On Thursday, I told you about Ralph Lauren (RL), a company that finally remembered it was in the dreams business. And then I showed you The Walt Disney Company (DIS), which owns the most valuable dream-world in entertainment and keeps forgetting that its dream is animation.

Today is the third example… and this one is the most maddening because the problem and its solution are so obvious.

What does Ford Motor (F) actually sell? It sells cowboys. No, not the same kind of cowboys that Ralph Lauren sells. Ford sells the real, hard-nosed, down-in-the-dirt cowboy. Ford sells really tough, capable trucks – to modern cowboys. That is the whole brand and it is one of the most durable, valuable brands in business. Ford is the American work truck. Capable. Unkillable. Sold to people who define themselves by what they can haul, tow, and build.

Ford’s F-Series has been America’s best-selling pickup for 48 years. The F-150 has been America’s best-selling vehicle of any kind for more than four decades, moving over 700,000 units a year. Analysts have long estimated the F-Series alone generates 90% of Ford’s global automotive profit. But the F-Series is only about a third of Ford’s revenue.

In 2018, under CEO Jim Hackett, Ford seemed like it finally remembered what business it’s in. It killed almost its entire North American car lineup. Fusion, Taurus, Fiesta, Focus, all gone. Only the Mustang, the trucks, and SUVs survived.

Hackett’s language could have come straight from Ralph Lauren CEO Patrice Louvet’s playbook:

Ford should not bother selling commodity sedans it loses money on, competing head-on with Toyota and Honda. It should only sell the thing Ford sells better than anyone: trucks.

And then… a colossal mistake.