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Ford’s new CEO, Jim Hackett, revealed a little about his plans — and a lot about himself — when he talked to media after his appointment.
Here are four of the comments the former head of Steelcase Inc. made at Ford’s Dearborn headquarters Monday and the deeper meaning behind them.
What he said: “Any time this Rubik’s cube is being turned around, we have just as much advantage in that future as anyone else. We have a right to it. And what we have, that won’t be lost, is this great vehicle business. The number one vehicle in the world is built by Ford Motor Company, and that’s not lost on me. The license you get to make change is from your care where all the earnings are coming from.”
What he meant: Ford, like every major automaker, is at a crossroads. The company has to keep churning out vehicles and keeping them fresh in order to make the money it needs to invest in future modes of transportation, like self-driving cars. Former CEO Mark Fields, who retired over the weekend, was criticized for letting popular vehicles like the Ford Escape get dated and for not bringing a subcompact SUV to the U.S. market more quickly.
Hackett [pictured above] is making clear that he will keep a close eye on the automotive business, which was responsible for 90 percent of Ford’s $10.4 billion pretax profit last year. The F-Series pickup and the Focus sedan are both among the world’s best-selling vehicles. At the same time, he doesn’t want employees to think of Ford as an “old” company that can’t compete with Google or Tesla when it comes to technology. Hackett said Ford’s new mobility efforts, which he has led for the last year, have been moving quickly, although it’s not yet clear when they…
May 25, 2017 at 10:49PM
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