Ford’s new CEO Jim Hackett told analysts recently that he is enforcing a “shot clock” for any nagging decisions the automaker is facing, referring to the countdown timer used in basketball to quicken the pace and scoring of each game. The comments came on Thursday as the CEO chatted with Wall Street analysts, Fox Business reports – Hackett’s first such meeting. Under the leadership of former CEO Mark Fields, Ford Motor Company was perceived as being slow to act on crucial decisions, causing the automaker to trail behind some of its competitors.
“Mr. Hackett acknowledged that past slow decision-making – sometimes caused by confusion over ‘who was in charge’ within newer efforts – has been an issue at Ford,” says Citigroup analyst Itay Michaeli.
Beside working to speed up decision-making at the automaker, Jim Hackett told analysts that costs are a major concern of his; he reportedly plans on targeting some of the weaker parts of Ford’s business like its waning US sedan sales, and needlessly large and expensive departments. J.P. Morgan analyst Ryan Brinkman says that Hackett cited Ford’s “out-sized” human resources department as an example, telling analysts that it had grown too large relative to the overall size of the company.
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