SUVs and electric vehicles.
Today, three years later, shortly after launching the finished product and with the arrival of the first electric vehicles in the country, Martín Galdeano was chosen as one of the most innovative businessmen in the country according to Horse, the Big Data-based strategy consultancy, which released the fourth edition of the INFLUENCE 100 ranking. In addition, Ford was chosen as one of the most disruptive companies in the country. Why will it be?
“You don’t have to know everything, but surround yourself with the right people”
Martín Galdeano is not one of the people who likes to take the microphone and talk for hours, but he seems to be more observant. And when asked about how he feels about this award, it was even difficult for him to talk about himself. “It is a very nice recognition. I understand that they choose it by analyzing a lot of data for a while, which I find very interesting,” he replied.
Being a personal award, delving into how he performs his role, what he emphasizes and how he is trained seemed key to me. When asked, he maintained: “One of the issues that are evaluated in the choice of teams is not that they know everything, but that they They are people who seek to build empathy. That interests me a lot personally, to know how you work the Emotional intelligence is a fundamental key“.
Martín Galdeano, elected one of the most prominent Argentine leaders.
In his day to day, it happens that the interacting with a person can realize if they are intelligent or if they are qualified for a position, but with emotional intelligence you can connect on another level, make the person really believe in what you are doing, and then you work in another way committed and secure.
“That phase of the people for me is very important and the ability to generate empathy is fundamental in general, wherever, not only at work, but in relation to the press, the union, the authorities of any, the team. You have to spend time on that aspect.and that is why I read, I watch, I am attentive to everything that happens, I like to understand people and build empathyGaldeano commented.
Given the permanence in some companies of more “stuffy” leaders (Galdeano made me repeat the term I use to define those bosses), and what it is like to work with that style of management, the President of Ford said that “There is everything, but I don’t like to set distance. I think it depends on what is needed at each moment or in each era. But no one knows everything, so you have to surround yourself with the right people“, he assured.
Ford, one of the most innovative companies in Argentina
Galdeano’s management style also coincides with Ford, who was chosen as the second most innovative in Argentina. And the culture of the automaker also promotes an environment of relationships where it is built through empathy.
According to the manager, the automaker promotes everyone to have their voice, and specifically in Argentina, there has always been a culture of open doors.
“I started working for the company when I was very young, and I learned from leaders who taught me everything to be where I am today. It does not mean that they are more or less demanding, but rather that you try to understand what is happening, that is some of the great and good values that Ford has as a work team,” he said.
Decisions at Ford: Focus on Trucks, SUVs and Commercial Cars
Beyond the type of leadership he exercises at Ford, Galdeano, along with his work team, have recently made important and very difficult decisions. Between them, US$580 million were invested to reform the Pacheco plant, plus $80 million that went into engines a few weeks ago, which will be ready in 2024.
“We did a profound redesign of the business that took us a long time to think about the strategy, how we were going to do it and what we were going to do. Especially in pick-ups. Today the entire plan is being carried out and we are very satisfied, we have an international level plant.”
Galdeano together with the celebration of the one millionth Ranger unit.
On the other hand, he explained that the industry is migrating from being a producer of combustion vehicles, to having to invest a lot of resources to transform portfolios into electrified oneswhich requires an exercise of the capital lease, where that capital is going to be placed, and if it will be in internal combustion or electric.
“All the companies are doing that, it is a very big transformation that requires a lot of funds. And on the Ford side it was decided that we were not going to invest in certain vehicles because we needed the resources to invest in other products. We focused on pick ups, SUVs , electrified and commercial”, said the President.
This plan was given together with the discontinuity of three cars: Focus produced in Argentina, the Fiesta, the Ka; in addition to the EcoSport. Galdeano explained why: “When we make investment decisions, we do so based on what we understand our customers are going to want. What we saw in some specific segments is that the demand for these vehicles was migrating elsewhere, and That’s where we went to invest. SUVs were growing at a much faster rate than other segments. We have 3 midsize SUVs and we understand that we have more opportunities. The same thing happened with compact trucks like the Maverick, we didn’t offer it, we understood that there was a space, we put in a strategy that builds on what we know how to do well, on our strengths, and when you make those decisions you have to make others,” he said.
Finally, about the future RangerGaldeano assured that the plant is almost ready to manufacture ittests are being carried out on the van and it will arrive in the second semester. “We have already tested the prototypes in Argentina and several countries, we are seeing some details.”
And, given the question that many of us ask ourselves: will 2023 be the best Ford Ranger of all time? And will they be first again?: Galdeano’s response was: “We are working for that.” He turned off the microphone, and we talked about other topics.
