It is not hard to imagine a group of high Ford company executives on the twelfth floor of the new Central Office Building on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn discussing the firm's financial returns for 1958. At this meeting Henry Ford II, Ernest Breech, John Bugas, Theodore Yntema (finance), William T. Gossett (general counsel), Robert S. McNamara (car and truck divisions), and John Dykstra (manufacturing) might well have been present. Their downcast expressions would have told any observer the mood of the gathering.

The year had been one of sharp recession; sales had sunk; profits had declined; the company's new car, the Edsel, for which there had been the highest hopes, had failed. Were there any bright spots? Actually, one star did shine, conspicuous in a black sky: the company's performance in international sales. Foreign deliveries and profits had surged to a record level. Moreover, in practically every year since World War II, Ford's dollar sales abroad had mounted, averaging about 12 per cent increase per annum.

Clearly, the international operations of the company were of crucial importance for sales and profits. In 1956 the offices of Ford International had moved from New York to Dearborn, bringing the staff to the hub of the Ford empire. Ford International vice president Arthur Wieland died in 1957 and was replaced by Tom Lilley, former assistant director of research at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, who had been in Ford finance and international activities for almost a decade.