Ford CEO James Hackett, under fire on Wall Street, shows Forbes the first fruits of his recovery plan

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At a press conference at the Detroit auto show in January, Ford Motor boasted a new generation of 40 new electric and hybrid vehicles by 2022, an investment of $ 11 billion . While flashes of electricity appeared on a giant video background, Ford seduced a particular EV, the Mach 1, a battery-powered, high-performance SUV inspired by the iconic Ford Mustang.

But Ford showed no picture of the concept because Mach 1 that day and for good reason: it did not exist.

A few weeks earlier, James Hackett, the new CEO of the company, ended Ford's first dedicated EV, scheduled for 2020, as it was too generic, urging designers to create something that would stand out from the cars. Instead of a "compliance car" to satisfy the regulators, he said, he had to be ambitious. In his typical survey style, he asked, "How are we going to win?"

Over the next six weeks, Ford designers and engineers, working night and weekend, responded in a whole new direction by creating a battery-powered athletic-style crossover utility with a 300 mile range . high performance plug-in models from Tesla, Porsche and Jaguar. It is rare to have a six-month development project; a new concept in a few weeks is virtually unknown.

Today, Hackett is eager to show Forbes how they did it in an exclusive interview during a rare visit to Ford's design studios in Dearborn, Michigan.

"It's money shot," he says, highlighting the Mustang's unique taillights on a drawing of the new performance utility, a clay model of the real thing parked just 20 feet away, not far from the first disappointing effort. "It changed my body language when I saw that."

A little over a year after taking office as CEO of Ford, Hackett wanted to put an end to Forbes' decision to counter investor criticism that he would not have a clear plan to fix the problem. -performance of society. "I'm not deaf at all," he told me. "I know their expectations are really high."

With a net profit of $ 7.6 billion and $ 157 billion in sales last year, Ford has experienced serious problems in 2018. Earnings declined $ 1 billion in the first half, despite the record sales of its F-series pickups, about $ 10,000 in profit per truck, which represents virtually all of Ford's annual profits. The other activities of the company – Europe, South America and China – are not profitable. Ford loses market share everywhere it competes and its stock, which reached $ 17 in 2014, is below $ 10 per share.

True, the former Steelcase CEO has inherited a tough challenge when he replaced Mark Fields ousted in May 2017: turning Ford from a traditional automaker into a mobility service provider. without destroying the heart of the process. But it turns out that Ford, announced ten years ago for not taking the bailout of taxpayers under former CEO Alan Mulally, was in a worse state than the one we knew . And since Hackett took power, the company has faced a series of new problems: slowing demand for new cars, rising commodity prices, growing trade war and collapsing its business in China, the largest auto market world.

"Our company is not healthy at the moment, without any imagination," said a Ford executive who would speak only on the merits. "We have become a sleight of hand again," he said, referring to his dependence on the benefits of Series F. "This is the story of our lives."

Hackett says he has a turnaround plan, but the details are scarce and the goals continue to rise, which is one of the reasons why investors are losing patience. In October 2017, the former offensive lineman of the University of Michigan announced a $ 14 billion reduction in "fitness actions". Six months later, it has almost reached the target set at $ 25.5 billion in 2022. $ 11 billion to restructure its global business over the next three to five years, without offering any precision.

In July, during a daring meeting with Wall Street analysts, one of them asked Hackett, 63, to be with him if he was there to see the results of his restructuring efforts still unclear.

"Yeah," Hackett replied. "There should be no question about it."

But there are many questions, as if Hackett's Socratic management style was correct at the moment. The industry has evolved faster than Ford can adapt, and it has lost precious time under Fields, which has been criticized for overseeing big decisions. Hackett, a manager who briefly led Ford's smart mobility unit, was selected by executive chairman Bill Ford to take the reins. But time is running out and many are wondering about Hackett's ability to restructure Ford's core businesses fairly quickly to generate the billions of dollars it will take to invest in future electric vehicles and autonomous cars. It's not that he does not know what to do, says Hackett. "It's the architecture of the company for it to happen."

Clearly, the actions are needed: Ford's underperforming businesses in South America, Europe and China. Following the same scenario as its general competitor, General Motors, Ford says it will redirect capital to parts of its business, which will enable it to achieve higher returns, such as trucks, SUVs and commercial vehicles, for example. Where a company can not be repaired, the decision will have to be made as it did recently in North America with the decision to abandon traditional family sedans like the Ford Fusion.

"This kind of deep restructuring will take time and we will communicate as decisions are made," Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks told analysts at the July conference call.

