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Hackett to retire 1 October, Jim Farley to become CEO


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31 minutes ago, FordBuyer said:

 

I'll give you and Hackett that for Bronco and MachE, but why not "carte blanche" on Explorer, Escape, Ranger, and Bronco Sport??? It's taking appearance packages a year or two later to make them appealing. And why would Hackett sign off on spending billions on that horrific plant called CAP??? That alone probably did him in let alone falling stock price, market share, profit margin, quality, reliability, problematic launches, no dividend increase for years before suspension, and on and on. 


Why are you so obsessed with CAP?  Were they supposed to close the plant and move Explorer/aviator somewhere else?  No other plants were available so I guess they were supposed to go build a brand new one?

 

As for Escape and Explorer, they were resource constrained but nothing that can’t be fixed easily.   
 

Compare Bronco and Bronco Sport with anything Ford has introduced the last 5 years and if you can’t see a huge difference you’re not looking.

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4 minutes ago, akirby said:


Why are you so obsessed with CAP?  Were they supposed to close the plant and move Explorer/aviator somewhere else?  No other plants were available so I guess they were supposed to go build a brand new one?

 

As for Escape and Explorer, they were resource constrained but nothing that can’t be fixed easily.   
 

Compare Bronco and Bronco Sport with anything Ford has introduced the last 5 years and if you can’t see a huge difference you’re not looking.


you're also talking to the same guy that wants to be able to build Bronco at any plant at any given time because there's no way MAP can handle it. 
 

he has no clue what he's talking about 

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4 hours ago, rperez817 said:

 

Hackett deserves a lot of credit simply for getting Ford to take shared/autonomous transportation seriously. Ford's future survival depends on expanding the foundation that Hackett helped put in place for those things.

 

Yeah.... I don't know if I'd brag about that giant boondoggle.

 

1 hour ago, akirby said:


Good grief you just don’t pay attention do you?  Without Hackett Mach-E would look like a Chevy bolt  would have probably had half the investment and be half the vehicle it is shaping up to be.  
 


Looking like a Nissan Juke-killer isn't much of an improvement over a Bolt.  You gotta admit the Mach E is still a little goofy looking.

 

 

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5 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:


you're also talking to the same guy that wants to be able to build Bronco at any plant at any given time because there's no way MAP can handle it. 
 

he has no clue what he's talking about 

 

But they're tearing down MAP tomorrow.

 

Rumor has it, a tent 5 tents (they're going to need them) is being erected somewhere - it worked for Musk/Wall Street, why not Ford?

Edited by rmc523
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The bottom line on Hackett is  that he probably rescued Ford from certain doom by putting the top talents on Mach E and going all in on Bronco. Mark Fields was going to mail it on a C-Max replacement and while he did announce Bronco was going back, his product development track record in the last half of his tenure is perhaps best marked by the non-existent Fusion mid cycle update. 

 

I doubt very much Ford will be sitting on two hot much anticipated vehicles (Mach E and Bronco) and with a fully baked and ready to launch F-150 EV if Mark Fields was still here. 

 

As for share price... I'm going to sound like a broken record but it's not about the performance of the company. Ford shares are worth what they are because it is a family controlled company and investors know this. It will never be valued like a normal public company as long as Ford family can basically veto anything. This is not great for investors but it ensures Ford will remain an American company for as long as Ford family wishes it to be. Pick your poison and stop complaining. If you want share prices to go up, go speculate on Tesla. If you think it is important that US maintains the ability to design and build cars and keep tens of thousands of people employed while paying a decent dividend, Ford is your company.

Edited by bzcat
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7 minutes ago, akirby said:

Why are you so obsessed with CAP?  Were they supposed to close the plant and move Explorer/aviator somewhere else?  No other plants were available so I guess they were supposed to go build a brand new one?

 

CAP is nearly 100 years old, experienced major problems with mismanagement & hostile work environment (racism, sexism, intimidation), and is located in Chicago. Three strikes right there. Building a new plant somewhere else would have made more sense. 

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1 minute ago, rperez817 said:

 

CAP is nearly 100 years old, experienced major problems with mismanagement & hostile work environment (racism, sexism, intimidation), and is located in Chicago. Three strikes right there. Building a new plant somewhere else would have made more sense. 


Sure - real easy to just throw a couple billion dollars into a new plant to generate the exact same revenue and profit.

 

Not saying it wouldn’t be nice but it’s not financially feasible.  

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17 minutes ago, rperez817 said:

 

CAP is nearly 100 years old, experienced major problems with mismanagement & hostile work environment (racism, sexism, intimidation), and is located in Chicago. Three strikes right there. Building a new plant somewhere else would have made more sense. 

