'77 Ford Trimotor

Like his grandfather, Henry Ford II is not a man to share power. As he often reminds his subordinates, "My name is on the building" of the Ford Motor Co. headquarters in Dearborn, Mich. Still, Chairman Henry, who will turn 60 in September, is in something less than the best of health (he has had heart trouble) and cannot readily sight anyone bearing the family name to take over the running of the world's second-largest automaker. So, last week he announced that he will be joined in a three-man "office of the chief executive" by two other company heavyweights: President Lee A. lacocca, 52, and Philip Caldwell, 57, until now the company's adept executive vice president in charge of Ford's operations outside the U.S. (with $8 billion in annual sales, the largest of any U.S. auto company). The arrangement appeared to be a setup that would allow some other executive to bridge the gap until a younger Ford can run the company. Best guess for the wielder of transitional power: the little-known Caldwell.

Henry II said that the purpose of the triumvirate is to "provide a vehicle for some Ford to sit in that office when I retire at 65." That would be in 1982, but Henry insisted that he did not know who it would be. A sister and two brothers have shown little interest. That leaves Son Edsel, 28, now a Ford executive in the Boston area. But Henry says that Edsel is "a good ten years away" from even a vice presidency. Reminded that he himself was 28 when he took over Ford Motor in 1945, Henry grinned and observed, "Times have changed."

The reorganization appears to enhance Caldwell's position in the interim and blunt lacocca's rise, at least for now. When Henry is in Washington touting his views on energy legislation and emission standards to Congress and President Carter (he was an early Carter supporter), Caldwell will run Ford Motor. Only if Caldwell is unavailable will lacocca take over. lacocca fathered the phenomenally successful Mustang in the 1960s and has long hungered to be the first non-Ford to head the company since its founding in 1903. But his stiletto style and jungle-fighting tactics have earned him many enemies. However, he did not seem upset over last week's changes, and Ford said that lacocca had not lost anything. "Lee was elected chief operating officer this morning as well as getting a third of my power," said Ford (Caldwell takes the new title of vice chairman). lacocca, it seems, does not have much cause for complaint; his $970,000 annual compensation (salary and bonuses) equals Ford's. Ford could serve out his term, Caldwell could succeed him, retire himself, and lacocca still would be young enough to move into the chairman's job--assuming Edsel Ford did not make it.

The quiet, strong-jawed Caldwell has a less abrasive style than lacocca and almost as many credits to his name. A 24-year Ford veteran, he was picked to straighten out a management mess at Philco-Ford in 1970, later became head of Ford of Europe and soon after that took over all of Ford's international operations outside the U.S. and Canada. He oversaw the building, in a record 1,000 days, of an $800 million vehicle parts and assembly plant in Spain. Also under Caldwell, the Fiesta--a front-wheel drive subcompact--has become a fast seller in Europe. Ford plans to introduce it in the U.S. in June to compete with G.M.'s slow-selling Chevette.

The trimotor arrangement, says Henry, will "change the way this company is run. We can have greater discussion of our problems before we get down to the final analysis." But there is no question as to who the boss is, at least until Henry retires. "I am first among equals," he says. "If something happens and there's no way to work it out on a consensus basis, then I've got, uh, an extra vote."

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