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Ford Company Profile
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Table of Contents Overview 4
Corporate Overview 5
Target Personas 7 Ford Mobility 8
Marcy Klevoran - EVP and President of Mobility 9 Marion Harris - VP Mobility Business Group 10 Rich Strader - VP Mobility Platforms and Products 11 Don Butler - Executive Director of Connected Vehicles 12 Brett Wheatly - VP Mobility Marketing and Growth 14 Sherif Marakby - CEO Ford Autonomous Vehicles 15 Randy Visintainer - Director, Autonomous Vehicles 16
Ford Automotive 17 James Farley, Jr. - President of Global Markets 18 Cathy O’Callaghan - CFO Global Markets 19 Frederiek Toney - President, Global Ford Customer Service Division 20 Joy Falotico - CMO 21 Joseph Hinrichs - EVP Global Operations 22 Jeff Lemmer - CIO Global Markets 23 Trevor Worthington - VP Global Product Development 24 Linda Cash - VP Quality and New Model Launch 25
Ford Credit 26 David McClelland - CEO Ford Credit 27 Brian Schaaf - CFO Ford Credit 28 Geoff McLellan - VP US Sales Operations 29 Charlie Pratt - EVP Global Operations 30
Corporate Officers 31 Elena Ford - Chief Customer Experience Officer 32 Paul Ballew - Chief Data & Analytics Officer 33 Robert Shanks - CFO Ford Motor Company 34 Jeff Lawler - VP of Strategy 35 Dr. Ken Washington - Chief Technology Officer 36
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Emily Kolinski Morris - Chief Economist 37 Kiersten Robinson - CHRO 38
Q3 Earnings Call Overview 39
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Overview The purpose of this document to outline the key organizational elements of the Ford Motor Company to assist with outreach towards Ford. This document will include:
● Corporate Overview ● Target Personas ● Discussion of Quarterly Earnings Call
At a very high level, we believe that the messaging towards Ford should revolve around their focus on innovation, and finding a project within Ford that the software can help with: specifically in Ford Mobility, but it could also make sense to have ancillary outreach towards Ford Automotive and Ford Credit. Even if they say it doesn’t make sense right now, there are so many innovative projects that - as long as we keep in contact - a need would surely arise.
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Corporate Overview CEO Jim Hackett
Founded 1903
Headquartered Dearborn, Michigan
Number of Employees 202,000 Net Revenue (2017) $156 Billion Though Ford is typically thought of as a dinosauric car company, the old giant of Detroit learned a lot from the Great Recession, which it is paranoid about making sure it doesn’t return to. Ford has decided that if it wants to be a part of the future of automobiles, it will have to go back to its past and lead the future in innovation. This innovation involves two key components: innovating existing business processes and expanding into new markets. For Innovating Existing Business Processes, this includes pretty much every aspect of the business. On the Q3 Earnings Call, Jim Hackett described the $11 Billion plan his team is currently putting in place and executing against for the next five years to restructure and innovate every aspect of the company. The Expanding Into New Markets piece deals primarily with an initiative that is called Ford Mobility, which Jim Hackett described as, “wrapping software and services in new offerings to our customers.” This initiative, though, has a fairly wide remit and includes everything from a partnership with Avis, to an initiative with Lyft and Uber called SharedStreets. Mobility is so important that it has its own Executive Vice President who reports directly to the CEO.
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Ford takes innovation seriously, and it is the primary focus of their strategy moving forward. Here is a quote from the Chairman’s letter in the 2017 Annual Report:
While we are pleased and proud to deliver these substantial profits, we know that business as usual is no longer good enough in the rapidly changing business environment. We are aggressively reducing costs and re-allocating capital to the products and markets with the highest potential for growth and returns. As we improve the efficiency and focus of our business for today, we are also accelerating our efforts to be a leader in the vehicles and mobility services of tomorrow. Our goal is to become the world’s most trusted mobility company.
And from the CEO:
We are proud of what we have accomplished. But, as always, we are preparing for what’s next, and we are clearly entering a period of radical disruption. Our traditional automotive competitors are improving. New competitors are entering the sector. Breakthrough technologies are transforming nearly every aspect of the vehicles we build and how people use them, demanding a rethink of how we design transportation systems.
