Ford’s Bill Ford: The Refounder Mindset, part 1
Masters of Scale
WaitWhat
4.6 • 4.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 May 2022
⏱️ 39 minutes
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Summary
We often hear the story about the great leader who joins a legacy company and guides it through massive transformation. But massive transformation can also start from the inside. Bill Ford, the executive chair of the Ford Motor Company, founded by his great-grandfather, is proof that great change can come from within. He has led not just one but multiple refreshes of Ford’s mission, culture, and, especially, their approach to sustainability. In Part One of a two-part series, you’ll hear about Bill Ford’s unusual entry into the family business and how he learned to drive change against internal resistance.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Bob Safian. You've been hearing me as the host of rapid response in this feed for a few years now, |
| 0:07.8 | with short newsy interviews alongside the deeper dives of Masters of Scale. Well, I'm excited to share that rapid response is expanding into its own feed. |
| 0:17.0 | We'll be putting out shows twice a week, focusing on the urgent issues that business leaders are dealing with in real time. |
| 0:24.7 | So search for rapid response in your podcast player and subscribe to make sure you get all our episodes. |
| 0:31.2 | I'll see you on the other side. |
| 0:32.8 | There is a Michigan train station |
| 0:35.6 | which was once one of the most beautiful buildings in the country. |
| 0:47.2 | It was every bit as beautiful as Grand Central Station |
| 0:51.7 | or the San Francisco Ferry Building. |
| 0:56.6 | It was just a beautiful building, but like so much else in Detroit. |
| 1:02.0 | They had fallen into disrepair. Whatever there was a national story |
| 1:06.3 | about the decay of Detroit, there was usually a visual of the train station |
| 1:11.6 | with the windows knocked out. |
| 1:16.2 | And this beautiful hulk of a building sitting there. |
| 1:20.4 | So I always said to myself, |
| 1:23.0 | someday I'm going to change that narrative. |
| 1:29.0 | That's Bill Ford. |
| 1:30.0 | He's the executive chair of the Ford Motor Company, the company founded by his great |
| 1:34.4 | grandfather. So he's been in Detroit a long time. He can remember back to a Michigan |
| 1:39.6 | Central Station that beautiful landmark he's describing was abandoned in 1988. |
| 1:45.2 | But Bill wants to do more than just restore it. |
| 1:47.6 | He wants to make something new. |
... |
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