 

And that is putting it mildly. After the F-150, you could say the Explorer is Ford's crown jewel and the Aviator Lincoln's. CAP never deserved a crown jewel(s). Too bad Ford never built a new, modern plant that wasn't land locked and had a better work culture to work with. But that would be out of the box thinking, and spending billions on the hell hole called CAP probably cost Hackett and other high ups their jobs. 

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13 minutes ago, fuzzymoomoo said:


I used to think that too, then I saw it in person and it changed my opinion. It doesn't photograph well. 

 

I think it looks great. Now if Ford only had the battery supply chain to build over 100,000 of them and give Tesla a run for its money. I see that GM is building a new battery plant near Lordstown, Ohio. Hmmmmm.

 

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4 hours ago, 7Mary3 said:

 

Exactly.  And Mulally's biggest accomplishment was breaking the fiefdoms up.  Unfortunately, after he left they came back.

He never got rid of them, just bent them to his will, that's why they reemerged under Fields.

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29 minutes ago, akirby said:


Sure - real easy to just throw a couple billion dollars into a new plant to generate the exact same revenue and profit.

 

Not saying it wouldn’t be nice but it’s not financially feasible.  

 

How about tearing the roof off Flat Rock and building out into a more modern plant. CAP has been and always will be a hell hole. I remember back in the 90's watching on TV exposes about what goes on at CAP. With roving bands of workers going around last year from station to station disrupting production was the last straw. The next Explorer in 5 years or so should move with the new robots. 

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2 hours ago, FordBuyer said:

And if you believe Hackett is the brains behind the Bronco and MachE, I have some swampland in the Everglades to sell you. The sleeper Executive in all this is the President of Ford North America.

 

I suggest you listen to these two hour long podcasts where both Paul Wraith (chief designer of the Bronco), and Hua ThaiTang (Product Development) talk about the support they got from Hackett and upper management in developing the new Bronco and upcoming F-150.

 

http://www.autoline.tv/journal/?p=69066

 

http://www.autoline.tv/journal/?p=69539

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8 minutes ago, FordBuyer said:

 

How about tearing the roof off Flat Rock and building out into a more modern plant. CAP has been and always will be a hell hole. I remember back in the 90's watching on TV exposes about what goes on at CAP. With roving bands of workers going around last year from station to station disrupting production was the last straw. The next Explorer in 5 years or so should move with the new robots. 

The truth is that Ford doesn't make enough money on Explorer/Aviator to justify a new building.

A lot of people don't understand how very few vehicles make profit beyond covering their own expenses.

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1 hour ago, fuzzymoomoo said:


I used to think that too, then I saw it in person and it changed my opinion. It doesn't photograph well. 

That's really weird, but I'll have to trust you on that! Since I obviously haven't seen it in person, I'll try to reserve judgement until then.

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19 minutes ago, tarheels23 said:

wife and I LOVE our 2013 C-Max, only regret was it is not plugin....

 

I was talking about the origins of the Mach E were essentially it being a next-gen C-Max (not sure if you've seen the original plan/sketches for Mach E before it became a "Mustang"), not criticising the C-Max we got......though its homely styling, and the dramatic mileage reductions sealed its fate, IMO)....that's why we saw Hackett push for something more stylish.

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32 minutes ago, mackinaw said:

 

I suggest you listen to these two hour long podcasts where both Paul Wraith (chief designer of the Bronco), and Hua ThaiTang (Product Development) talk about the support they got from Hackett and upper management in developing the new Bronco and upcoming F-150.

 

http://www.autoline.tv/journal/?p=69066

 

http://www.autoline.tv/journal/?p=69539


He doesn’t want to get it.  He just wants to complain about everything.

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1 hour ago, akirby said:


Sure - real easy to just throw a couple billion dollars into a new plant to generate the exact same revenue and profit.

 

A new, modern assembly plant located where a good workforce is readily available would improve productivity and efficiency at Ford. So that means potentially more revenue and profit compared to the status quo.   

 

Gotta spend money to make money. The disastrous launch of 2020 Explorer and Aviator at CAP last year indicates that facility remains a basket case even after Ford spent billions upgrading it over the years. I don't know to what extent Hackett was involved with those decisions.

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45 minutes ago, rperez817 said:

 

A new, modern assembly plant located where a good workforce is readily available would improve productivity and efficiency at Ford. So that means potentially more revenue and profit compared to the status quo.   

 

Gotta spend money to make money. The disastrous launch of 2020 Explorer and Aviator at CAP last year indicates that facility remains a basket case even after Ford spent billions upgrading it over the years. I don't know to what extent Hackett was involved with those decisions.


As disastrous as the launch was it was nothing more than a temporary blip.

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Here's a couple more pieces on the stock price and how his plan was to stay on the job in February. First from the IBD just in...

