Play
Show Navigation
Show Transcript
00:00
Play
Seek 10 seconds backwards
Seek 10 seconds forward
00:00 / 20:31
Mute
Disable Captions
Settings
Picture in picture
Fullscreen
Search in video
You can search the video captions for specific words or phrases.
Popout transcript
Hide Transcript
Skip transcript
- [Monica] Some people were
born to do one unique thing.
And Jim Farley was born to lead Ford.
I saw a media report that
called you the coolest CEO
in the world.
His grandfather worked for Henry Ford
and helped build the Model T.
- [Jim] We've been in
business for 110 years, more.
- [Monica] When Jim spent
time with his grandfather
they didn't play ball or read Dr.Seuss,
they read car magazines!
Now those same car magazines
are talking about Jim
and his new role as Ford's CEO.
That's because Jim Farley
is transforming Ford.
- [Jim] You know, I came to
Ford to serve other people.
I didn't want to be a generation
of people that saw Ford fail.
- [Monica] As the
daughter of a Ford dealer
in Knoxville, Tennessee,
I can tell you, this is not
your grandfather's blue oval.
I am so happy to have Jim
Farley on The Inflection Point.
- [Monica] Welcome Jim!
- [Jim] Good to see you Monica!
- [Monica] This show is
called The Inflection Point.
So I want to ask you, what
was your inflection point?
Is there a moment in your
life, when everything changed?
And it made such an impact on your life
you can say that made a difference to me.
- [Jim] Yeah, it happened in an interview.
I remember after 20 years
of Toyota, I joined Ford.
We turned around the company.
The stock went from a dollar to $15
and I started to get a lot of offers,
and I was in an interview with
the founder of a tech company
and he turned to me, he goes,
'why are you in the auto industry?
'You should come to our business,
'it's a lot simpler,
'that's just such a hard business.'
And I remember going back to
my hotel room and thinking
I do not want to take the easy way.
I want to take the hard
way, I want to serve Ford
even if it's difficult.
And it turned out to be difficult,
many years our stock
price floundered again
and we had to kind of
redo the company again,
but I committed there and then.
That was an inflection point.
That I wanted to follow my heart.
- [Monica] Wow. That is profound because
you do love cars
and you love Ford.
You were called Jimmy Car-Car from,
- [Jim] Yes.
- [Monica] As a baby.
Now, did that start with your
grandfather who we know was
you know, an early employee
at Ford working on the Model T
for Henry Ford, or did you
just love all things on wheels?
- [Jim] Yes, it was very
much my grandfather,
I got really close to
him and like a lot of us,
grandparents have freedoms
that parents don't have and
my dad was a banker and so, you know,
I'd watch a NASCAR race or something,
he'd get mad at me and say, you know,
I want you- I don't want you to do that.
Which incentivized me even more.
And then I had a breakthrough
where I got to work
for Phil Hill to put myself
through graduate school at UCLA
and while I was getting my MBA,
and I worked in his
shop, restoring old 1920s
and thirties cars.
And I really,
just loved that job
more than any job I ever had.
You know, I, at that
point I kind of decided,
hey this is what I want to
do for the rest of my life.
- [Monica] That wasn't
when you drove a car
illegally across the country.
(Jim Laughs)
- [Jim] No that was,
I was a little bit younger and you're like
I bought a Mustang when I was 14.
And I lived in the back of it
and restored it over the summer,
and then I used my airplane ticket
I traded it in for gas money
to make it across the country
back to Michigan.
And I, yes I didn't have
my license or insurance
or even a spare tire, um
but it was a great two days.
- [Monica] This is so funny that your dad
didn't even want you
watching NASCAR races.
- [Jim] No, no.
- [Monica] Because as a kid,
I used to go to NASCAR
races, not just watch them.
You remember my dad's dealership?
- [Jim] Alright a Talladega Ford!
- [Monica] I know!
- [Jim] I love it!
- [Monica] His Tennessee
motor company used to
sponsor David Pearson.
I used to go to those races, but,
you didn't just watch them on TV.