But lingering uncertainty worries some investors about the stability of Hackett's senior management. Ford's chief strategist, John Casesa, left last fall and his main lobbyist, Ziad Ojakli, left in July. The former head of global product development, Raj Nair, was fired in February for "inappropriate behavior."

Hackett has reorganized senior management functions several times since his arrival and has attempted to streamline decision-making. "In the old system, we had 24 officers gathered around a table. I reduced it to 10. "

But in the interview, he admits that it took some time for his management team, most of them, to adapt to his brain management style and adopt the methodologies he used at Steelcase. Among them: a process called "design thinking" that tries to solve problems by entering the mind of the consumer.

"We're four or five months later than I thought," conceded Hackett. But he said the team had taken the pace and there were signs that its changes were taking root.

As proof, he offered to meet me at Ford's design studio, where the new Mustang crossover took shape last winter and where product planners are currently working on the development of a new system. user-friendly infotainment.

Inside the brightly lit room, a series of moving walls eight feet high are covered with scribbled notes, drawings and a rainbow of post-it notes. Hieroglyphs are proof of the decisional cascade that Hackett pushed Ford product planners to pursue after learning that the Chinese wanted bigger screens in their cars. Instead of asking how much it would cost more – a typical CEO reaction – Hackett pushed them to understand why, pushing them to try to unblock consumer ideas that would lead to better product design.

Ford was one of the first players in the technology of connected cars with its Sync infotainment system, launched in 2007, which had applications dedicated to cars designed by Ford and other third-party developers. Over the years, Ford has modernized the system to make it more user-friendly.

The need for a larger screen may seem obvious – you can install more apps on the dashboard – but Hackett's desire to know why, a cross-functional team of product developers, designers and developers. human-machine interface specialists to his question.

"At first, it was like dogs and cats," said Darren Palmer, Ford's chief product engineer for electrification. The discussion went around in circles for days. "Then we started talking about ourselves and what we were doing in our own cars, and we suddenly started to understand each other. We spoke the same language. A few feet away, Hackett smiled, arms crossed. "I'm like a proud father," he says. "Listen to the way he talks about these things."

Over the next 90 days, the team designed a brand new infotainment system, experimenting with rapid prototyping techniques, such as sticking an empty Keurig coffee doser on a piece of cardboard to simulate a button on a dashboard screen. During bi-weekly visits to the design center, Hackett encouraged them to continue looking for ideas. "He does not have to be perfect. Let's try this in real time. "

At each iteration, Ford planners tested the system with consumers, while a massive team of software designers was monitoring remotely. Whenever a customer encountered something that he did not like during the demonstration, he reprogrammed the software in real time to get an immediate feedback on the change.

After three cycles of consumer research, customer experience manager Phil Mason said that the main asset of car owners was: "We want our products in the car; We do not want your business! This was especially true in China, where consumers are heavily dependent on their smartphones to handle all their daily tasks, including paying for goods and services through payment applications like AliPay and WeChat. Pay.

This information has resulted in a sleek new infotainment system that reflects consumers' smartphones, is easier to use and, of course, has a significantly wider screen. It will debut in the new performance utility inspired by Mustang.

A larger infotainment screen will not solve everything that weighs on Ford, especially in China, where sales fell by 26% this year. New models adapted to local tastes are about to be launched, but they will not be used for a few years. In the meantime, Ford is trying to solve dealer distribution issues while modifying vehicles borrowed from its Chinese partners to attract new buyers with limited budgets. An example, the new Ford Range entry-level SUV, will be marketed early 2019.

But the Chinese market is becoming more difficult for Western players, including Ford. The policies of the Chinese government are changing rapidly and there is an aggressive push towards zero emission electric vehicles. As the terrain evolves, the government naturally favors national actors. Ford was late on the market in the first place, but hopes to catch up with a new joint venture with Zotye Auto, a leading electric vehicle manufacturer in China.

In Europe, where Ford has a strong brand, it must decide whether to stay in the passenger car business or focus on utilities and commercial vehicles, as it has done in North America. Rumors are running about the thousands of job cuts in Europe, which the company rejects as speculation. Ford's prospects in South America are gloomier, particularly due to recent economic volatility, but Hackett said he prefers to stay in the market.

"Hackett's bias is that the Ford brand is emblematic," he said, speaking for himself, as he often does, in the third person. "It is associated with a story that is family. One of my last options is to close the Blue Oval on a market. I prefer never to do that.