Finally, there is an idea conveyed by the CEO that he describes as Owning The Future. He lays out Five High Level Principles:
1. Ford will prepare for disruption by becoming fit. 2. We will be in the vehicle business - moving both people and goods 3. Our vehicles will be smart and connected 4. These smart vehicles will thrive in a new transportation operation system 5. Ford will capitalize on new business opportunities within the transportation
operating system. These Principles aren’t laid out everywhere as most company principles are, so it was probably an ad-hoc statement, but it is indicative of how seriously Ford takes the importance of innovation.
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Target Personas The Target Personas are executives at Ford who would have KPIs tied to revenue maximization or cost reduction, and thus would probably be the ultimate decision maker. Ford is divided into four main corporate segments:
● Mobility ● Automotive ● Credit ● Corporate
I will divide the Target Personas based on that segmentation. Here is what that looks like from a leadership perspective:
One thing to note is that these org charts are - to a varying degree - educated guesses based on public information. I might be incorrect about who reports to who specifically. Keep that in mind, and if you learn something different, please let me know.
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Ford Mobility Ford Mobility is the key initiative for Ford in 2018 and 2019. The idea is to transform Ford from a company that primarily sells cars (and the credit to finance them) into a dynamic 21st century company that leverages software to help people get to where they need to go. While the company has some broad strokes ideas about what that exactly means, they are purposefully keeping their specific initiatives vague, so as to provide flexibility.
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Marcy Klevoran - EVP and President of Mobility
Marcy Klevoran - Company Profile Marcy Klevoran - LinkedIn Profile She is the head honcho of Mobility. Her background is primarily in IT. Her last role was a Group Vice President, Information Technology, in which she oversaw “the complete transformation of the company’s IT tools and talent to put Ford in the forefront of technology companies globally.” She straddles the line between Decision Maker and Executive Sponsor. One issue is that Mobility’s CFO is on his way out, and they haven’t announced a new one. At Ford, it seems that a lot of the “strategy” comes from the CFOs’ offices. As the Head of Mobility, she would probably be too busy to speak, but would definitely be able to point us in the direction of the person who is making those decisions.
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Marion Harris - VP Mobility Business Group
Marion Harris - Company Profile Marion Harris - LinkedIn Profile His job at Mobility is to scale the company’s existing mobility business. Marion is a Decision Maker, and might not even need Executive Sponsorship. My understanding of their business structure at Mobility is to take a business idea, build it up until it gets some traction, and then assign it to a business focused team, like the one run by Marion that can scale it and make it effective by dealing with the blocking and tackling of running a unit. His last role was as CFO of Ford Credit, and is specifically proud of their acquisition of Canvas in 2016, which offered month-to-month subscriptions for off-lease Ford and Lincoln vehicles in the Bay and Los Angeles. Some of the businesses that he is responsible for are:
● Ford Commercial Solutions ● Ford Microtransit
○ Chariot ○ Non-Emergency Medical Transport Unit
● Ford Pass and Digital Services - including those dealing with autonomous vehicles.
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Rich Strader - VP Mobility Platforms and Products
Rich Strader - Company Profile Rich Strader - LinkedIn Profile Rich’s function is to help build out and develop the technological infrastructure of the Ford Mobility Group. Rich is a Decision Maker, and might not need Executive Sponsorship. While Marion is probably more interested in the financials, Rich’s background is in IT and is probably primarily interested in making the business units work and get off the ground. My guess is that concepts originate in Rich’s group, then go to Marion’s once they become prominent enough. Some of the areas within his remit are:
● Connectivity ● FordPass ● Vehicle Management as a Service ● Transportation as a Service
If you get pushback from Rich, I would recommend going deep on Ford Connectivity, and seeing if he can refer you to Don Butler.
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Don Butler - Executive Director of Connected Vehicles
Don Butler - Company Profile Don Butler is in charge of Ford Connectivity, which seems to be the major current initiative within Ford. He is most probably a Decision Maker, but could need Executive Sponsorship. As an Executive Director, I’m guessing that he owns his budget. Though, at the least, he’s a very strong influencer. Ford Connectivity is essentially Ford’s IoT play. The way that he describes his role on his Company Profile: “he leads the development of a near-, mid- and long-term plan for implementation with the goals of delivering a best-in-class customer experience inside and outside of the vehicle.” I get the sense that “inside and outside of the vehicle” is an internal phrase that is used often within his division between people, so it’s a phrase that I would recommend bringing up in calls and conversations with him. Within Ford Connectivity, there are a whole host of initiatives. One of them is to put WiFi in every car, another one is Ford SYNC, which is basically an interactive dashboard within your Ford vehicle.