Then you started racing cars,
and shortly after you became the CEO,
you won an endurance race against teams,
And you raced solo
and now you're preparing
to race in La Mans, right?
- [Jim] Right.
- [Monica] So, why do you keep racing?
You are the CEO of a
fortune 12 company now.
- [Jim] I think first of
all um I love competing,
and racing allows me to do that.
It's my main hobby.
You know, some people have
golf or tennis or running,
for me, it's racing cause it's my yoga.
Like when I get out of the race car
and I concentrated that
hard for a couple hours
or even during a test,
I forget about everything.
I feel so relaxed and rejuvenated.
It's like a week vacation
in the Bahamas to me,
I just feel so refreshed,
ready to go back to work.
And you know, being a
racer, working on the car,
allows me to stay really connected
with what we do and the
people in the company,
and they see me as one of you know
that we're on the same team, so to speak
and we, we're in it for the love of it.
- [Monica] When Bill Ford
offered you the job as the CEO
did you have one condition to him?
- [Jim] I did.
I said, hey Bill, um about the racing.
And he goes, I like a CEO
with petrol in his brain
and in his veins.
I was like, so we're good.
He's like, yeah, yeah.
Boy was that a lift off my shoulders.
I got on the, immediately on the phone
with my race team and said,
we're good, we're okay.
(Monica laughs)
- [Monica] So you knew you
had to have that racing in,
in your life.
- [Jim] Yeah. I mean, I hate to say it but
I think there are things
you've got to stick up for.
Whether it's your family
or your loved ones, or
you know your hobbies.
When it's all said and done, you know
you have to have who you are.
You have to feed what makes you, you
and that's one of the
things that makes me, me.
- [Monica] This shows your long-time love
and so many Ford customers' long time love
with the internal combustion engine.
But, now at Ford as the CEO
you're actually leading
the electric revolution
- [Jim] Despite Bill Ford,
being frankly ahead of
the whole industry and
being a spokesperson
for environmentalism for
more than two decades now.
- [Monica] Exactly.
- [Jim] You know the
management team finally
caught up with Bill.
Our strategy is to electrify
our most iconic products
like Mustang or F-150,
and I would say, as
someone who's grown up in
the car business,
an electric car is just a better car.
- [Monica] To hear you say the
electric car is a better car,
is kind of shocking. Why is it?
- [Jim] Yeah. I, I had
to get there myself too,
but you know, I think if you
are just objective about it
for a lot of people, not
everyone, but a lot of people
it's got, more interior room,
for the same amount of overall length.
Also, you remove 40% of the moving parts
and the parts you're removing
are the most complicated,
most expensive ones to repair
like engine and
transmission, they're gone.
So it's a much simpler vehicle.
It's a much more simple vehicle to make.
It's also a digital vehicle
so you can update it over the air.
You don't always have to
come into a dealership
to get it changed or improved.
Now for someone who lives in rural Texas,
who wants 800 mile range,
yeah, probably not the best solution,
but for a lot of customers
who used their vehicles,
you know, a maximum couple hundred miles,
it's actually a great solution.
- [Monica] And the trend
is going electric, right?
We had California really first at that.
California governor Newsom, praised Ford
as being early on with
supporting the electric vehicle.
And now with the Biden administration,
they've rejoined the Paris climate accords
and Biden has come out now and said
he wants the government
fleet to be electric.
So my question to you is Jim
what does this mean for Ford,
your customers, and the planet?
- [Jim] So it's a really big deal for
for all the OEMs to get serious
about electric cars and,
you know, our strategy is different
and we were the only brand,
except for a few others,
that committed to the
Paris accord and California
as one national standard, across the U.S.,
you're absolutely right.
And that fits our values,
but there are a lot of
business challenges too,
because it doesn't break as much.
Actually the easiest part is
getting the electric vehicles developed
and bought by consumers.
The harder part is all
the second tier affects
like building out the infrastructure
especially for commercial customers.
Also the labor tales.
You know these vehicles
are simpler to make
and that means if we
don't do anything special
a lot of people will lose their jobs.
- [Monica] Wow so that's
what you were talking about.
The business part of
this is more complicated
in actuality.
