Jim Hackett has a new job
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ford-smart-mobility-llc-established-14000…--
Hackett's going to be the chairman of "Ford Smart Mobility LLC." His job: expand Ford into a more broadly defined "mobility" world. Ford figures that "mobility services" are a 5-6 trillion dollar business of which auto companies get exactly 0%, and is trying to change that with Hackett leading the way.
Sometimes people are just in charge of things for no reason....and sometimes people are in charge of things because they're really good at being in charge of things. As a Ford employee it's nice to know the company is taking the second path.
It's refreshing when an automotive company hires someone who's not a complete troglodyte at any position.
Don't have enough points to start a thread - but this is pretty funny - Draymond loses all compusure when he sees a Michigan shirt.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=14948735
He has some real issues. He needs to SEE A THERAPIST.
Seeing a reporter wearing a Michigan T gets him that distracted, after all the Sparty's have done in basketball. Those guys really do have issues and inferiority complexes.
March 11th, 2016 at 10:34 AM ^
just for your avatar alone
March 11th, 2016 at 10:06 AM ^
March 11th, 2016 at 10:05 AM ^
It means things like mass transit, taxi services, Uber, that sort of thing. Doesn't necessarily mean Ford's going to start a taxi company, but they're taking a long-term view of a disrupted auto industry. Actually, bicycles and scooters might well be part and parcel of the deal.
IMO it means doing exactly what successful companies do in the very long term. It's like why Blockbuster and Borders went under. Blockbuster saw itself as a movie rental company. Borders was a book company. Kodak was a film company. None of them saw themselves as entertainment companies. Xerox would be dead by now, but it saw itself as an "office solutions" company rather than a company that made copiers. Ford is seeing itself in the business of moving people from place to place rather than "we build cars." Take a smart vision like that and put a smart guy like Hackett in charge of it, and I come off like I'm advertising but I can't help but like what I see.
That second paragraph is pretty much the #1 lesson I took away from MBA schoolin'. Too bad you more or less have to be a CEO or chairman of the board to put it into action.
Is this like push to talk technology, or wifi, or cell service, or something else completely?
From what I'm interpreting it to be, it seems like something for Ford to look into, rather than shelling out money to other companies to perform those tasks. But depending on the breadth of what is meant by mobility services, it seems like it may be something that necessitates more cost to make it competitive and acceptable based on people already formed perception of what something should be than it will make for them. Similar, say, to Apple trying to push Bing or whatever, when everyone just wants the option to use google because it's what they're familiar with and it's better (though this is farther reaching, because it's an automotive company trying to do what mobile/tech companies are doing).
But maybe I'm interpreting this incorrectly.
I suspect Ford is looking at Google, Apple, etc. as growing competitors. The driverless cars that Google, Apple and others are creating. Plus, the "smart highway" technology is part of the driverless or at least connected world in the future: highways talking to cars, cars talking to cars, etc., to increase efficiency (all driving at same speed, safe intervals, auto-braking, avoiding conjestion ahead etc.).
So with cars in the future expected to be so dependent on communications and mobile technology, you'd think Ford and GM would be aggressive pursuing this market too. Not only for the cars, but there are going to be lots of ancillary services coming off of it you'd think.
Innovate, or get swept aside. The auto industry learned that lesson the hard way in the 1970s, when the Japanese showed up with their smaller, cheaper, more efficient, more advanced, and better-built cars--which came after literally decades of the American companies never innovating for about 50 years (other than creating the automatic transmission).
March 11th, 2016 at 10:12 AM ^
It's less about the tangential communication type stuff, and more about things directly related to automotive communications (smart highway, etc). That makes much more sense to me for Ford to get into and not be reliant on another tech company to supply those services.
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March 11th, 2016 at 10:00 AM ^
If you do own your car, it'll almost be like a personal taxi, or errand-runner. Imagine never having to pick up groceries again. Instead, you pick out what you want online, the store bags it, and your car picks it up for you on the curb. Meijer already does this, but you have to drive to do that.
There's a lot of potential in this field, which is why Ford is making a play at it.
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From the article: "the company’s plan to be a leader in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience and data and analytics" It goes on to cite the FordSync technology, and analytics.
Analytics is a hot thing of late ... there's an ocean of data out there and it is believed useful and money-making patterns and trends can be derived from the data. Ford has a bunch of vehicles on the road, and there's likely a steady stream of data metrics available because of it -- either real-time or captured by the vehicle and retrived at the dealers.
Good luck to Hackett. I hope he does well.
March 11th, 2016 at 11:33 AM ^
Is if they made it legal for me to get in it drunk and high and have it take me places.
If I'm still responsible for the actions of the car, I'm driving it myself.
/I can't do that Dave.
March 11th, 2016 at 11:53 AM ^
I upvoted you. Similar thoughts. Everyone should experience the terror of their son or daughter learning to drive while the teen's parent sits in the passenger side.
March 11th, 2016 at 12:32 PM ^
I have a 16 year old daughter and I'm pretty sure I've never been more afraid of anything in my life. It's completely terrifying teaching her how to drive.
Why couldn't she have just found the spare set of keys and taught herself at 14 while we were out? Worked fine for me.
March 11th, 2016 at 10:08 AM ^
March 11th, 2016 at 10:11 AM ^
Just bought a few shares of Ford.
March 11th, 2016 at 10:14 AM ^
First and foremost, good luck to Hackett in this endeavor - it sounds fascinating really, and it is in a very happening area indeed right now given the state of analytics. It will be interested to see what Ford starts doing in this arena.
Second, congratulations to the OP's employer on such a nice hire - we have Dave Brandon on our board, on the other hand.
March 11th, 2016 at 10:43 AM ^
March 11th, 2016 at 10:26 AM ^
I wish I could work for Jim Hackett
March 11th, 2016 at 10:41 AM ^
wish I could figure out how a "market" gets to be 5-6 trillion dollars.
March 11th, 2016 at 10:45 AM ^
March 11th, 2016 at 10:57 AM ^
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March 11th, 2016 at 11:04 AM ^
Uber, Lyft, Google, even Apple may be set to transform transportation. Ford better pay attention or they may find themselves on the outside looking in. Good luck to Hackett - the problem he is facing here (competing with newer, more agile tech companies) is, amazingly, much harder than getting Harbaugh to Michigan...
March 11th, 2016 at 11:26 AM ^
Interesting. After seeing what he did for Michigan athletics, I think he can be successful anywhere. Good luck to him!
March 11th, 2016 at 11:38 AM ^
I'm a bit surprised - I thought he wanted to stay retired. But good for him anyway.
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