For Bill Ford Jr., workdays and weekends have begun to blend together.
Pretty much — he said — like everybody else lately.
Ford plays a key role in running a multibillion-dollar global automotive company founded by his great-grandfather. The pace has always been fierce. But this is dealing with life during a pandemic.
“I’m still going to (auto) facilities when I need to, and I’m also working from home more,” he said. “There’s a lot of great things about that, but the downside is that you really need to be sure that you’re not working insane hours.”
“The problem with working from home is that everyone knows you’re home, everyone knows you’re in front of your computer,” Ford said. “So let’s schedule a Zoom meeting at 10 p.m. Or let’s schedule a Zoom meeting at 5 a.m. I mean, I don’t mind doing that on occasion. But when Saturdays and Sundays look the same as Mondays and Tuesdays — and the evenings blend with the mornings — then that’s not a healthy thing. We’ve talked about that. We’re trying to manage that as a company. It’s all different. It’s all new to all of us.”
Ford spoke to the Free Press in the hours after announcing CEO Jim Hackett, 65, would be replaced after three years on the job by chief operating officer Jim Farley, whose grandfather worked on the Ford assembly line in 1918.
Bill Ford talked about his life and company, critiqued the outgoing CEO and what he expects in coming years under new leadership.
Why the new CEO
Farley, 58, came to Ford from Toyota. The executive said after news of his promotion that taking the helm on Oct. 1 felt like “paying it forward” — not just to the company but to the Ford family, because it has made life so good for so many over the past 117 years.
“I think it’s something special about our company. And it’s real. And the people who feel it feel it intensely. I know Jim Farley does,” Ford said. “I think that’s important.”
“At the end of the day, these are really hard jobs,” he said. “And of course he’s going to be very well compensated. But if all it is to you is a paycheck, then it’s probably not worth it. You’ve got to feel like you’re contributing to people’s lives and making them better. That’s how I have always viewed it. I feel like Jim Farley believes that, too.”
“You know, Jim Farley rarely uses the first person pronoun,” Ford said. “I find that really refreshing. Most executives I know can’t wait to talk about themselves and promote themselves. Jim’s the opposite. He’s very mission driven and that mission isn’t about him personally.”
He explained, “Jim’s a very private person. He’s quite complex. He’s very competitive. He’s very intense. But he has this whole human side to him that’s very real, that a lot of people just miss.”
Saying goodbye
While Farley has worked years in the auto industry, and is known for his love of cars and passion for racing, Hackett retired as CEO of Steelcase furniture in Grand Rapids and did a stint as interim athletic director at the University of Michigan before landing the top job at Ford with the support of Bill Ford. Hackett acknowledges their close relationship in almost every public speech.
His term hasn’t been without challenges that have included weak credit ratings, a stock price that never recovered under his leadership, disappointing earnings, suspension of the beloved dividend paid to investors and a troubled launch of the Ford Explorer that cost the company dearly in 2019.
Ford wonders aloud whether Hackett will get the credit he deserves.
“Jim Hackett would be the first to tell you that, in many ways, his management style is an acquired taste,” Ford explained. “I think it took some time before the (Ford) management team understood the kind of change that he was trying to bring. But, in time, I think most of the management did embrace that.”
The process hasn’t been without controversy for an executive known to deliver long lessons and wander off topic. Analysts and employees have said the style can feel professorial but sometimes just confusing.
Ford sees something else.
“I think what I like most about what he did was he brought an outside perspective and a way of challenging accepted wisdom and was willing to take on a lot of the hard problems that hadn’t been taken on before — like revamping the product lineup,” Ford said, noting the company’s dramatic pivot from cars to SUVs and trucks.
“He’s now attacking our regional operations in a way that probably should’ve been done years ago,” Ford said, referring to the $11 billion reorganization effort Hackett started.
