LyrArc Article Gist
The head of Ford Smart Mobility unit becomes the new CEO of Ford Motor Company succeeding Mark Fields. Under Fields Ford's share price declined by about 40% since taking over from Mr. Mulally in 2014. Tesla's share price has overtaken Ford Motor and Silicon Valley is making investments to reshape the auto business.

LyrArc Article Gist
The unconventional style of Ford CEO Jim Hackett, who comes from a furniture maker in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is confounding some of the Ford management team. Mr. Hackett frequently alludes to a theoretical physicist Geoffrey West in his memos and uses terms such as "think phase" and "clock speed" that require some translation in Ford's management ranks. Ford's profits in 2018 are expected to lag Chrysler and GM in 2018. In one of his moves Hackett recently announced he was pulling Ford out of car manufacturing to focus on SUV's.

LyrArc Article Gist
With the decline of about 40% in Ford Motor's share price under Mark Fields, a new CEO Jim Hackett takes over in 2017. He has a history of implementing turnaround strategies, and headed the Mobility unit at Ford. His turnaround stories were at the University of Michigan football program and at furniture maker Steelcase. Hackett spent 17 years at Steelcase and admired Jo Schembechler, football coach at the University of Michigan. Quotes from the coach were used at Steelcase, and Hackett was hired to get the University of Michigan's football program back on track. His main trait is persistence and perseverance from his football days, when he was too small and too slow for the position in the team, but labored on making others work harder. He landed Jim Harbaugh by calling him every week, which made him popular with Michigan team fans and with the chairman of Ford Motor, Bill Ford. He was seen as having originality by Silicon Valley companies, which impressed Bill Ford. Hackett, 62 years, has to tackle the job of running a large company, something he has not done before. Facing the challenge of driverless cars Ford is turning to an outsider from a different industry, but unlike Alan Mulally of Boeing in an earlier turnaround, Hackett comes from a small company. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Ford is facing a sales disaster in the China market after lagging in coming up with new models and falling behind in adopting new technology in the hyper competitive Chinese market. Sales dropped from 1.27 million vehicles in 2016 to 752,000 vehicles in 2018. In 2018 sales dropped by 37%, when the Chinese market declined by 3%. In 2019 the car market in China shrank by another 12% in the first half.  The problems stem from poor management. Alan Mulally started the China project, his successor from a Michigan furniture company CEO Jim Hackett was unable to grasp the challenges in China with new technology a key feature of keeping abreast of the Chinese market. A succession of new executives in China from U.S. or EUropean operations compounded the problem each group lacking the touch needed with local Chinese conditions. Some experts say Ford is now becoming irrelevant in the Chinese market after being a late starter in coming to China and then investing billions in a catch up effort. GM and VW started much earlier. Ford reported loss of $1.5 billion in 2018. From 5% in 2015 its market share dropped to 2.1% in first quarter 2019. Ford was complacent and applied a global strategy in China when local Chinese car companies were moving with lightning speed. Ford was asked to locate in the far interior of the country as a late comer to China and its partner Chang'an Auto was more concerned about keeping car jobs than introducing the latest technology and models. China is obsessed with new technology and there is no way Ford could be allowed to get away with outdated models. ...