What he was saying is that Ford got down to business and did the things it needed to do when the economy was still strong enough to keep volume up and to arrange financing when cash was available. They also did a few other things: Bill Ford found someone else to run the company, they revamped their lines (including in Europe), etc. Mazda (as I recall, the board is controlled by Ford) also got into the same cycle (many Ford products are either significantly engineered by Mazda, or influenced by Mazda components -- like the Ranger).
Timing is everything.