Mark Fields at Mazda by the guy who wrote his speeches
 

Interesting....
It is a finger up the ass not a hand BTW... ;)

As I have said many times Ford got what they wanted from Mazda, and that was mainly how to make cars right, single model mix production lines, just in time inventories.

Totally agree about Mazda's upper management structures being so backward in the sense that seniority with the company trounced talent or youth, while yes loyalty and long tenure is admirable it also breeds complacency.

Mazda (Japan) has always had bad luck and or bad timing on their side, every-time they would invest in a new idea it was either crushed by events they could not control, like oil crisis, GFC.
Or by taking too long to try new ventures like Eunos or a 'luxury' arm of the brand, when Mazda finally did something it was too late that cycle died with really only Lexus surviving for Toyota.

Then Mazda was exposed too much with the high value Yen as a Japan exporter only, taking way too long to spread currency risk in other new plants, finally (2014) along comes all new Mexico Plant and new car plants in Thailand.
1986 was their last new plant (Hofu).

Today is this slowness to change, or taking too long.
A case in point right now is the "infotainment" set up in cars, 5 years ago Mazda was a leader with a great system, but now most have caught up and surpassed as most new cars have CarPlay and Android Auto as part of their package. Mazda says it is 'coming' for the past 4 years, new models come out from Mazda (like KF CX-5) and still no CP or AA. Buyers complain so much about this.

To think when I started @ Mazda as a boy (early 70's) they were Japans third largest Auto Maker, only Nissan and Toyota above them. Today I think they are known as the largest independent car brand and maker, I am concerned as to where they go from here.