- [Jim] Absolutely because you
know, we've been in business
for 110 years more and
we are a family company.
And you know, we have to figure out
how vertically integrated we want to be.
Do we go into cell production?
That, that would allow a
lot of labor to come over
from making engines and transmissions
over to making the electric vehicles
even though the assembly of
the vehicle is much simpler
and requires less labor,
we can find other jobs
for the same people,
but to do that we have
to work with government
and regulators to make those
opportunities available.
Most of the battery
technology comes from Asia,
and so we have to build large
battery production facilities
in the U.S. and we want to
do that with U.S. workers
and so there's a huge transition.
And a lot of people don't
know this about Ford,
we have more American hourly workers than
any other car company.
We have more vehicles made in America.
A lot of other people
moved to Mexico and Canada
and other places. We didn't.
And so we think about this
maybe more than others
because we are the leader in American jobs
and the cell production is a big decision.
- [Monica] Wow. So you have
even more on your plate
than I thought.
I know, even though you're
the CEO, you got into the
design of the Mustang, Mach-E
a little bit, or maybe a lot,
and the new Bronco Sport that
everyone is excited about
and they're both getting rave reviews.
But, you also are just as
ecstatic when you talk about
a product line that's not nearly as sexy.
That is the commercial vehicle.
I've heard you talk passionately
about the small businesses
that use your commercial vans.
The florist, the
electricians, the plumbers.
Why is that?
What was your light bulb
moment that got you excited
about this?
- [Jim] There was a
gentleman, he was a plumber,
and he was saying, you
know, why he loves his job,
and he was basically saying, look,
people don't notice me, but
I'm building a cathedral.
I make my town run,
and I started to think, you know,
all those white trucks out there and vans,
that we all take for granted
that we don't even look at,
are really the things that
keep our communities running:
the police cars, the ambulances,
50% of those are Fords.
And why, why is that
organizations should
feel so much better about a sports car
than that plumber's truck.
- [Monica] Now what you're doing is
you're bringing connectivity
to these business customers.
Now this is a whole new way
to make small businesses
more productive.
- [Jim] Yeah, absolutely.
So light bulb moment for me,
to go back to the theme
of, of your show is,
I was in the UK listening to
some of our small business owners,
and they started to
describe the relationship
with the data coming off the vehicles.
And I said, oh my God,
these people like the data
more than the vehicle.
It was a huge eye-opener for me
that for commercial customers,
if we can connect the
vehicles and use the data
off the connected vehicles
to find error codes,
we can make the quality better.
We give the data for the customers
so they could teach their
drivers how to drive better.
If we, if we sensor the
vehicle and use the data
off the vehicle, we could
literally change the cost
for these customers in a way
that the product couldn't.
- [Monica] Wow.
- [Jim] So this is a game changer.
In fact, I would say I thought
the electric car was going to
be the coolest thing happened
in my, in my, my career.
I was wrong.
It's the connected data vehicle
is really the game changer
in our industry.
- [Monica] Okay so you're doing
all these bold moves at Ford
and it seems that you are taking Ford from
an auto manufacturer, it still is,
but to an e-mobility company.
Is that the goal here?
- [Jim] Yes, I think it is.
And it, and I would say
from a product company
to a service enabled by
software and products company.
- [Monica] Okay.
- [Jim] The way we're changing is
I would kind of draw the
analogy to when mobile came to
the baby bells.
You had people who had real
profitable landline business
and they had a trans-
transition to wireless.
We're kind of at the same point now.
Where these battery electric
digital vehicles are kind of
our equivalent of the wireless business.
- [Monica] So, but this is all futuristic.
This is inspiring, but you
also are making some hard calls
since you took over, some
really tough decisions.
You shuffled your executive ranks,
and retired several top executives.
You also are restructuring
global operations,
and you closed some factories in Brazil.
So is this your way that you're driven to
make Ford profitable?
I mean, what are you doing?
You're rocking things out.
- [Jim] I, I yeah. I would say, look,
we don't have any more time.
Our equivalent of, of the wireless
businesses here right now.
And we're out of time.
The bottom line is, it's
time to be decisive.
