Lisa Brankin took the top job at Ford of Britain in late 2020 just as the brand was about to execute plans to willingly give up a market-leading volume position for its car business in pursuit of the profitability that had always eluded it.
While Brankin’s observation that “timing is everything, and I think probably my timing isn't as good as it could have been…” was said largely in relation to the industry-wide challenges faced at that time (Covid, the chips shortage), it’s just as apt for how difficult a job she was handed compared to her predecessors for Ford no longer being “obsessed over market leadership”.