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There was a sponsored piece of Wired content that acts as a press release for Ford Connectivity that I would recommend reading. One quote from Don Butler from the article:
“We’re moving from being just a hardware provider to being a hardware, software, and experiences provider. The future is going to be different, and we are embracing that difference, and we’ll continue to be a part of people’s lives.”
One final tidbit about Connectivity: it will play a big role in the future of Ford’s Autonomous Vehicle push, as the car’s ability to interact with the customer and the outside world will be an essential part of the self-driving experience.
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Brett Wheatly - VP Mobility Marketing and Growth
Brett Wheatly - Company Profile Brett Wheatly - LinkedIn Profile Brett’s function is to deal with high-level marketing initiatives to grow the different business units within Ford Mobility. He is a Decision Maker, he might need Executive Sponsorship, or maybe buy-in from a specific business unit that he wants to use your software for. His remit touches all aspects of the Ford Mobility business.
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Sherif Marakby - CEO Ford Autonomous Vehicles
Sherif Marakby - Company Profile Sherif Marakby - LinkedIn Profile Ford Autonomous Vehicles is technically a separate entity, though it is fully owned by Ford. I’m grouping it under Mobility because Marcy Klevoran chairs their Board of Directors. Sherif Marakby is head of Ford Autonomous Vehicles. He is a Decision Maker. Sherif worked at Ford from 2003 to 2016, when he moved to Uber and was Vice President of Global Vehicle Programs (which is part of their autonomous vehicle push), before coming back to Ford to be the CEO of this company. Sherif is primarily an engineer, and his role seems to be mainly to facilitate the building of the vehicles. I’m not sure if there is a big marketing play in the works already.
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Randy Visintainer - Director, Autonomous Vehicles
Randy Visintainer - Company Page Randy Visintainer - LinkedIn Page Randy has two roles within Ford: He is the Director of Autonomous Vehicles at Ford Motor Company (reporting to Ken Washington), and he is the Chief Technology Officer of Autonomous Vehicles, LLC., a Ford Company, reporting to Sherif Marakby. He would probably be a Decision Maker on any software play that deals specifically with IT, and would probably be an Influencer in any other conversation. He describes his role as leading, “a global team responsible for driving Ford’s autonomous vehicle research and development.” In the past, he was the Director for Global Product Development Quality at Ford, leading “cross-functional enterprise product creation processes and product quality for all global vehicle programs.”
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Ford Automotive Ford Automotive is what we typically think of when we think of Ford: they are the people who build and sell us Ford Vehicles. My understanding is that Ford Automotive is the “core” business of Ford, and thus doesn’t have a “head” in the same way that Mobility or Credit do. Rather, it is run by two people: James Farley, who is the EVP of Global Markets, and Joseph Hinrichs, who is the EVP of Global Operations. The way I think about it: James is in charge of selling cars, Joseph is in charge of building and delivering cars. Here is an org chart:
One thing to note is that Ford is a gigantic company, and Ford Automotive in particular. There are many VPs and Directors and that I left off the list that would be useful to target. I’ll go into some more depth as to what that looks like in the specific profiles of James and Joseph.
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James Farley, Jr. - President of Global Markets
James Farley, Jr. - Company Page James Farley, Jr. - LinkedIn Page As the head of Global Markets, he’s in charge of all Sales and Operations in all of Ford’s business units. He is definitely an Executive Sponsor and probably wouldn’t have time to get involved in a sales cycle, but could be looped in at some point. His units have had incredible profitability, and Ford is essentially taking the money from his businesses and using that to invest in Mobility and other initiatives. One thing that I would like to bring up is that Ford Automotive is divided into geographic-based segments. There’s a China, Europe, South America, North America, Canada, US in particular, and some more. It’s not clear who those segments specifically report to. My understanding is that part of those segments would report to James, while others would report to Joseph.
