Ford taps former office furniture executive to be new CEO
The 62-year-old former chief executive of office furniture maker Steelcase was named to the post Monday, just three days after former CEO Mark Fields told the company he wanted to retire.
Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford, the great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, said Hackett is a visionary who can help Ford modernize and become more nimble.
Erik Gordon, a law and business professor at the University of Michigan, questions whether Hackett's past experience will be enough to steer Ford through a volatile global auto market.
The fact that he was probably the most successful CEO in the office furniture business doesn't mean he is automatically going to be a successful CEO in an industry that requires technical knowledge.
Fields opened a Silicon Valley office to hire talented young researchers and scout promising startups.
Last week, he announced that Ford would cut 1,400 white-collar jobs in the U.S. and Asia by September to trim costs.
[...] investors worried about Ford's sliding U.S. market share and product decisions.
While Fields was focused on a new performance division and the $450,000 GT supercar, important bread-and-butter products like the Fusion sedan and Escape SUV grew dated.
Electric car maker Tesla Inc. even passed Ford in market value earlier this year.