But he does not have long to decide. The clock is ticking and it's time to play.

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At a press conference at the Detroit auto show in January, Ford Motor boasted a new generation of 40 new electric and hybrid vehicles by 2022, an investment of $ 11 billion . While flashes of electricity appeared on a giant video background, Ford seduced a particular EV, the Mach 1, a battery-powered, high-performance SUV inspired by the iconic Ford Mustang.

But Ford showed no picture of the concept because Mach 1 that day and for good reason: it did not exist.

A few weeks earlier, James Hackett, the new CEO of the company, ended Ford's first dedicated EV, scheduled for 2020, as it was too generic, urging designers to create something that would stand out from the cars. Instead of a "compliance car" to satisfy the regulators, he said, he had to be ambitious. In his typical survey style, he asked, "How are we going to win?"

Over the next six weeks, Ford designers and engineers, working night and weekend, responded in a whole new direction by creating a battery-powered athletic-style crossover utility with a 300 mile range . high performance plug-in models from Tesla, Porsche and Jaguar. It is rare to have a six-month development project; a new concept in a few weeks is virtually unknown.

Today, Hackett is eager to show Forbes how they did it in an exclusive interview during a rare visit to Ford's design studios in Dearborn, Michigan.

"It's money shot," he says, highlighting the Mustang's unique taillights on a drawing of the new performance utility, a clay model of the real thing parked just 20 feet away, not far from the first disappointing effort. "It changed my body language when I saw that."

A little over a year after taking office as CEO of Ford, Hackett wanted to put an end to Forbes' decision to counter investor criticism that he would not have a clear plan to fix the problem. -performance of society. "I'm not deaf at all," he told me. "I know their expectations are really high."

With a net profit of $ 7.6 billion and $ 157 billion in sales last year, Ford has experienced serious problems in 2018. Earnings declined $ 1 billion in the first half, despite the record sales of its F-series pickups, about $ 10,000 in profit per truck, which represents virtually all of Ford's annual profits. The other activities of the company – Europe, South America and China – are not profitable. Ford loses market share everywhere it competes and its stock, which reached $ 17 in 2014, is below $ 10 per share.

True, the former Steelcase CEO has inherited a tough challenge when he replaced Mark Fields ousted in May 2017: turning Ford from a traditional automaker into a mobility service provider. without destroying the heart of the process. But it turns out that Ford, announced ten years ago for not taking the bailout of taxpayers under former CEO Alan Mulally, was in a worse state than the one we knew . And since Hackett took power, the company has faced a series of new problems: slowing demand for new cars, rising commodity prices, growing trade war and collapsing its business in China, the largest auto market world.

"Our company is not healthy at the moment, without any imagination," said a Ford executive who would speak only on the merits. "We have become a sleight of hand again," he said, referring to his dependence on the benefits of Series F. "This is the story of our lives."

Hackett says he has a turnaround plan, but the details are scarce and the goals continue to rise, which is one of the reasons why investors are losing patience. In October 2017, the former offensive lineman of the University of Michigan announced a $ 14 billion reduction in "fitness actions". Six months later, it has almost reached the target set at $ 25.5 billion in 2022. $ 11 billion to restructure its global business over the next three to five years, without offering any precision.

In July, during a daring meeting with Wall Street analysts, one of them asked Hackett, 63, to be with him if he was there to see the results of his restructuring efforts still unclear.

"Yeah," Hackett replied. "There should be no question about it."

But there are many questions, as if Hackett's Socratic management style was correct at the moment. The industry has evolved faster than Ford can adapt, and it has lost precious time under Fields, which has been criticized for overseeing big decisions. Hackett, a manager who briefly led Ford's smart mobility unit, was selected by executive chairman Bill Ford to take the reins. But time is running out and many are wondering about Hackett's ability to restructure Ford's core businesses fairly quickly to generate the billions of dollars it will take to invest in future electric vehicles and autonomous cars. It's not that he does not know what to do, says Hackett. "It's the architecture of the company for it to happen."

Clearly, the actions are needed: Ford's underperforming businesses in South America, Europe and China. Following the same scenario as its general competitor, General Motors, Ford says it will redirect capital to parts of its business, which will enable it to achieve higher returns, such as trucks, SUVs and commercial vehicles, for example. Where a company can not be repaired, the decision will have to be made as it did recently in North America with the decision to abandon traditional family sedans like the Ford Fusion.

"This kind of deep restructuring will take time and we will communicate as decisions are made," Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks told analysts at the July conference call.

