{"id":116231,"date":"2017-05-22T11:58:02","date_gmt":"2017-05-22T15:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=116231"},"modified":"2017-05-22T11:58:02","modified_gmt":"2017-05-22T15:58:02","slug":"new-ford-ceo-hackett-draws-comparisons-to-former-chief-mulally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2017\/05\/new-ford-ceo-hackett-draws-comparisons-to-former-chief-mulally\/","title":{"rendered":"New Ford CEO Hackett Draws Comparisons to Former Chief Mulally"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Jim Hackett, left, and Bill Ford, right, during Hackett's introduction as President and CEO.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ford Motor Co. officially named Jim Hackett as its new president and chief executive officer and with his experience outside of the automotive world, the appointment immediately called to mind another recent Ford CEO \u2014 Alan Mulally.<\/p>\n

Bill Ford, the company\u2019s executive chairman and great grandson of the company\u2019s founder, alluded to Mulally\u2019s appointment as CEO during the press conference.\u00a0Mulally infused Ford with a sense of optimism that it could and would win and he firmly believes Hackett can now do the same thing, said\u00a0Ford, who indicated that more changes in the ranks of the company’s senior management will be forthcoming in next few weeks as the shakeup continues.<\/p>\n

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News You Can Trust!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hackett, 62, has a long track record of innovation and business success as CEO of Steelcase, interim Athletic Director at the University of Michigan and executive chairman of Ford Smart Mobility LLC since March 2016.<\/p>\n

While the automaker\u2019s financial position is nowhere near as dire as it was in 2006 when Mulally was named CEO, the company has faced a revolt among investors on Wall Street driving down the value of the company\u2019s stock and setting the stage for ouster of Ford\u2019s incumbent CEO, Mark Fields.<\/p>\n

(Ford CEO Fields out. <\/em>Click Here<\/a><\/span> for the initial story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fields, 56, elected to retire from Ford after a \u201csuccessful\u201d 28-year career with the company.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Newly appointed Jim Hackett reminded Bill Ford of another Ford CEO: Alan Mulally, left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, the 37% drop in the stock price also clearly has alarmed the Ford family, which still controls the company through its preferred shares of stock and most of the family\u2019s fortune is closely tied to value of Ford shares.<\/p>\n

Hackett, who will report directly to Executive Chairman Bill Ford, was given responsibility with leading the company\u2019s operations and 202,000 employees worldwide<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re moving from a position of strength to transform Ford for the future,\u201d Bill Ford said. \u201cJim Hackett is the right CEO to lead Ford during this transformative period for the auto industry and the broader mobility space. He\u2019s a true visionary who brings a unique, human-centered leadership approach to our culture, products and services that will unlock the potential of our people and our business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hackett, a former University of Michigan football player, was enthusiastic about the new challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so excited to work with Bill Ford and the entire team to create an even more dynamic and vibrant Ford that improves people\u2019s lives around the world, and creates value for all of our stakeholders,\u201d said Hackett.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have developed a deep appreciation for Ford\u2019s people, values and heritage during the past four years as part of the company and look forward to working together with everyone tied to Ford during this transformative period,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

(<\/em><\/strong>Click Here<\/a><\/span><\/strong> to see more of the changes to Ford\u2019s management team.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hackett will focus on three priorities, including\u00a0\u00a0sharpening \u201coperational execution\u201d across the global business to further enhance the company\u2019s basic strategy and product launches, while attacking under-performing parts of the business, modernizing Ford business to unleash innovation and decision making and improving efficiency as well as transforming the company to meet future challenges such as bring in new talent and making the company increasingly nimble to meet changes in consumer behavior.<\/p>\n

Bill Ford had kind words for the departing Fields.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark Fields has been an outstanding leader and deserves a lot of credit for all he has accomplished in his many roles around the globe at Ford,” Bill Ford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark had a tremendous career at Ford. He had done great things, starting with the Ford Way Forward\u00a0plan. He put us in a great position. I’m very thankful to Mark. But this is a time of great change and fortunately we have a transformational\u00a0leader at hand,\u201d Bill Ford told reporters and analysts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis strong leadership was critical to our North American restructuring, our turnaround at the end of the last decade, and our record profits in the past two years,” he added.<\/p>\n

However, Bill Ford also said he had developed a rapport with Hackett and had been impressed with his talent and accomplishments, which include the rapid turnaround of the U-M athletic department and gaining a deep appreciation of Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n

(To see more about how Detroit\u2019s Big Three are dealing with adapting to a global market, <\/em><\/strong>Click Here<\/a><\/span><\/strong>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve always clicked. He can integrate future thinking into an operation,\u201d Bill Ford said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ford Motor Co. named Jim Hackett as its new president and CEO and with his experience outside of the automotive world, it immediately called to mind another recent Ford CEO \u2014 Alan Mulally. Find out more at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20009,"featured_media":116233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116231"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116231"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=116231"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=116231"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=116231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}