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Cathy O’Callaghan - CFO Global Markets
Cathy O'Callaghan - Company Page Cathy O’Callaghan - LinkedIn Page Cathy has dual responsibilities within Ford, she is the Corporate Controller, as well as the CFO of Global Markets (which is how Ford related to its Automotive Segment). In her capacity as Controller, she reports to Robert Shanks, CFO. In her capacity as CFO of Global Markets, she reports to James Farley. The conversation with her is primarily going to be geared around her capacity as CFO of Global Markets, and she is one of the key figures in the $11 billion plan that Ford is implementing to innovate that business line. She will probably be primarily an influencer, but could also be looped in as a Decision Maker for very specific deals. One thing that I would keep in mind while speaking with her (and maybe even bring up) are the incredible results that the Automotive segment has seen in Q3 and Year To Date. In Q3, Automotive saw an EBIT of $1.4 Billion, and its year to date EBIT is $6.5 Billion. Ford appears to view Automotive as the cash cow that will provide funding for its other projects, and she is the person in charge of making sure that cow is as profitable as possible. She will be a great person to discuss savings with, and would also be a resource - either during the deal or down the line - to loop in Robert Shanks for expansions.
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Frederiek Toney - President, Global Ford Customer Service Division
Frederiek Toney - Company Page There is not a lot of information about Frederiek on his company page, which is a shame because he seems like an ideal person for outreach. He also doesn’t have a LinkedIn page. He will be a Decision Maker, though could be looped in as an Executive Sponsor. A Google search for his name returns just one article from Alabama.com, which primarily focuses on his basketball acumen. The one part of the piece that can be slightly relevant is:
"My game was molded on the playground, competing head-to-head with James,'' Frederiek said. "He was bigger, stronger, more experienced, more athletic. He forced me to develop my skills. Most importantly, he taught me to compete and take pride in excellence. It was James' pursuit of his MBA that inspired me to do the same. His success in marriage, parenting and business inspired me to dream big and have confidence in my ability to achieve great things. It was James who urged me to leave a safe, secure position at Caterpillar to accept a more senior position at American Honda and later to leave Honda for Ford. He has been an unselfish supporter as only a proud big brother can be. He's exemplary as a loving family man, brother and human being. I owe much to him.''
But still, not a lot of context.
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Joy Falotico - CMO
Joy Falotico - Company Page Joy Falotico - LinkedIn Page Joy is responsible for all Marketing for Ford Automotive. She is a Decision Maker, but could also be an Executive Sponsor. She also wears some other hats in the organization: she is the Group Vice President of Lincoln Motor Company and is also the Chairwoman of the Ford Motor Credit Company Board of Directors. Joy seems to be incredibly immersed in the entire Ford organization. She began working at Ford Credit in 1989, and since then has been expanding her remit and responsibilities. Even if she isn’t the specific person to speak with, she will have a deep understanding of how to get a project accomplished within Ford. One issue is that she is so busy that it might be difficult to get her on the phone. One might have to go through her EA to be redirected to another part of the business that would be more applicable.
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Joseph Hinrichs - EVP Global Operations
Joseph Hinrichs - Company Profile Joseph Hinrichs - LinkedIn Profile Joseph describes his role as being responsible for: “Manufacturing and Labor Affairs, Quality, Information Technology, Sustainability, Environmental and Safety Engineering, Global Order to Delivery as well as the Ford Customer Service Division.” He is an Executive Sponsor.
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Jeff Lemmer - CIO Global Markets
Jeff Lemmer - Company Page Jeff Lemmer - LinkedIn Page Jeff Lemmer is responsible for all the Information Technology within Ford Automotive. He describes his role as being responsible for, “information technology services for the company’s operations globally and oversees Ford’s global IT business applications, architecture, data centers, engineering and infrastructure services.” He is a Decision Maker for any IT related software, and would be an Influencer on other purchases. Seeing as how Ford has a huge initiative to transform the business in the next five years, he is probably fairly active and engaged in different business units. My guess is that he should be fairly receptive to new software, because of how large of a task it is to transform the entire company’s IT. He could also be a Champion in specific situations.