But lingering uncertainty worries some investors about the stability of Hackett's senior management. Ford's chief strategist, John Casesa, left last fall and his main lobbyist, Ziad Ojakli, left in July. The former head of global product development, Raj Nair, was fired in February for "inappropriate behavior."

Hackett has reorganized senior management functions several times since his arrival and has attempted to streamline decision-making. "In the old system, we had 24 officers gathered around a table. I reduced it to 10. "

But in the interview, he admits that it took some time for his management team, most of them, to adapt to his brain management style and adopt the methodologies he used at Steelcase. Among them: a process called "design thinking" that tries to solve problems by entering the mind of the consumer.

"We're four or five months later than I thought," conceded Hackett. But he said the team had taken the pace and there were signs that its changes were taking root.

As proof, he offered to meet me at Ford's design studio, where the new Mustang crossover took shape last winter and where product planners are currently working on the development of a new system. user-friendly infotainment.

Inside the brightly lit room, a series of moving walls eight feet high are covered with scribbled notes, drawings and a rainbow of post-it notes. Hieroglyphs are proof of the decisional cascade that Hackett pushed Ford product planners to pursue after learning that the Chinese wanted bigger screens in their cars. Instead of asking how much it would cost more – a typical CEO reaction – Hackett pushed them to understand why, pushing them to try to unblock consumer ideas that would lead to better product design.

Ford was one of the first players in the technology of connected cars with its Sync infotainment system, launched in 2007, which had applications dedicated to cars designed by Ford and other third-party developers. Over the years, Ford has modernized the system to make it more user-friendly.

The need for a larger screen may seem obvious – you can install more apps on the dashboard – but Hackett's desire to know why, a cross-functional team of product developers, designers and developers. human-machine interface specialists to his question.

"At first, it was like dogs and cats," said Darren Palmer, Ford's chief product engineer for electrification. The discussion went around in circles for days. "Then we started talking about ourselves and what we were doing in our own cars, and we suddenly started to understand each other. We spoke the same language. A few feet away, Hackett smiled, arms crossed. "I'm like a proud father," he says. "Listen to the way he talks about these things."

Over the next 90 days, the team designed a brand new infotainment system, experimenting with rapid prototyping techniques, such as sticking an empty Keurig coffee doser on a piece of cardboard to simulate a button on a dashboard screen. During bi-weekly visits to the design center, Hackett encouraged them to continue looking for ideas. "He does not have to be perfect. Let's try this in real time. "

At each iteration, Ford planners tested the system with consumers, while a massive team of software designers was monitoring remotely. Whenever a customer encountered something that he did not like during the demonstration, he reprogrammed the software in real time to get an immediate feedback on the change.

After three cycles of consumer research, customer experience manager Phil Mason said that the main asset of car owners was: "We want our products in the car; We do not want your business! This was especially true in China, where consumers are heavily dependent on their smartphones to handle all their daily tasks, including paying for goods and services through payment applications like AliPay and WeChat. Pay.

This information has resulted in a sleek new infotainment system that reflects consumers' smartphones, is easier to use and, of course, has a significantly wider screen. It will debut in the new performance utility inspired by Mustang.

A larger infotainment screen will not solve everything that weighs on Ford, especially in China, where sales fell by 26% this year. New models adapted to local tastes are about to be launched, but they will not be used for a few years. In the meantime, Ford is trying to solve dealer distribution issues while modifying vehicles borrowed from its Chinese partners to attract new buyers with limited budgets. An example, the new Ford Range entry-level SUV, will be marketed early 2019.

But the Chinese market is becoming more difficult for Western players, including Ford. The policies of the Chinese government are changing rapidly and there is an aggressive push towards zero emission electric vehicles. As the terrain evolves, the government naturally favors national actors. Ford was late on the market in the first place, but hopes to catch up with a new joint venture with Zotye Auto, a leading electric vehicle manufacturer in China.

In Europe, where Ford has a strong brand, it must decide whether to stay in the passenger car business or focus on utilities and commercial vehicles, as it has done in North America. Rumors are running about the thousands of job cuts in Europe, which the company rejects as speculation. Ford's prospects in South America are gloomier, particularly due to recent economic volatility, but Hackett said he prefers to stay in the market.

"Hackett's bias is that the Ford brand is emblematic," he said, speaking for himself, as he often does, in the third person. "It is associated with a story that is family. One of my last options is to close the Blue Oval on a market. I prefer never to do that.

But he does not have long to decide. The clock is ticking and it's time to play.