OT - WSJ article on Hackett, not flattering
Link - https://www.wsj.com/articles/fords-new-ceo-has-a-cerebral-styleand-to-many-its-baffling-1534255714
"Senior executives at Ford Motor Co. F 0.42% have come to expect emails from their new boss, Chief Executive Jim Hackett, that include links to TED Talks and articles from Science Daily. They often come around 11 p.m., when he catches up on his reading.
The former chief of an office-furniture maker, Mr. Hackett frequently references the work of theoretical physicist Geoffrey West and uses terms such as “think phase” (a concept from his design background) and “clock speed” (a phrase from computing). In conversations, he often reaches for the nearest piece of paper or whiteboard to articulate his thinking by sketching out a diagram."
As someone who has ten years of experience in the automotive industry, you understands the importance of manufacturing (this is why Toyota makes so much money) competitiveness, and the importance of high margin product.
Although Hackett hasn't been at Ford for very long, these quotes don't inspire confidence. I don't see the focus on product or manufacturing like Marchionne had during his tenure at FCA.
And the 28 year old Chief of Staff is weird.
August 15th, 2018 at 11:47 AM ^
Uh, the 2dr Bronco was DOA before he got there - or at least the decision was already rolling, as were most of these other problems. (I believe they are going to be challenged to deliver a real Bronco vs just another suburban SUV anyway.) He's challenging conventions internally, and that may be a good thing. I am a little unsure of killing off all the car lines though.
R&T report 4door only in July - Hackett took over in May - that decision was already in the works when he came in: https://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/future-cars/a10328308/ford-bronco…
August 15th, 2018 at 2:25 PM ^
Post more so I can neg you more.
August 15th, 2018 at 9:06 AM ^
He did an amazing job at M, no question. But as someone who is very familiar with Ford and what is happening there, I can tell you that there are many questions about him--particularly among Wall Street investors in Ford, which this article summarizes. It is not an unfair article.
August 15th, 2018 at 2:10 PM ^
Totally agree. He's also going against Mary Barra at GM, who has surpassed almost every expectation and is well respected in the industry and on Wall Street.
I recently had a meeting with Ms. Barra and came away very impressed.
August 16th, 2018 at 1:41 AM ^
Barra is a rock star given what she was able to do at GM!
August 15th, 2018 at 9:13 AM ^
I think this is a little unfair. He took over Ford in May of 2017. It's not like Ford's deep collective manufacturing knowledge walked out the door when he came in. He was brought in because he has a track record of success in complex environments - which is a rare skillset. Of course he needs to know manufacturing (and marketing and product development and customer segmentation and IT and supply chain and and and....); but just because he demonstrates broad thinking (science, theoretical physics, prod development, clock speed) and is clearly a visual thinker (communicates ideas in pictures vs 17 page long pdf files) doesn't mean he's not doing a good job. It might all crash and burn but I don't see any evidence that he is cluelessly flailing.
August 15th, 2018 at 10:15 AM ^
" It might all crash and burn but I don't see any evidence that he is cluelessly flailing."
- For evidence of this, see another one of our past ADs:
Now there's cluelessly failing for you!
August 15th, 2018 at 1:41 PM ^
Is it though? I'll be the first to say "fuck that guy", for a hundred different reasons. Toy's R Us isn't one of them. That company was already dead, and they brought him on to handle the inevitable, which he did an okay job with.
August 15th, 2018 at 9:15 AM ^
I work for Ford. All I can say is, there is a lot of uncertainty about the future success of the company. However, 2019 and beyond is when we should see Hackett's plans take shape. His weekly emails "Hackett Huddles" are a bit overkill in my opinion, but I don't complain about them.
August 15th, 2018 at 9:29 AM ^
Even Night Kings need a day job I guess...
August 15th, 2018 at 9:39 AM ^
With all the down time between season 7 and season 8, I don't blame him.
August 15th, 2018 at 10:57 AM ^
Jim Hackett is one of the reasons I continue to hold Ford shares --- I have confidence in his ability eventually to lead Ford into a more profitable future. The high dividend yield, is of course another reason.
Yet a further reason is that as an investor rather than a trader I intend to hold the shares individually or in trust for many years. During that time, at least three things could happen: first, the shares could go to zero, c'est la vie. Second, under Hackett's direction Ford could become highly profitable, and investors could see the shares' value and bid up their price.
Third --- a highly speculative scenario such as the Ford family finally concluding they'd be better off owning Apple shares or just cashing out rather than continue to hold Ford shares. With the current Ford market cap at <$40B and the stock trading at about 5.5 times earnings, Tim Cook could swap the family's Class B shares for Apple common or preferred or simply write a check and buy all the family's shares (and all the rest of the outstanding common stock, for that matter) for what Apple would see as slightly more than pocket money, even given the premium he'd have to pay over market. Apple would then have the auto infrastructure it would need to pursue even more aggressively its autonomous vehicle and other auto-related programs.
Whatever happens, Ford will have an interesting future.
August 15th, 2018 at 9:16 AM ^
I don't get it....Is it time for Football?
August 15th, 2018 at 9:25 AM ^
yeah it's really uncommon for leadership in the corporate world to send links to articles and videos
August 15th, 2018 at 9:26 AM ^
And the 28 year old Chief of Staff is weird.
There are people ten years my junior and two levels above me where I am, so fast-tracking is definitely a thing.
August 15th, 2018 at 9:30 AM ^
Not flattering? I read this article yesterday, and had the exact opposite reaction that you did. They made Hackett seem like a very positive addition for Ford, and is doing things that have been needed for many years. They said his 28 year old chief of staff would occasionally answer tech questions for him, but I don’t see what you’re getting at there. 28 is certainly not young for a position like that.
Do you always read positive articles and assume negativity?
August 15th, 2018 at 9:38 AM ^
The Chief of Staff is a U of M grad that worked for him in the athletic department for 3 years. Was indispensable so he brought her to Ford.
August 15th, 2018 at 9:41 AM ^
If you're bothered by 28-year-olds in decision-making positions, I hope you never visit Capitol Hill.
August 15th, 2018 at 10:29 AM ^
exactly ... I mean absolutely nothing gets "done" on Capital Hill (except for those people that paid $15M in taxpayer funds to cover their sex scandals) .. now those people DID something ! /s
Go Blue!
August 15th, 2018 at 9:44 AM ^
Hacket is quirky but his ethical reputation is beyond reproach and his business track record is impeccable.
Ford at the top, however, is known to be a political shark fest. One Ford family member in particular has a reputation for backstabbing and undermining rivals careers if they are in the way. This could easily be a hit piece through their NY contacts.
August 15th, 2018 at 9:56 AM ^
This is a dumb post
August 15th, 2018 at 10:03 AM ^
Oh, I understands.
Do you truly understands?
Go Hackett.
Go Ford Mo Co.
Go Blue.
August 15th, 2018 at 10:12 AM ^
I don't know that any of this sounds bad, at least to me. And when I imagine him using terms like "think phase" or "clock speed," it sounds a lot like "swim lanes" — which sounded like a pretty stupid way to approach being an AD until suddenly it wasn't.
August 15th, 2018 at 10:13 AM ^
This post does nothing to improve my confidence in the average person.
August 15th, 2018 at 11:16 AM ^
To be fair, you are giving the OP a lot of credit by assuming he meets the bar for "average".
August 15th, 2018 at 10:14 AM ^
Sounds as though he is trying to change a point of view and methodology from a narrow and specific focus on a single task / approach of design and manufacture to a higher level of thinking that promotes greater innovation, and many of the veterans aren't really understanding why. Probably because you're an American automaker in 2018. At least they have the autonomous program.
August 15th, 2018 at 10:19 AM ^
Coming from corporate America, a young chief of staff is not an uncommon thing at all - they help with presentations, logistics, and other things that executives generally can't/shouldn't spend time on.
That said, they can sometimes have influence that is a bit outsized relative to their experience, but generally, it isn't a problem and may actually be additive to have some closer advisors that come from different generational points of view.
August 15th, 2018 at 10:23 AM ^
Change is good, its never welcomed, but "doing things the way we do them, because we've always done them this way" is a great way to go away.
"Every day you either get better or you get worse. You never stay the same."
Bo Schembechler
August 15th, 2018 at 10:57 AM ^
When I change you, that's progress.
When you change me, that's disruption.
August 15th, 2018 at 10:27 AM ^
seems like i just heard lavish praise of sergio m for these same sorts of quirks when he passed a couple weeks ago
August 15th, 2018 at 10:33 AM ^
Hackett is a known entity with a superb track record...he has manufacturing experience (Steelcase). The last guy who was non-automotive at Ford did pretty freaking good as I recall (Mulally).
The importance is not the words he uses but the concepts he is instilling...and without reading the whole article, based on your summary, it looks like he's trying to decrease decision & action times...a good thing!
Design of new vehicles, evaluating new technologies, dealing with quality problems, war gaming different market scenarios etc are all part of what it looks like he's talking about.
I've been an auto supplier for 30 years and I think having successful non-automotive people come in is very healthy vs retreads.
PS - powerpoints suck! whiteboards, if they are to the point, are VERY effective tools...swimlanes for the win!
August 15th, 2018 at 10:39 AM ^
I can't think without a white board. Even if my drawing is nonsense, it usually helps get the idea across.
August 15th, 2018 at 10:53 AM ^
Come on this board with an anti-intellectual take on one of our heroes? Swine. . . begone!
