Inglis. "If you have great margins and no market share, that's no good. If you have great market share and no margins, that's no good, too. You have

to draw a balance between the two."

In today's cooling economy, such a balance is even harder to achieve. As

finance chief of the No. 2 U.S. auto maker, Inglis has to watch costs at a company that continues its practice of propping up sales with discounts and

rebates to increase market share.

A languishing economy, nevertheless, has stalled auto sales at the company

that claims the Ford Explorer, the Jaguar XK8 and the Range Rover among its brands. In July, the Dearborn, Mich.-based, $170.1

billion-revenue company reported that auto sales fell 12.8%. During the second quarter, Ford's market share slipped to 23.2% from a year-earlier

figure of 24.9%.

Beyond the economic slowdown, there's the very public problem of

rollovers of Explorers outfitted with Firestone tires. While the debate rages between Ford and Firestone over who's to blame for the accidents, Ford is

replacing more than 13 million tires at a cost of around $3 billion. As of early August, Inglis says, the company hadcompleted about 25% of the job.

For the second quarter, Ford reported an operating loss of $551 million,

reflecting the tire-replacement program, as well as the sales decline. A year earlier, the company posted a profit of $2.5 billion.

A 30-year Ford veteran, the Malaysian-born Inglis took the CFO position

on Aug. 1 from Henry Wallace, who became head of the company's Asia-Pacific operations. Previously, Inglis had been head of Ford North

America, the company's largest business unit.

Educated in Scotland, Inglis joined Ford in 1971 as a graduate trainee at its

British operations. He has spent 20 years in various finance roles, and the rest in operations.

Leading by Inspiring

His appointment to CFO is part of a broader shuffling at Ford that took

place during the summer, in which several top executives were reassigned, and Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. took on day-to-day management

responsibility alongside CEO Jacques Nasser.

"As the CFO, I need to be a leader, and as a leader, I need to inspire, to

make people collectively perform better than they ever thought they could individually," Inglis says.

On the financing side, Inglis can still rely on a capital-markets reputation

for innovation. In July and August the company issued more than $7 billion in asset-backed securities, using car loans as collateral. For the year

through August, Ford has issued more than $14 billion in asset-backeds, almost equal to its 2000 total. In addition, it boosted the size of its

commercial paper program to $10 billion from $1.5 billion.

Inglis, who turns 51 next month, says he's eager to meet all the challenges

piling up on him. "Ford has the strongest balance sheet [of the Big Three auto makers], and I think Ford has a strong lineup around the world," he

says. "Yes, [market conditions] are turning into a bit of a storm, but I have confidence we will weather the storm."