As a century-old legend, the development of Ford Motor Company is getting slower and slower, mainly because the CEO is "worse than the next generation". Compared with Mulally, the successors mark fields and Han Kate were as brave as tigers, but their sales and profits were completely defeated. So far, Ford has faced a "dark moment".
The picture shows Jim Farley, the new CEO of Ford.
As Han's successor, the industry is naturally very concerned, hoping that he can help Ford turn around. In fact, 57-year-old Jim Farley has a deep relationship with Ford Motor Company and Bill Ford, the head and chairman of Ford Motor Company. This is a legendary story.
As the great-grandson of Henry Ford, Bill Ford was born in Detroit, an American "automobile city", on 1957.
Sun Cheng Zuye and Bill Ford joined Ford Motor Company on 1979 as product planning analysts. Before becoming the chairman of the board, Bill Ford did 17 kinds of errands in the company, and his work department involved in production, sales, marketing, product development and financing.
The picture shows Bill Ford, Chairman of Ford Motor Company.
1999, 20 years after entering Ford Motor Company, Bill Ford, who was only 4 1 year old, became the chairman of Ford Motor Company and the fourth generation head of Ford Motor Company. Obviously, Bill Ford's growth path is smooth sailing, but the real challenge has just begun to come.
In 2000, Ford's share price plummeted by 30% and lost $5.5 billion. Bill Ford was naturally unwilling to be the "king of national subjugation", which ruined the family inheritance, so he launched an ambitious revival plan, hoping to continue to write the legend of the Ford family.
For young boss Bill Ford, what Ford needs most now is fresh blood. In September 2006, Bill Ford hired Mulally, executive vice president of Boeing Company. Mulally, who has no experience in the automobile industry, thought of a person together with Bill Ford, the head of Ford Motor Company, in the case of internal and external troubles. He is, and now he is the CEO of Han.
Mulally is on the left and Jim Farley is on the right.
At this time, Jim Farley is a rookie executive of Toyota and the head of Toyota's new Thain automobile department. Two years before Mulally recommended Jim Farley, Jim Farley had already had in-depth exchanges with Bill Ford, and it was Bill Ford's youngest son Larry Bull who helped Jim Farley and Bill Ford establish contact.
Larry Bull and Bill Ford studied in the same private school, participated in sports competitions together, went out to participate in social occasions together in college, and kept close contact until they were in their forties. Now, Bull has become a successful entrepreneur, focusing on buying and selling special metals on the east coast of the United States, and Bill has become the head of the second largest automobile company in the world.
Bull has always cherished the friendship between them, and is also worried about their friends' recent situation. Bull could feel the pressure that Bill Ford faced when he was managing Ford Motor Company. After all, this is a century-old family business of the Ford family.
At this point, Ford headquarters executives changed one after another, but none of them could provide strong help to Bill. They can only watch helplessly as foreign cars such as Toyota and Honda flood into the market and mercilessly devour Ford's market share.
When Dambre found that Bill was discussing the problem with him, he was very depressed. He kept comforting Bill and said, "You are under too much pressure. How can you bear all the responsibilities by yourself? "
Bull would never take the liberty of directly suggesting that Bill hire Jim Farley. But if he can create opportunities for them to meet, who knows what will happen? Bill was very happy when he put forward the idea to him. But it's a little difficult to convince Farley.
Bull's brother Robbie is a professional racing driver and an avid car fan. Robbie and Farley have been in close contact for many years. However, when Dembray called Farley, Farley said calmly that he was not interested in meeting anyone from Ford because Ford was one of Toyota's strongest competitors.
At the 2005 North American International Auto Show, the bustling crowd came to witness the grand meeting of the world's auto giants. Bull came to Thain's booth and saw Jim Farley wearing a uniform polo shirt and khaki pants. He is the vice president of the marketing department of Toyota.
Bill Ford participated in the north american international auto show in 2005.
Bull is not sure whether Farley will consider leaving Toyota. The only thing he can be sure of is that Jim Farley is a genius in selling cars. His ability to sell cars far exceeds that of anyone else in the world. Farley proves this with his own practical actions every day.