We have three parts of our plan.
We have to get our
automotive operations to be
sustainably profitable
cause that funds everything.
We then have to modernize
that like battery, electrics,
data, and software first
and services first,
and then we have to
actually disrupt ourself.
We have to literally disrupt the idea of
personal ownership of vehicles.
- [Monica] Well, obviously wall
street is in love with you.
I mean that your stock is
surging and they love that
you're willing to make
the hard calls as well as
the plans for the future.
So while you're transforming forwards,
the industry at large is under
a great transformation too.
I mean, do you think
dealers are even going to
exist in the future?
- [Jim] I do, but it will be different.
You know, if you look at
what, how Target adapted to
it's competitive model with
Amazon, yeah, I think our,
our business, when you
crash a commercial vehicle,
or when you have physical
repair to a vehicle, you know,
I have to physically go do that somewhere.
But I, I do believe the
model's going to change a lot,
yes we will have e-commerce platforms.
It'll be kind of a mix
of in-person and digital,
we learned that from COVID,
we actually did like 90% of our sales were
you know, DocuSign documents,
mobile pickup delivery
at people's homes and the
people liked it. It worked.
- [Monica] Yeah, exactly.
- [Jim] So there's a real
kind of breakthrough moment.
- [Monica] Now let's
talk about your charity.
You and I texted last weekend
and you're just come in,
it was 18 degrees in Detroit
and you had been at the
Pope Francis Center.
I think you had been volunteering
to help the homeless?
Tell me what you were doing.
- [Jim] Yeah. So I always
give out socks and medication
and get people's mail because
it allows me to talk to
the homeless one-on-one
and connect with them.
Last year in Detroit,
there was, I counted about
five people that I knew that
passed away in the cold,
froze to death.
The people here, you know,
they put their life at risk
every winter living outdoors.
- [Monica] Exactly. That's eyeopening.
Let me ask you a question
as the CEO of Ford
in a position of power,
why do you think it's
important to lead by example?
- [Jim] I think it's part
of the culture at Ford.
Like we're a company
where people volunteer
without being asked.
We had people driving to South
Dakota to make ventilators
and they volunteered.
No one asked them in the company.
We just made available,
'Hey, 3M needs a hundred people from Ford.
'If you're a process
engineer in manufacturing,
'they need manufacturing expertise
to make more ventilators.
'They need to 10x the output.'
You know people drove to South Dakota,
in the middle of winter,
and stayed in their trucks
overnight, for weeks
and weeks because that's
what kind of company we are.
I grew up in a family where
you're not just there to consume
you're there to help other people.
And that sense of service
to the, to, you know
the Ford employees or the
community of Detroit doesn't stop
when you're the CEO.
In fact it becomes more important because,
you know, as the CEO,
everyone tells me how great
everything's going, but
when I'm handing out socks
at the Pope Francis Center, you know,
I see things and myself a little clearer.
- [Monica] Let's talk
about one subject that is
a little touchy but I
think we can talk about it.
It's not a secret that Chris Farley,
the famous Saturday Night Live comedian
and the actor, was your cousin.
Can you tell me a little
bit about Chris and,
and your time with him?
- [Jim] Chris is very
unique in our family.
You know, you know, we
all pick our own things
and we go deep.
(Jim and Monica laugh)
- [Jim] If you're going to
pick something, do it well.
And he was very good
at making people laugh.
He was a professional at
it, and I loved Chris.
You know, he brought joy to so
many people and I loved being
around him because he was,
in person he would still say
he was on the set of Saturday Night Live,
and his, his whole
family are just terrific.
Both of his brothers are
comedian still to this day,
and so comedy is a big part
of our big, loud family.
We love laughing together,
and Chris was the ringmaster.
- [Monica] But you also,
you also watched him
struggle with addiction.
- [Jim] Yeah. I think we're
all surrounded by, you know,
addiction one way or the other.
And, you know it's a humbling experience
watching someone so talented,
you know, do what they do.
And, and I have to say, you know,
those were Chris's choices.
On the other hand, you know,
we have to be very empathetic
and be there for those
people in our lives.
