Does anyone else feel that perhaps Farley was telling Hackett how brilliant his ideas were, how great he was doing, design think is the best answer, etc. etc., even though he knew they were really bad, just so that when Bill finally gave him his shot at CEO, he could look like a saviour?
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All CEOs - especially the CEOs of automakers - have a very healthy ego. But Farley takes it to a new level. The obviously planted puff pieces started well before he was CEO and they continue. You have to ask yourself why. If he's already CEO what purpose do they serve other than to make himself feel better? And the piece that ran in the Free Press last week about his wife's band's music video was just straight up bizarre. The guy seems to spend a LOT of time on Twitter for someone who has to run a global automaker.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aot3MyQJUOY I found a video of when Farley graduated. He gave Hau Tang a big hug. Let me be blunt, this is the guy's breeding stock. As he steers the ship that hundreds of thousands of people rely on for a living. Let that sink in.
I also am weary of all the PR Farley pieces. What value are they contributing to Ford’s bottom line.
And what’s up with Farley not having the leadership to announce bad news. Every meeting it is
Farley: I am so handsome and wonderful and everything is coming up roses. Oh but Kumar has something to tell you.
Kumar: Things are not well, we are (fill in the blank) - terminating employees/cutting salaries/cutting benefits/...
People have learned to tune out Farley as it is all puffery.
The Farley PR blitz continues. Now we're supposed to believe the Bronco Sport design was all due to Farley saying 2 words to the design team, who would have been completely lost without the Car Guy's brilliance. This is getting even more obnoxious than Hackett: https://www.autonews.com/design/advice-farley-helped-bronco-design-team-bring-sport-home
Like the last respondent said, Farley is an old school Ford power player. He was hired into the company by Mulally to bring fresh marketing ideas from Toyota. Since then he has carefully remade his image into being a "car guy" (despite having no engineering background whatsoever) and formed alliances with the right people, mainly Ford family members. Elena's career had been buried long ago until Farley resurrected it. He definitely knew Hackett was a lightweight and saw the opportunity to wait him out. The point is he makes decisions based on what is best for Farley and not necessarily what is best for the long term future of the company. He's not an engineering or manufacturing guy and his whole "car guy" street cred is a freaking joke. I know people who worked in Ford Performance when he first came on and they told me he had absolutely zero interest in racing. In fact he was looking for ways to cut costs in racing programs. Yet now we see stories about how he's the driver for his own race team. It's all a carefully constructed facade. The guy spends more time on his Twitter account than Elon Musk. He's every bit the lightweight Hackett was with a personal PR team and a little more self-awareness. He's just going to do whatever Bill wants to do which is not good for the long term future of Ford.
Farley is a player. He promoted Elena Ford and worked the Ford family with confidence, arrogance, and envoking fear in most of the directors that worked for him. They are smitten with him.
Hacket is a friend of Bill's. Farley just looked for opportunities to impress without ruffling feathers.
Really? Can you please do some work Rudy G.?
No, no one else feels like that. Only Mr. H himself can make up such an outstanding theory, based on design thinking !
Hackett was capable of looking incompetent all by himself. Farley is just fortunate to follow a guy whose greatest accomplishment was hiring Jim Harbaugh.