Ford CEO Mark Fields is less bullish on electrified vehicles amidst low oil prices
With Ford’s recent decision to expand its presence in Palo Alto, Calif., – from 20 today to 125 researchers, engineers and scientists by year’s end – the 111-year-old car company will have one of the biggest automotive research center in Silicon Valley.
A region that is already home to the world’s largest car makers labs including BMW, General Motors, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, the Renault -Nissan Alliance, Tesla, Toyota, the Volkswagen group and more China’s No.1 car maker by sales, that recently established a venture-capital company lead by veteran investor Yoon Choi to tap advanced technology. Only Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is missing to that list, opting instead for a “virtual” presence managed by Sunnyvale, Calif.-based, consulting firm Harvest Management Partners.
“The car is the biggest consumer electronics device you can have,” said Ford CTO Raj Nair. “And that’s the synergy that both Silicon Valley and Detroit are recognizing.”
However, the first challenge facing Dearborn, Mich., auto maker in expanding its R&D capabilities in Silicon Valley is to attract and retain top talents, competing with tech giants like Apple, Google or Facebook.
“Things that we’ve learned in spending time in Silicon Valley is to attract and retain talent by giving them meaningful and interesting work, beyond a competitive compensation,” said Ford CEO Mark Fields. “So what we want to do as a company, we not only want to provide great transportation solutions for customers, but we’re also doing many experiments to try and help solve some of the big society issues around congestion and transportation. And if that is not meaningful work that you can have, I don’t know what is.”
I sat down with Fields for an exclusive interview earlier this year to discuss a wide-ranging of topics, from Silicon Valley, venture investing, autonomous cars, electric vehicles and more. Below are edited excerpts from our conversation.
FORBES: Why did you decide to expand Ford’s presence in Silicon Valley?
Mark Fields: We’ve been here since 2012 and we also obviously worked with companies in the Valley for many many years but our first location was in 2012. And we’re here celebrating the launch of our research and innovation center to really accelerate our work around Ford’s smart mobility in the areas of mobility, autonomous vehicles, connected cars, the whole customers’ experience and big data. And we’re going to staff this lab and this research center up to 125 folks. And we will be one of the largest dedicated automotive research teams here in the Valley. And they will plug-in to our network of product development centers and research centers around the world.
Mark Fields: We’ve been here since 2012 and we also obviously worked with companies in the Valley for many many years but our first location was in 2012. And we’re here celebrating the launch of our research and innovation center to really accelerate our work around Ford’s smart mobility in the areas of mobility, autonomous vehicles, connected cars, the whole customers’ experience and big data. And we’re going to staff this lab and this research center up to 125 folks. And we will be one of the largest dedicated automotive research teams here in the Valley. And they will plug-in to our network of product development centers and research centers around the world.
FORBES: Is Silicon Valley, the new Detroit?
Fields: We view this as not displacing work that we do in Detroit. But we view it as a complement to the talent that we have in Detroit. And here, in the Valley, the wonderful thing about the Valley is, it’s a marketplace of ideas. And we look at the talent, the creativity here and the interest in the car, that’s why it’s important for us to be here so that we can partner with folks etc, and complement the other talent that we have around the world working on other parts of the vehicle.
Fields: We view this as not displacing work that we do in Detroit. But we view it as a complement to the talent that we have in Detroit. And here, in the Valley, the wonderful thing about the Valley is, it’s a marketplace of ideas. And we look at the talent, the creativity here and the interest in the car, that’s why it’s important for us to be here so that we can partner with folks etc, and complement the other talent that we have around the world working on other parts of the vehicle.
Source: Forbes.com
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