And it, it was so much
fun to see Chris excel at
what he loved.
A little bit, kind of like
me in the car business.
You know, he, he was great
at what he did and he,
and he loved every day of it.
- [Monica] Now
- [Jim] Yes.
- [Monica] One last thing before you go.
As you know since I'm a
daughter of a Ford dealer,
I was fortunate enough to have
a Mustang as my first car.
Now, after this
conversation, I'm thinking,
I need a Mustang Mach-E,
and I've even pulled the
specs on an all black one
that I think looks pretty cool for me.
As you see I'm in all black.
So what I want to know is,
there's a waiting list,
how long do I have to wait before
I can get a Mustang Mach-E?
- [Jim] We'll take care of it Monica.
(Jim and Monica laugh)
- [Jim] We'll take care of it for you.
- [Monica] No, seriously there-
how long is the waiting list?
- [Jim] Months?
- [Monica] My 22 year old daughter's like,
'I might want a Bronco Sport.'
I'm like, oh my God,
we're all about Ford now.
So you're hitting different generations.
- [Jim] Yeah. Our products or services,
they have to be vehicles or services that
people can't live without.
And I know it's important to our employees
to have a, a leader of a
organization who loves the product.
- [Monica] Listen, Jim, I believe
you were born to lead Ford
starting with your grandfather,
raising you to love it,
and I thank you so much
for being with us today.
It's been inspirational
and enlightening and fun.
- [Jim] Thank you, Monica.
You're the best.
I had a lot of fun today
and thank you so much for
giving us the opportunity
to to tell a story of
a company in Detroit.
- [Monica] Thank you, Jim.
- [Monica] Next time
on The Inflection Point
I'm joined by Frank Slootman,
the CEO of Snowflake.
- [Monica] What was it about
snowflake that got you there?
- [Frank] It was producing
orders of magnitude,
faster results you know,
ten times, hundred times,
so this was revolutionary.
- [Monica] A hallmark of your
management style is no BS.
- [Frank] I get hired,
not for people's health
but they need change
and they need results.
So I can't mess around.
- [Monica] You. Frank Slootman retired?
- [Frank] I been under the
gun from the age of six.
You know, I absolutely
knew that I was burned out,
and then in order to recover from that,
that just takes time.
Resume AutoScroll
Questions about Salesforce+? We have answers.
What is Salesforce+?
Salesforce+ is the free streaming service for business. It’s a place to watch live events and original series that help you grow your career and company, on your own time. Salesforce+ is produced by Salesforce, so you’ll find our company’s big events like Dreamforce here — as well as new original shows and virtual learning made for your role and industry. Everything is free and unlimited.
What can I watch on Salesforce+?
You can watch all kinds of helpful, entertaining, and inspiring videos on Salesforce+. One thing our members love is our events. Whether you catch them live or on demand, Salesforce+ gives you a free front-row seat to our biggest global events, like Dreamforce, TrailblazerDX, and Connections. Our members are also big fans of our original series. These entertaining business shows star people in roles and industries just like yours, giving you fresh ideas for how to grow your company and do better work. The best part is, it’s all free.
Do I have to pay for Salesforce+?
Salesforce+ is free. Watch any Salesforce+ events or series at no cost. To enjoy unlimited free access to our entire library of videos, become a member by signing up for Salesforce+ with a Trailblazer account. You don’t need a Trailblazer account to watch original series. To join us for virtual events like Dreamforce or Connections, you need to create your own Trailblazer account (it’s free!).
What is a Trailblazer account?
Your Trailblazer account gives you access to a unified profile across the Salesforce ecosystem and allows you to manage your settings and access across multiple Salesforce sites.
How do I sign up to register for live and on-demand events, like Dreamforce?
Sign up or log in to your Trailblazer account and complete a few additional details to watch Salesforce+ events live and on demand. We recommend preregistering for all events on Salesforce+ to get your own personalized journey, reminders, recommendations, and more.
Do I need to be a Salesforce customer to watch Salesforce+?
You don’t need to be a Salesforce customer to watch Salesforce+. Our virtual learning is open to everyone.
