Ford Motor’s many gaffes under Mark Fields were becoming an existential crisis for the $43 billion carmaker’s founding family. Two weeks ago, a majority of those shareholders not named Ford voted to abolish the family’s super-voting stock. The Fords got the message, and Mr. Fields, the chief executive, is now leaving. But naming a 62-year-old from the furniture trade to replace him hints at how unprepared the family was for a revolt.

It was no secret that Mr. Fields’s job had been in jeopardy. The 36 percent decline in Ford shares since he replaced Alan Mulally nearly three years ago was the mathematical manifestation of investors’ discontent with his stewardship. Even General Motors withstood only a 10 percent slide, while Fiat Chrysler and Tesla both increased strongly.

Despite robust investment, Ford is perceived to be lagging rivals — not just Tesla but even the dowdy GM — in developing the next generation of electric and self-driving cars. Car sales are down this year, and margins are under pressure.

This spurred a last-ditch move by Mr. Fields a week ago to cut white-collar workers, potentially irritating President Trump, with whom the company had also clashed over plans to move production of some small cars to Mexico. It backtracked on that decision, in part because of slack demand for those vehicles.