Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
New leader takes the driver’s seat at Ford
Under Fields, Ford achieved a record pretax profit of $10.8 billion in 2015 as SUV and truck sales soared in the U.S.
DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford is replacing CEO Mark Fields as it struggles to keep its traditional auto-manufacturing business running smoothly while remaking itself as a nimble, high-tech provider of new mobility services.
The 114-year-old automaker said Fields is retiring at age 56 after 28 years at the company. Fields will be replaced by Jim Hackett, a former CEO of office furniture company Steelcase Inc. who joined Ford’s board in 2013. Hackett has led Ford’s mobility unit since March of last year.
In a press conference Monday at Ford’s Dearborn headquarters, Hackett said Ford does a lot of things well but is not as good at handling complex strategy questions. Hackett plans to have a small executive team that can set the company’s plans, communicate them clearly and make decisions quickly. That’s a contrast to Fields, who had 20 direct reports and was a product of Ford’s bureaucratic culture.
“The biggest challenge I had (at Steelcase), and I will have here, is to have everybody see the future. They can see their opportunity in that. And secondly, that it’s our right to win and we don’t have to cede that to anybody, Tesla or any of them,” Hackett said. “I love that challenge because I know how to do that.”
In three years as CEO, Fields began Ford’s transition from a traditional automaker into a “mobility” company, laying out plans to build autonomous vehicles and explore new services such as ridehailing and car-sharing.
Silicon Valley companies such as Google were pushing into the car business, while Uber and Lyft threatened to change people’s attitudes toward car ownership. As a matter of fact, it was Fields who put Hackett in charge of those projects as head of mobility.
Under Fields, Ford achieved a record pretax profit of $10.8 billion in 2015 as SUV and truck sales soared in the U.S. But there were rumblings Fields wasn’t focused enough on Ford’s core business. Popular products like the Fusion sedan and Escape SUV grew dated.
Ford lagged behind rivals in bringing long-range electric cars to the market. Ford couldn’t pivot quickly; when subcompact SUV sales boomed in the U.S., for example, it didn’t bring over a small SUV being sold in other regions. The stock price sagged — electric car maker Tesla Inc. even passed Ford in market value earlier this year.
Ford’s shares closed up 2 percent at $11.10 on Monday. The company’s stock price has fallen almost 40 percent since Fields became CEO in July 2014.
Hackett was the CEO of Steelcase for 20 years. He is credited with transforming that company, in part by predicting the shift away from cubicles and into open office plans. He cut thousands of jobs and moved furniture production from the U.S. to Mexico to stem massive losses at the company.
In an interview, Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford called Hackett a “visionary” who knows how to remake a business.
Hackett also served as the interim athletic director at the University of Michigan from 2014 to 2016. In that role, he lured football coach Jim Harbaugh.