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Trevor Worthington - VP Global Product Development
Trevor Worthington - Company Profile Trevor Worthington - LinkedIn Profile According to his company profile, Trevor “leads Ford’s global vehicle programs and is also responsible for coordinating the company’s product development (PD) resources to bring new products to market. He also has responsibility for driving competitive material costs and engineering expenses throughout the development cycle.” He is a Decision Maker, and could also be an Influencer in other cycles. He would be a great person to reach out to if your software was related to operational efficiency or cutting costs during the manufacturing processes.
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Linda Cash - VP Quality and New Model Launch
Linda Cash - Company Profile Linda Cash - LinkedIn Profile According to her company profile, Cash “is responsible for driving quality processes throughout the design and production of Ford vehicles and for new model launches globally, ensuring alignment throughout the various business operations.” She is a Decision Maker, and could be Influencer in various cycles. Her responsibilities seem to be primarily focused on the design and creation of new vehicles. I would reach out to her if my software drove efficiencies around team collaboration.
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Ford Credit Ford Credit is the business unit that lends customers the money to buy Ford products. Their primary concerns are loaning out money and making sure that they get paid back. You know… like most lenders. Ford Credit is technically a separate entity, whose CEO is David McClelland. Only David and the company’s CFO - Brian Schaaf - are also employees of Ford Motor Company, and, as such, don’t have Company Profiles. Here is an org chart:
In general, I would focus most of my attention on Automotive and Mobility, but here is information on the personas just as a heads up.
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David McClelland - CEO Ford Credit
David McClelland - Company Page David McClelland - LinkedIn Page David is the CEO of Ford Credit. He is probably an Executive Sponsor and shouldn’t be brought in on most deal cycles.
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Brian Schaaf - CFO Ford Credit
Brian Schaaf - Company Page Brian Schaaf - LinkedIn Page Brian describes his role as being, “responsible for Ford Credit financial planning, analysis, accounting and capital strategy.” He will be an Influencer on most deals. Ford Credit had their best results since 2011 in Q3. This was primarily driven by a favorable volume of lease residuals and auction volumes rising… not because of any particular initiative. He will be primarily looped in to make sure the numbers work.
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Geoff McLellan - VP US Sales Operations
Geoff McLellan - LinkedIn Page Geoff is in charge of sales for Ford Credit. He will be a Decision Maker, though he might need to bring in some Influencers. If you think about your interactions with a car brand, they can be put into two buckets: pre-purchase and post-purchase. Pre-Purchase is the process by which we buy the car, and Post-Purchase includes primarily the servicing and repayments that go through during the life of the vehicle. While we typically think of our experience in terms of the pre-purchase (because that is how most of our consumer relationships occur), the majority of the relationship between a car brand and its customer occurs in the post-purchase: specifically the experiences that we have with the brand while we paying off the loan we got to pay for it. The point being that Geoff runs an incredibly large portion of the interactions between the customer and the brand, and will be primarily focused on how to leverage those interactions to bring in more revenue.
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Charlie Pratt - EVP Global Operations
Charlie Pratt - LinkedIn Page Charlie seems to run the day to day of Ford Credit, though it is unclear what exactly is part of his remit. Ford executives don’t put a lot of information on their LinkedIn Profiles and he doesn’t have a Company Profile. He is an Executive Sponsor, but could also be a Decision Maker.
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Corporate Officers Here are a few officers that don’t fit neatly into the three main business units, but would probably be good people to reach out to. As I mentioned earlier, these org charts are, to a varying degree, educated guesses. This section is one of the higher degrees of guess-work. I’m listing all of these people as reporting directly to the CEO, but there is a strong probability that some actually work within another business unit. Adjust accordingly.
I’ve erred on the side of including more rather than less officers to include a wide swath of probably matches. There are some here that might not make sense for you to reach out to.
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Elena Ford - Chief Customer Experience Officer
Elena Ford - Company Page Elena Ford - LinkedIn Page Her role seems to include a moving remit that deals with many aspects of the way that Ford interacts with customers. She’s kind of the Free Safety of Ford. She would most likely be an Influencer, but probably has budget of her own. Here is a quote of hers from her Company Profile that I would bring up:
We know that an exceptional experience is what today’s customers want and expect and are focused on understanding those expectations so deeply and so continuously that our customers feel that we care at each and every interaction, regardless of where they meet us.