Jim Farley was born in 1962. When he received the olive branch from Ford in 2005, he was 42 years old and had been working for Toyota for 15 years.
1990, Jim Farley received an MBA from UCLA? Degree, joined Toyota Motor Corporation in the same year. Jim Farley has made great achievements in Toyota's campaign to open up the American market.
American automobile culture has always attached importance to "big" cars that consume gas, but it is in this unfavorable situation that Farley simply smashed Toyota's fuel-efficient small cars into the proud American market.
In 2002, Toyota established its third brand in North America-Scion. In just two years, Farley successfully promoted the development of Thain, bringing the humble Thain to rock concerts, street celebrations, university campuses and any places where young people of Generation Y haunt, and making its sales in the United States climb from zero to 6,543,800+vehicles per year.
The picture shows Thain car.
When Farley saw Bull approaching the booth, he greeted him warmly as if he had met an old friend. Then, Bull and Farley got into Bull's car, drove up Michigan Avenue, crossed the most depressed section of Detroit along the six-lane asphalt road, and drove into the nearby dearborn community, the birthplace of Ford Motor Company and the headquarters of Ford Motor Company.
When Farley promised to let Bull arrange a meeting, he urged Bull to keep the meeting secret. The meeting place must be far away from the auto show, and certainly not at the headquarters of Ford Motor Company. The meeting place was chosen at the training base of Detroit Lions Football Team in the remote town of Allen Park.
This is an open-air base built by Bill Ford's father, William Clay Ford Sr., for his favorite football team, which cost 35 million dollars. The Lions had no training in June 5438+10. Their season ended a few weeks ago, and the result was still a mess and they didn't make the playoffs.
For Farley, the automobile industry is a life-and-death field. Toyota has produced the safest, most practical, most cost-effective and most energy-saving automobile products in the world, while Ford is a prehistoric dinosaur, relying on products such as pickup trucks with high fuel consumption and bloated SUVs to barely maintain a hungry and cold life.
While Farley was deep in thought, Bill Ford came out of the office to meet them. Farley didn't expect Bill to be so young-only five years older than himself-so energetic and friendly. As soon as the three of them sat down, Bill began to talk about Ford-the company's history, employees and the importance of this company to himself.
Bull's eyes kept staring at Farley, and the other party seemed to be shocked by this scene. Later, Farley introduced his experience, and now Bill is listening attentively.
After a while, Farley finally relaxed completely. He has met many executives in the automobile industry in his career, but Bill is really different. Then, they talked about the market, which is Farley's specialty. Bill made a joke about Ford's recent slogan "Build for the future".
Bill Ford is on the left and Jim Farley is on the right.
Then, Bill suddenly raised the key question, hoping that Farley would join Ford. Farley was surprised. Bill's tone was full of helplessness, which Farley had never expected. He once imagined all kinds of situations in which the other party poached the poacher-direct lobbying, using money and interests as bait to trick him into Ford and so on. But none of this happened.
An hour passed quickly. When they got up to shake hands and say goodbye, Bill took Farley's hand and took out a business card from his pocket.
Bill said to Farley, "My phone number is on it. Let's keep in touch. I hope you will call me. I want you to know that I am always welcome when you need me. "
June 5438+October 2007 10, Jim Farley, whose performance was booming, decided to bid farewell to the comfortable state, leave Toyota, which was booming in the American market, and formally joined Ford, which was in decline, as the director of Ford's global marketing and information communication department and became the most senior marketing director of Ford. He reports directly to Ford CEO Mulally.
The picture shows the pickup truck factory in dearborn, Jim Farley.
In this regard, Farley commented that he was "as impulsive as a child" and was eventually "tricked" into working for Ford Motor Company by Bill Ford.
So, can Jim Farley and Mulally "turn the tide" and get Ford's near-collapse marketing operation system back on track? Limited by space, we will reveal the secret for you in the next issue, so stay tuned.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.