“The whole ‘design thinking,’ putting the customer at the heart of everything we do. You could say, well, ‘Why wasn’t that being done before, any of that?’ ” Ford said. “There are a lot of legacy reasons why some things kind of became untouchable. When Hackett came in, he kind of questioned everything. When he didn’t like the answers, he went after them — from a business standpoint. We won’t see the results of some of that for a while. He probably will never get the credit for some of this. ,,,
“That’s one thing about our industry that I’ve known pretty much my whole life,” Ford said. “The person who’s in the chair often isn’t the one who kicked off whatever they benefit from, both positive and negative, I will add. There’s a lag time here. I think a lot of what Jim Hackett put in place, we as a company will benefit from after he’s gone. I just think that Hackett would tell you himself that it probably took a good year before what he was trying to do made sense to the entire management team.”
Now a key priority is absolutely Wall Street.
“We have to create shareholder value. I believe Farley will. I believe a lot of what’s in place now will do that,” Ford said.
Is there fear, concern, worry about the near future?
“I’ve been worried for 40 years. That’s my job, is to worry,” Ford said. “I’m also very optimistic. I think we’re actually really well positioned. …
“We’ve committed to electrification and I like our plan there,” he said. “On autonomous vehicles … I think now there’s a recognition that we’re really well positioned in the AV space with Argo. I think that the new products that we just launched, the Mach-E, the new F-150, and the Bronco are really great products that our customers are going to love.”
The public finds not just the new products appealing but also the restoration of Michigan Central Station in Detroit, Ford said.
“It’s all moving forward,” he said. “We’re trying to imagine a world post-COVID and what it looks like and what do we have to include in that to make sure this is the kind of building people want to come to when it opens. I’m very pleased with where it’s going.”
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The incoming CEO is a strong supporter of that Corktown development.
“When we announced the train station, of all the management team, the one who was the most excited was Jim (Farley). He lives downtown. He loves Detroit,” Ford said. “When I told Farley we were going to create the train station and create a campus, he was all-in and remains all-in.”
Finding balance
Ford, at 63, is trying to model a healthy work-life balance, especially amid the pandemic, that he advocates for others.
“Everything — it’s weird, as you well know. It’s just so strange,” he said. “I mean, even seeing my own kids. Is it safe to see my own kids and my granddaughter? Stuff you never had to think about before. Everybody is adjusting as best we can. Boy, I’ll be happy when we get through all this.”
He is thinking often of his two little girls these days.
“I have one granddaughter in Michigan, which is great. She’s 2,” Ford said. “That’s my daughter Alexandra’s daughter. So we have seen her, thank goodness. She’s so much fun. She’s a blast. And she thinks I’m hilarious. …
“She loves books, so I read to her all the time — anything by Dr. Seuss, ‘Go, Dog, Go’ and ‘Goodnight, Moon,’ ” he said. “I just took her to Domino’s Farms (in Ann Arbor) and we hung out with all the animals all day. She’s just as interested in the little chickens that are running around as the llamas or some of the bigger animals.
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“When she comes over, we have a new puppy, so I’ve been playing with her and the new puppy — a German shepherd. Two-year-olds are so much fun because they’re just such a blank slate. Everything’s new to them. Everything’s interesting to them. We go out and look for frogs and turtles in this little pond that’s near us.”
Missing her
“I have a 6-month-old granddaughter, and this has been the tough one, in California,” Ford said. “She was born right before COVID and we saw her then and everything. Other than FaceTime, we’ve kind’ve missed the next six months. My oldest daughter, Ellie, this is her little girl. They’re in the LA area. You know, FaceTime is great but it’s no substitute.”
Things are hard for everybody, and Ford said the company is working to figure out how to offer support and encouragement in coming days and months.
“I think that so many of the familiar patterns that for a lot of us, whether it’s hobbies or going to cottages, has been disrupted,” he said. “It really forces us all to really assess what’s important to us.”
Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-222-6512 orphoward@freepress.com.Follow her on Twitter@phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.