Also, on her page, she brings up the fact that she came up with Go Further. I would bring that up in conversations with her, and describe how your software helps Ford Go Further for their customers.
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Paul Ballew - Chief Data & Analytics Officer
Paul Ballew - Company Profile Paul Ballew - LinkedIn Profile Paul’s role appears to be the internal conduit and resource for all data and information that can drive cross-functional innovation. He is a Decision Maker, and would also be brought in as an Influencer. If your software has user-facing analytical capabilities, I think that a pitch towards Paul should center around the idea of empowering individual business units with their own ability to act upon data that one’s software could bring in. My understanding is that Paul works as sort of an internal customer support resource for the different departments, with the “product” that he is supporting being data analysis. If one’s software can automate that process, it should take work off of his shoulders.
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Robert Shanks - CFO Ford Motor Company
Robert Shanks - Company Page Robert Shanks is the CFO for the entire Ford Motor Company. He is an Influencer and Executive Sponsor. I would recommend skimming through his sections of the Q3 Earnings Call to get a sense of how he speaks about Ford’s business. Overall, he views the restructuring as a long term play to make Ford competitive down the line. One quote from the call (during the Q&A period, so there are some stutters), that I think is worth sharing is:
And that business has got to be fundamentally redesigned. The restructuring is an output of that or a result of it. It's not a restructuring play, it's a redesign play. The result is the consequence of this restructuring and it will unfold. There will be, I presume, spikes. There'll be like a big thing that comes in this region at a certain point in time and then maybe it's a bit quiet for a while then something else big as we get to that next chapter of what's going to be an unfolding story. So I think that's a perfect way to think about it, which also I hope – I know it's frustrating, but I hope it helps investors understand why one can't sort of go to the last page of the book and look at the ending. It's got to sort of unfold..
There is a very strong chance that if one reaches out to Robert, then he will just put you in touch with Jeff Lawler, his VP of Strategy (who we cover next).
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Jeff Lawler - VP of Strategy
John Lawler - Company Page John Lawler - LinkedIn Page John describes his role as “advancing the global initiatives underway to dramatically improve the company’s operational fitness. He will also help lead the company’s execution of strategic choices that define where Ford allocates capital in the future to win and grow.” He is an Influencer. Of anybody at Ford, I think he is the most vital person to speak to. He has visibility into the entire company, and is in charge of long-term strategy thinking. He reports to the CFO, but most of his day to day work is in supporting the CEO. His role is a hybrid of big picture and in the weeds strategy. He has another “Free Safety” type role, where he tackles problem as they come up and thinks holistically about how to streamline processes. I wouldn’t be too aggressive in my pitch to him, nor would I come into the conversation with a predetermined idea of what one’s software can do. He is a resource to help you, just get in the door and make him want to talk to you.
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Dr. Ken Washington - Chief Technology Officer
Ken Washington - Company Page Ken Washington - LinkedIn Page Dr. Ken Washington describes his role as leading, “Ford’s worldwide research organization, overseeing the development and implementation of the company’s technology strategy and plans, and playing a key role in the company’s expansion into emerging mobility opportunities” He is a Decision Maker, but could also be an influencer on most deals. He is someone with an extensive technology background, formerly working as the Vice President of the Advanced Technology Center at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (whose standard technology is already fairly advanced) and as the CIO of Sandia National Laboratories. He also has a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate in nuclear engineering. As the CTO, he would have a good understanding of the general tech architecture and how one’s software can be applied. My guess is that he wouldn’t be too thrilled with talking to a salesperson, so if it were me, I would throw him on the line with an SE and let him have a more technical discussion.
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Emily Kolinski Morris - Chief Economist
Emily Kolinski Morris - Company Profile Emily Kolinski Morris - LinkedIn Profile After Jeff Lawler, Emily is the person at Ford I would like to speak to most. She is an Influencer. As mentioned earlier, Ford is going through dramatic reevaluation and redesign processes, and is investing massive amount of dollars in creating the future of the auto and transportation industry. As such, as the Chief Economist, Emily probably has a hand in a great deal of the forecasting and futurizing that is currently going on at Ford. She probably won’t be able to buy your software, but she will have a good idea of who can and - more importantly - the people who can buy your software who don’t even exist yet.
