Ford CEO Jim Farley, just days after telling industry analysts the company’s 2022 earnings report was disappointing and billions below his expectations, went another step to outline his perspective on the company he says is taking too long to fix.
In an exclusive interview with host Jason Stein for an upcoming episode of SiriusXM’s “Cars & Culture,” Farley talked about new areas where he plans to make change.
Stein shared a preview of the discussion, and Farley’s remarks, with the Free Press on Monday. Here are some of the highlights of the episode that will air at 6 p.m. Thursday on Sirius XM’s Business Channel 132:
On the need for efficient engineering:
“I think probably it takes us 25% more engineers to do the same work statements as our competitors,” Farley said. “I can’t afford to be 25% inefficient. And those are controllable by the team leaders at Ford. They are there to make those changes to be competitive.”
Why deeper technical expertise matters:
“The values won’t change of the company. But the culture will. And the culture is really about deeper technical experts instead of generalists,” Farley said. “It’s becoming more about collaboration than whose team you’re on. And especially it’s about solving problems instead of observing them.”
Why seniority is out, problem solving is in:
“We need to measure technical expertise. We need to measure if someone is a change agent like they are solving problems. They lean into action. Their first intuition is to do something, not talk about doing something. … We are getting better at measuring these things,” Farley said. “It’s going to dictate your compensation with the company if you manage people whether you fit the culture. It’ll dictate who gets hired, who gets ahead, who gets more responsibility. It won’t be seniority, necessarily, although that matters. It will be based on meritocracy, on the kind of behaviors we think are important like collaboration, excellence and problem solving.”
On fixing Ford factories:
“I see some of our plants that are world class in quality. Right up there with Toyota on the way they operate their plant. Other plants, I walk in, I don’t know if I’m winning or losing on quality,” Farley said. “I talk to an individual operator. They can’t tell me if I’m winning or losing. I don’t know what the gap is to the competition on final assembly in terms of quality. We can’t have that variance in our manufacturing facilities.”
Why he spoke out about Ford’s grim 2022 earnings:
“The industry got washed over last year with supply chip issues and a lot of issues, inflation. It was kind of how we reacted to them is why I said what I said. I own it. I’m the CEO. I’m not passing the buck. I’m going to talk about it. I could have let my CFO do all the interviews. I didn’t do that. I’m accountable. That’s why I get paid, too. I want my team to know where we stand.”
More:How Ford got into prestigious racing series GM is dying to join
More:Ford knows it’s going to lose money cutting Mustang Mach-E prices
More:Ford F-150 Lightning buyer shocked by dealer tactic
UPDATE: SiriusXM changed the air date for the Cars & Culture segment to Thursday. This version of the story is correct.
Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-618-1034 or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid.