TrainTrac
Well-Known Member
Pretty nice article on Bill Ford, Jr. Be sure to check out the actual article at the link below. There are some interesting additional excerpts and quotes from Bill Ford in the sidebar on the right side of the page.
October 11, 2009
In Ford's career, firm always comes first
'I just wanted to help' the family business, he says
BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
A year after Henry Ford II famously fired Lee Iacocca as president of Ford Motor Co., a 22-year-old Princeton University graduate joined a product planning team on Oct. 15, 1979, at Ford's design center. He was working under Lew Veraldi, who would later become known as the father of the Ford Taurus. William Clay Ford Jr. -- many called him Billy back then -- wore his blondish hair a bit long in the fashion of the day. He was eager to impress, showing up early for what he'd been told was an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. workday, only to discover that Veraldi's other young charges came in way before dawn, worked until 7 or 8 p.m. when they brought in pizza, and then worked later into the evening. Saturdays and Sundays, too.
"They told me it was like a badge of honor," Ford recalled in an interview Friday. "No one wanted to be the first to leave."
Ford is expected to mark his 30-year anniversary with the automaker along with some other longtime employees at a low-key event Thursday in Dearborn.
Working long hours more for show than for efficiency, young Bill Ford discovered, was only one of many problems at the Ford Motor Co. of the late 1970s and early '80s.
"I joined at a very difficult time," he said. "We were reeling from the oil shock and not having the correct cars for the marketplace when oil spiked.
"A few years after that," he continued, "I was calling on dealers in the Catskill Mountains. Dealers were going broke left and right.
"I had a 4-cylinder EXP automatic, not the high water mark of our product development group, and the car would start shifting uncontrollably as I would head up these mountains. I remember thinking, 'I don't know how I'm going to sell this vehicle to the dealers because I'm not sure I want to be driving it.' "
During his first 10 years with the automaker, Ford moved rapidly through a succession of jobs and joined the board of directors in the late 1980s.
But until being elected chairman in 1999, Ford's primary notoriety came from his unabashed environmentalism -- at a time when Detroit's carmakers were skewered for depending too much on gas-guzzling trucks and sport-utility vehicles.
"I always felt the company could not forever be a voracious user of natural resources. And I never wanted Ford to be tainted in the way the tobacco industry was, where people didn't want to come work here because they weren't proud of what they did," Ford said Friday.
"When I joined the board, I was told I'd have to stop associating with any known or suspected environmentalists, and I said, 'No, I absolutely refuse,' because somebody had to build a bridge to the environmental community and the auto industry."
Today, of course, Ford feels vindicated on that front.
After firing Jac Nasser in 2001 amid dealer criticism and the Ford-Firestone tire controversy, Bill Ford took the reins as chief executive. He was quickly called a "reluctant CEO" by some in the news media, but still bristles at the phrase.
"Frankly, that's B.S.," he said. "And I think it's because something I said back then was misconstrued. I said I never cared what my title was.
"I just wanted to help Ford, and I couldn't have cared less what my title was. I think that was misconstrued by people saying, 'Gee, he doesn't really want this job.'
"You know, I grew up around money, power and fame, and I've had all three myself and I see how illusory they are. None of them hold any particular appeals for me, because -- and I know it sounds trite -- they don't bring happiness. So I think people struggled to find out, 'What does make me tick?' "
Ford said he "very much was energized" by becoming CEO. "I threw myself into it. We had three years of profitability -- 2003, 2004 and 2005 -- and I felt very good about that."
Early in 2006, Bill Ford's economic and financial advisers began warning of dark clouds on the horizon. And thus began a stunning series of events that included mortgaging nearly all of Ford's global assets to raise cash, Bill Ford firing himself as CEO to hire Alan Mulally -- and quite possibly saving Ford Motor from collapse, sale or government control.
Ford has set itself apart from crosstown rivals General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC by avoiding bankruptcy and not tapping federal rescue loans. Its public image, market share and stock price have improved accordingly.
The Ford family remains in control of the company, as it has been for all of its 106 years.
"When we mortgaged everything, the family didn't even blink," Bill Ford said, vowing that he personally is at the automaker for the long haul.
"I represent continuity and accountability to a lot of people," he said, "also an institutional memory. We've had three major crises in my time here, and there were lessons learned that I don't want the next generation to forget."
Contact TOM WALSH: 313-223-4430 or [email protected]
Additional Facts:
Bill Ford Jr.
The great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford ascended through a variety of roles at Ford Motor Co. before taking over as chief executive officer in 2001. Five years later, he hired Alan Mulally from Boeing Co. to take his place as CEO. Bill Ford now serves as executive chairman of Ford's Board of Directors.
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