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Kiersten Robinson - CHRO
Kiersten Robinson - Company Profile Kiersten Robinson - LinkedIn Profile She is in charge of all Human Resources at Ford. She is an Executive Sponsor, but can also be a Decision Maker. If your software deals with HR at all (as a lot of them do), you would probably need to go into her group in one way or another. There are many people who report to her, and so one would have to build out an HR specific organizational chart in order to get into her group.
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Q3 Earnings Call Overview Their Q3 Earnings Call occurred on October 24th, 2018. The primary executives on the line were:
● Lynn Tyson - Executive Director, Investor Relations ● James Hackett - Chief Executive Officer ● Robert Shanks - Chief Financial Officer ● James Farley - President of Global Markets ● Joseph Hinrichs - EVP Global Operations
Here are some highlights from the Earnings Call and the Earnings Presentation (included in Appendix A). Topline Numbers:
● Revenue up 3% ● Gross Margin of 8.8%
Strategic Accomplishments:
● US Launched Edge and Edge ST ● Announced second US test city for Autonomous Vehicles - Washington DC ● Ford, Uber and Lyft announced a commitment to SharedStreets, a program to
leverage data to improve urban mobility ● GoRide contracted with Detroit Medical Center to provide its non-emergency
transportation service ● Argo named to LinkedIn’s Top Startups list
Overall, the spirit of the call was triumphant. James and Robert were proud of the accomplishments that their team has had this year (as they should be) and were eager to celebrate where Ford is going in the future. There seemed to be a bit of pushback from the analysts (as one would expect) in terms of Ford’s aggressive growth strategy, redesign plan and willingness to sustain short term losses for future gain. One thing that is worth noting is how James and Robert presented a unified front and were willing to go to the mat for the strategy. This isn’t typical for these types of calls.
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James Hackett quotes: The following are a series of quotes from James Hackett in his most recent earnings call. These should be primarily helpful to get additional context about Ford, as well as quotes to use in outreach to prospects.
And I have to say that the North American leadership team has done a great job optimizing every opportunity to improve growth and returns. But it's clear these strengths probably masked weaknesses in the fitness of our overall business and also shrouded poor design elements of other areas of the business where we destroyed value. To be a great company, my message to everyone is, we have to attack this opportunity. In answer to the question, what have we again been working on this past year? We've developed and implemented a plan to redesign the company to dramatically improve the fitness of the overall business, address those areas of weakness I just pointed out and prepare Ford to win in a fast-changing future. Our mission is to build on our traditional strengths, while capitalizing on the sweeping changes brought about by propulsion technology, shared mobility and artificial intelligence that are all ushering in an era of smart vehicles for a smart world. In addition, we have implemented new product line management teams. These are agile cross-functional teams; they're responsible for product lines from end to end, including P&L. This brings us much closer to our customers and their wants and needs. We have established clear lines of responsibility for every product line with the mandate to deliver appropriate level of returns. We are making real strides in autonomous vehicles and are in a far better competitive position than we were only a year ago. In August, we formed our standalone Autonomous Vehicles LLC. As expected and intended, we're receiving significant interest from potential partners and financial investors. And due to the trust our customers have in the Blue Oval, we are singularly focused on developing a profitable business model, gated by safety. Mobility is all about wrapping software and services in new offerings to our customers. We already made a financial commitment to build our Transportation Mobility Cloud. This is an open platform through which Ford and its partners can deliver a myriad of products and services that will drive higher margins and
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recurring revenue streams that enable greater functionality and productivity for our customers. I was also part of an announcement where we are teaming up with Uber and Lyft to support a concept called Shared Streets. This is a platform designed to leverage data to improve urban mobility. The datasets pledged by all three of us will provide the public and private sectors with new tools to reduce congestion and emissions, while improving the efficiency of city streets, making it easier and safer for everyone to get around. Quietly, the North American team, for example, has set up energy rooms where cross-functional teams focus on specific product opportunities. We're smiling because there's no private offices, no endless PowerPoint, no faceless emails and no long meetings. It's been a revelation to see how fast they have moved to improve the business, evidenced by the strong margins you're seeing that North American has delivered the past two quarters.
Most Important Slide:
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