Did Farley’s “coach speak” inspire everyone?

It reminds me of Hackett:

Every now and then, in the face of adversity, an automotive CEO needs to sound like a football coach and send an obvious but memorable motivational message to his or her team. Some might call it coachspeak.

Ford CEO Jim Farley sent out such a message at the Detroit auto show last week.
“We do not make shampoo,” Farley said during a Jan. 9 presentation at the Detroit Auto Show. “Rule No. 1 at Ford: No boring products.”

Farley’s product boss, charged with improving Ford’s longtime quality challenges, gets the message.

“We’re not trying to make toasters on wheels,” Jim Baumbick said in our story today by Michael Martinez. “We’re not trying to make just commodity products. It’s all about emotion.”

General Motors CEO Mary Barra had a similar message years ago for the GM troops — even before she became CEO. “No more cr-ppy cars,” she said when she was global product development chief in October 2013.

A few months later, Barra was named CEO.

We’ve seen similar coachspeak from the top of most auto companies. Then we see if those messages take root in their organizations.

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10 replies (most recent on top)

I wish Bill Ford would just change direction an move DF to the drivers seat. That is the leadership we need in 2025.

When leadership loses thier temper, it's a sign of weakness and lack of control. That says all you need to hear.

Toyota lapped Ford by being boring and putting effort fixing the little things that US executives gloss over or make fun of (like brackets). Toyota knows that the most humble bracket has an important place in the great assembly of the vehicle. Then they finally could be more exciting and also keep fixing the little things. And make lot of yen along the way.

Farley is a ja----s. Our goal is to make money. If customers want sh-t a stick, we should sell it to them.

@ed+1jhrswp2p

This will get removed soon but ..

Fu-k you, you a-s kissing clown.

It rose stock price over $10. Now my stock portfolio value is higher and I also get juicy quarterly dividends. Yum yum.

Funny because Fartley wants I phones on wheels.

The message is clear that the quality is not getting better anytime soon.

It’s all talk at the Detroit 3. They primarily care about short term share price gains and that short sightedness will be their undoing.

It inspired me to look for another job.

Thread regarding Ford layoffs

Did Farley’s “coach speak” inspire everyone?

10 replies (most recent on top)

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