 

Doubts Over Ford's Restructuring Claim Second Straight CEO

 

Ford Motor (F) CEO Jim Hackett will abruptly retire in the midst of an ambitious $11 billion restructuring, as Wall Street and investors fret it isn't happening fast enough. Ford stock rallied.

 

[cut}

 

Ford Stock Rallies

Shares rose 2.5% to 6.86 in Tuesday's stock market trading. Ford stock is forming a cup base with a 7.84 buy point within a larger consolidation, according to MarketSmith chart analysis. The consolidation has formed above the 50-day line but under the 200-day average. Rival General Motors (GM) added 0.6%.

Ford stock had been ailing even before the deadly virus outbreak. The No. 2 U.S. automaker had struggled under Hackett's leadership with the botched launches of the Ford Explorer and other key vehicles.

Ford suspended its quarterly stock dividend to conserve cash while partnering with Volkswagen (VWAGY) and Intel (INTC) unit Mobileye in a costly and challenging shift to electric and self-driving cars.

 

https://www.investors.com/news/ford-stock-rallies-ford-ceo-jim-hackett-retiring/

 

----------

 

Second from MarketWatch:

Here's how much Ford stock has lost under outgoing CEO Jim Hackett

Ford Motor Co. executive-suite drama reached a pinnacle on Tuesday with the surprise departure of Chief Executive Jim Hackett.

 

[cut]

 

Under Hacket, who took the reins in May 2017, the stock has lost nearly 40%.

 

Ford F, +2.54% shares rose on the news, and Ford stock on Tuesday topped a popularity chart among Robinhood app users. Ford stock has been among the most popular on Robinhood since the end of 2019.

“Hackett was an unorthodox CEO pick to begin with, as an external candidate with no prior auto industry experience, and his tenure was marred by a deteriorating bottom line, as F’s adjusted EPS fell from $1.78 in 2017 to $1.19 in 2019," said analyst Garrett Nelson with CFRA. “While Ford’s new vehicle lineup has shown some promise with the Mustang Mach-E and Bronco, we think Farley will have his work cut out to ‘right the ship’, as Ford remains in the middle of a multi-year restructuring.”

 

[cut]

 

Ford under Hackett did a tad worse than Ford under Fields in terms of share performance and market valuation. The company’s shares lost about 36% under Fields’s leadership from 2014 to 2017.

 

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-how-much-ford-stock-has-lost-under-outgoing-ceo-jim-hackett-2020-08-04

 

----------------------

 

Lastly, from CNBC:

Ford’s Jim Hackett is out as CEO, to be succeeded by Jim Farley as restructuring plan fails to reignite stock

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/04/ford-ceo-jim-hackett-to-retire-as-stock-lags-automaker-taps-jim-farley.html

 

Since beginning to lead Ford in May 2017, Hackett, a former CEO of furniture company Steelcase, has done little to create confidence in the automaker on Wall Street — a reason his predecessor, Mark Fields, was ousted after a less than three-year tenure.

 
Jim Hackett, incoming chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co., left, and Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Co., laugh during an event at the company's headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, on Tuesday, May 22, 2017.
Jim Hackett, incoming chief executive officer of Ford Motor Co., left, and Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Co., laugh during an event at the company’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, on Tuesday, May 22, 2017.
Jeff Kowalsky | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares of Ford are down about 40% under Hackett. The stock, which has a market value of $26.1 billion, is down 28% in 2020.

Hackett previously had not expressed any interest in retiring. In February, amid an executive shakeup, he said, “I plan on staying in this job.” He cited a close relationship with Farley that would “realize the value” the company has been promising.

 

[cut]

 

Hackett has been criticized for his lack of transparency and leadership and for the execution of his multiyear restructuring plan that aimed to increase profitability by focusing on core products and all-electric and autonomous vehicles.

“Hackett had a shot. He was there for three years, not really a car guy,” said David Kudla, CEO and chief investment strategist of Mainstay Capital Management in Grand Blanc, Michigan. “We struggled early on with what was his vision for the company.”

 

-----------

 

So there you have it. Not planned. He wanted to stay. Not a car guy. He was a file cabinet guy. Stock price a huge reason for his departure. 

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I don't know how much more plainly this can be explained.

 

Hackett was set to retire Q1 2021. Farley began assuming more and more duties as the upcoming product cycle came into focus, including some recent changes and movement on the Bronco program.

 

The board, the family, and both gentlemen all agreed it was better to complete the transition now before this cycle begins. 

 

Hackett is leaving the glass house well liked and well respected among executive leadership, with a few outliers in those who were long loyal to Fields.

 

"Commit to and own segments" is the focus that re-imagined Mach E, course-corrected the Bronco brand, and found the $ to fix a few potentially *major* missteps with the F-Series program.

 

A longer Fields tenure very well could have seen the end of Ford as we know it. They weren't that far off.

Edited by PREMiERdrum
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