{"id":146051,"date":"2020-04-16T16:29:22","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T20:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=146051"},"modified":"2020-04-16T16:42:55","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T20:42:55","slug":"ford-coo-farley-shuffles-executives-to-accelerate-improvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2020\/04\/ford-coo-farley-shuffles-executives-to-accelerate-improvement\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford COO Farley Shuffles Executives to Accelerate Improvement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Ford COO Jim Farley completed a “10-week deep dive” of the company and implemented changes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A little more than two months after being appointed Ford Motor Co.\u2019s Chief Operating Officer, Jim Farley is further putting his stamp on the automaker with a reorganization of the company\u2019s top executives and responsibilities.<\/p>\n

Ford CEO Jim Hackett has been looking to focus the automaker\u2019s efforts on becoming a leaner, more efficient operation while spurring innovation and leadership on the product and technological front. This effort, called the Creating Tomorrow Together transformation plan, has been slow going.<\/p>\n

However, Hackett put Farley, who was\u00a0leading Ford\u2019s New Businesses, Technology & Strategy team, helping the company determine how to capitalize on the powerful forces reshaping the industry \u2013 such as software platforms, connectivity, AI, automation and new forms of propulsion, in charge of the plan, hoping he\u2019d act as catalyst to speed it up. The moves announced Thursday are designed to do just that.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(Ford names Farley COO; President, Automotive Hinrichs Retires.)<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are moving with a renewed sense of urgency to improve the fitness of the business and improve our launches, while at the same time modernizing Ford in a way that plays to our strengths,\u201d Farley said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kumar Galhotra, Ford\u2019s president, North America, got an expanded set of responsibilities in the new shake up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThat means putting the right team of global leaders in place, streamlining the way we work, embracing the power of connectivity, data and AI, and turning our leadership in commercial vehicles into a dedicated growth business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farley put more responsibility on the shoulders of Kumar Galhotra, 54, who got an expanded role as president, Americas & International Markets Group. As part of this broader responsibility, he reports directly to Farley and the North America, South America and International Markets Group business units will report to\u00a0Galhotra.<\/p>\n

He is also responsible for the P&L of the business units including a newly established commercial vehicle business for the U.S. and Canada. Galhotra\u2019s new organization will drive faster enterprise-wide decision-making and further efficiencies to better serve customers and adapt to changing market conditions, the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n

(Key Ford exec “retiring” as management shake-up follows poor earnings news.)<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Lisa Drake, 47, is now add the title of chief operating officer, North America, to her current job as vice president, Global Purchasing, responsible for all\u00a0category management processes\u00a0and procurement functions\u00a0across direct and indirect\u00a0Purchasing\u00a0areas,\u00a0as well as\u00a0supplier technical assistance.<\/p>\n

While reporting to Galhotra, she\u2019s expected to enhance focus to product launches, warranty cost reduction and material cost improvements. Perhaps most importantly, Drake is charged with leading the push to return the North American business back to a 10% EBIT margin \u2014 one of the main sticking points in Hackett\u2019s plans for the company.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Lisa Drake was named Chief Operating Officer, North America. She retains her role as Vice President, Global Purchasing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ted Cannis, 53, was named general manager, Commercial Vehicles, for the U.S. and Canada \u2014 another newly created position. Cannis is expected to grow the Commercial Vehicle business. The title calls for him to find new ways to meet the needs of the company\u2019s commercial vehicle buyers.\u00a0He also reports to Galhotra.<\/p>\n

Retired Col. Gil Gur Arie, 44, joins the company from a distinguished career in the Israeli Military Intelligence Corps as chief, Global Data Insight and Analytics, and reports to Farley. Gur Arie brings vast and unique experience to Ford in big data and AI, information technology, digital-age human-machine aspects and multi-domain large scale analytics.<\/p>\n

In short, he\u2019s going to be in charge of making sure Ford\u2019s growing campus in southwest Detroit, highlighted by its acquisition and subsequent ongoing renovation of the old Detroit train station lives up to its billing \u2014\u00a0and expenditures. This means that Ford will drive efficiency and gain understanding from connected vehicles, amongst other modern capabilities, to better serve the customer and improve the company\u2019s fitness.<\/p>\n

(Disastrous fourth quarter hurts Ford\u2019s full-year earnings.)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, Lyle Watters, 54, takes on an expanded role as president, South America & International Markets Group, reporting to Galhotra. Mark Ovenden, 55, continues in his current role as president, International Markets Group. He will report to Watters. All appointments take effect May 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ford COO Jim Farley said he expected changes would come after he took on the role, and after a “10-week deep dive” they’ve arrived. He’s assigned new responsibilities to some executives while moving others into new roles. See what’s next at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":146064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,12],"tags":[],"make":[56],"post-state":[],"category_old":[118,286,150,151,123,287,133,131,173,289,299,171,248,169,132,284,125,124,139,148,290,128,291,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146051"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=146051"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=146051"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=146051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}