August 15th, 2018 at 11:01 AM ^
Actually this does sound flattering.
August 15th, 2018 at 11:03 AM ^
Off topic but anyone want to chip in for one of the three GT40s that beat Ferrari at Le Mans? Looks like $9-$12 million will take it home. Just a shame they don't have one in baby blue
https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/MO18/Monterey/lots/r0073-1966-ford-gt40-mk-ii/692159
August 15th, 2018 at 11:22 AM ^
Sound a lot like emails my company's CEO, Jeff Bezos, sends to his senior staff (some of which make their way down the ranks). Seems to be working out okay for him.
My hot take based on zero information: Sounds like a bunch of aging executives who are concerned more about their retirement planning then they are about the long term viability of Ford. This is why most companies eventually die. To paraphrase Jeff, this mentality leads to stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death.
At least Hackett isn't going down quietly.
August 15th, 2018 at 12:03 PM ^
Hackett's success at Ford will be determined many years from now. With electric advancements, self-driving cars, and the consumer shift away from personal ownership, the Big 3 as we know them today are all dead. It will be a slow and painful process because these things don't change overnight. But it will hurt. Hackett sees this, he's turning Ford into a fleet company by ditching cars in favor of bigger vehicles. He's spending a ton on self-driving and new car technology.
What's the automotive industry going to look like when there are 2 or 3 main customers - Uber and Google Waymo, buying hundreds of thousands of exact copies of plain vanilla self driving cars, instead of millions of consumers each buying their customized Explorers and F-150s.
There is a precedent here, look at the computer server industry. Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft have upended the industry by making servers into pure commodities and deploying them by the thousands. They are even designing and building their own boxes now. The old guard, Dell, HP, IBM where you used to go buy a custom-designed server one or two at a time to fill up your data center, have had to go through a radical shift. Dell went private, bought EMC (+ vmware), HP split into pieces, IBM has laid off hundreds of thousands of workers. They are still alive but they look different today.
Once self-driving hits, and if people continue to eschew owning their own cars, the Ford (and GM and Chrysler and jeep and RAM) of tomorrow will be VERY different than those companies today. If they want to sell to consumers, they will be much smaller operations. If they can become the supplier to the ride-sharing or self-driving industry, or be a major competitor themselves there, they will be ok.
Of course the employees and investors are uncertain - it's a lot of change and these companies are not exactly known for their willingness to change or speed of change.
Curious if Hackett will last long enough to see his bets pay off (or the opposite). I wonder if his decisions are a little bit ahead of their time and it will look bad for a while before turning up.
August 15th, 2018 at 1:03 PM ^
Not a single automaker has made money on electric or autonomous vehicles thus far. Marchionne's 'wait and see' approach was the right one.
And when time does come to invest in those technologies, the industry commoditizes innovation very quickly - you can pick up self drive integration from Delphi/Continental/etc.
August 15th, 2018 at 3:41 PM ^
do you really believe you can just spit out a few things you read somewhere and make yourself sound smart? you are clueless and wasted everybodies time by posting something that doesn't even belong here.
August 15th, 2018 at 1:25 PM ^
Was Hackett the AD who sold tickets for a coke? If so this doesn’t surprise me
August 15th, 2018 at 1:30 PM ^
A very strange take from karpodiem and from the WSJ. This is what great organizational leaders do, and it is how they express themselves. "Understand(ing) the importance of manufacturing, competitiveness, and the importance of high margin(s)," is entry-level understanding. Manufacturing is indeed important, but i have no idea how that equates to Toyota making "so much money." Are you saying that their manufacturing methods are cheaper, better, Six Sigma-style? I could continue, but I don't think that I care enough to.
August 15th, 2018 at 2:21 PM ^
Why Toyota makes so much more money than the Big 3 - https://dailykanban.com/2015/03/toyotas-tnga-tps-2-0/
FCA/GM have higher EBITDA margins than Ford though, they tend to make more profit per vehicle.
August 15th, 2018 at 2:02 PM ^
The dude sends TED talks via email at 11pm???? THE HORROR!!!!
August 15th, 2018 at 7:27 PM ^
Not my problem.
August 15th, 2018 at 8:58 PM ^
I worked at stealcase when he was CEO and most people didn't like him or the way he ran the company...we use to have 10 plants and 8000 people in grand rapids and when he got done we had 1 plant and 400 people...he cut bonus ,piece,work and hours we all were down 25 grand
August 15th, 2018 at 11:16 PM ^
what a liar. first you can't spell steelcase, even though you "worked" there. and do you know there are over 2000 employees in grand rapids, and now steelcase is a worldwide successfull company because of the changes that hackett was forced to make. don't let your hatred for all things michigan make you go read half facts somewhere else, then come here and repeat them as if you have some insight. what a loser.