Bill Ford gets personal with Ford CEO Farley on his podcast
Bill Ford may be the boss, but Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley is asking the questions.
Farley, host of the “Drive” podcast in season two, talked with Ford, executive chair of the automaker, for the episode released early Wednesday.
And Ford revealed details about his life, personal and professional.
The automaker provided the Detroit Free Press highlights prior to the segment’s release.
‘It’s lonely’
Ford, himself a former Ford CEO, discussing leadership challenges: “The first won’t surprise you because you’ve heard it, but it’s lonely. There really aren’t many people you can talk to. … The business problems will be the easy ones. You’ll look at all the data, you’ll make your best judgment, and you’ll go forward. But it’ll be the people problems that will really drive you crazy and keep you up at night.”
Ford talked of his vision for the iconic structure, ruin porn that once symbolized Detroit and is renovated and reopening on June 6 after decades of vacancy. It sold in 2018.
“That train station was often the emblem when there were stories written nationally about the decay of Detroit. That was usually the visual … and I always said to myself, ‘One day… if I can figure out a way, I’m going to help change all that.’ ... It’s going to be so magnificent and everybody who ever had a memory or a history in Detroit will absolutely love it.”
Avoiding a ‘downward spiral’
Ford, long an advocate of protecting industry that can protect and rapidly respond to a national crisis, whether war or a pandemic, speaks to his concern for the future.
“I think if our country ever loses that (industrial strength), it will lose something that it’ll never be able to replace. And I would go a step further. I don’t think there’s a single