Ford's New CEO Tackles Challenges Posed by Tech -- WSJ
May 24 2017 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
New chief Jim Hackett earlier turned around University of
Michigan's football program
By Adrienne Roberts
Ford Motor Co.'s new boss doesn't have to sell a single car to
win fans in the dozens of factory towns and suburban communities
within a short drive of company headquarters. He already brought
home Jim Harbaugh, coach of the University of Michigan's football
team.
Ford Chief Executive Jim Hackett ran a major furniture company
in the state for decades, but he wasn't widely known before taking
the reins at Michigan's embattled athletic program in 2014. Turning
around a college's sports department isn't a typical resume builder
for an aspiring automotive chief, but it distinguished the
62-year-old executive in the race to replace Mark Fields.
Bill Ford, the company's executive chairman, on Monday laid out
a series of characteristics that Mr. Hackett brings to the job,
including calling him a "transformational leader," visionary and
"cultural change agent." Mr. Hackett is a former Ford board member
and has been leading the company's Smart Mobility innovation unit
for a year.
Mr. Ford, whose family has owned the Detroit Lions NFL football
team since 1963, during a press conference also talked about Mr.
Hackett's time as interim athletic director for the Wolverines and
the bold move to lure a big name in football coaching. In addition
to recruiting Mr. Harbaugh from the San Francisco 49ers NFL
football team back to Michigan, where both men played football and
where Mr. Harbaugh grew up, Mr. Hackett also secured a $169 million
sponsorship pact with Nike Inc. considered to be a landmark deal
for college athletics.
"You can say, well is (the University of Michigan) relevant to
what Ford has got going on?" Mr. Ford said when announcing the
company's leadership change. "He was walking into a very difficult
and very public situation."
Mr. Hackett spent the bulk of his career steering furniture
maker Steelcase Inc. He was recruited by University of Michigan
President Mark Schlissel to serve as interim director of an
athletic department in turmoil. The school's revered football
program had been tarnished by a decade of mediocrity.
Mr. Schlissel said in an interview Monday that employees at the
athletic department at the time were "unhappy and insecure." Mr.
Hackett arrived after the previous athletic director stepped down
amid intense scrutiny of moves that students, alumni and fans
thought cheapened the program, disrespected the university's
traditions and put student athletes' safety at risk.
Mr. Ford expects Mr. Hackett to re-energize the company's ranks
of more than 200,000 employees. The auto maker is scrambling to
confront a wave of Silicon Valley tech giants and startups edging
in on the auto industry with electric vehicles, autonomous-car
programs and other services.
Ford, an icon in American business and celebrated for not taking
government bailouts during the financial crisis, was dented when
Tesla Inc. surpassed it in market value in April. The development
reinforced the view that Detroit is behind in the race to redefine
the car business.
Mr. Ford said Steelcase's emergence as an industry powerhouse
and innovator showed Mr. Hackett's business acumen. The job at
Michigan "shows that Jim can be successful and operate in
multi-environments," Mr. Ford added.
Before luring Mr. Harbaugh in December 2014, Mr. Hackett let the
team play out the 2014 season to evaluate them, Mr. Schlissel said.
Then, he aggressively courted Mr. Harbaugh in a recruiting process
that captivated the sports world.
Mr. Hackett also oversaw the signing of an outfitting deal with
Nike 2015. The deal, which took effect last summer and is worth
$169 million through 11 years, brought the swoosh back to Ann
Arbor, Mich., after the Wolverines sported Adidas AG apparel for
nearly a decade.
"He owned the Nike deal," Mr. Schlissel said. He said Mr.
Hackett took over one of the suites in the University of Michigan's
football stadium during the off season and turned it into a war
room. He had Nike, Adidas and Under Armour Inc. make proposals, and
he laid out the details of the offers on display boards.
"He taught me it's not a matter of choosing dollars, it's about
the relationship," Mr. Schlissel said. "He explained the process,
his analysis, the goals and then gave us his recommendation. The
process he went through was instructive."
The Michigan-Nike tie-up set the pace in an increasingly
competitive college sports-licensing market, which over the past
three years has seen skyrocketing sums given to top athletic
programs.
Sara Germano contributed to this article.
Write to Adrienne Roberts at Adrienne.Roberts@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 24, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Ford Motor (NYSE:F)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Ford Motor (NYSE:F)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024