The stories, broken by Fortune and The Wall Street Journal, raised a flurry from Dearborn to Hong Kong–and provoked immediate denials from the company. Current Ford chairman and CEO Alexander Trotman released a statement that ““no decisions have been made . . . and none of the candidates has been ruled out.’’ Trotman, by company tradition, is due to retire in two years, when he turns 65, though the board could ask him to stay longer. Many observers say that despite recent problems at Ford, his plans aren’t in jeopardy. And though some scoff at the idea of William Jr.’s taking the wheel at such a tender age, even his critics agree that with the family controlling 40 percent of Ford’s voting stock and three of 13 board seats, their wish is the company’s command. Indeed, last week’s news may have been a trial balloon–whether sent up by Bill Jr., his family or the board–to gauge the reaction of employees, shareholders and analysts. After Trotman’s statement, no one would talk.
But if the next dynastic move isn’t yet at hand, the guessing game is now officially in high gear. Another chapter opens in the raucous, often tumultuous history of succession at Ford. And while raising big questions, it answers two smaller ones. Edsel Ford II, Bill’s cousin, laggard in any contest between the two since college (he went to Babson, Bill to Princeton), is clearly out of the running. Equally clear: Bill, who some figured was out of the game two years ago, when he traded in his day job at Ford to run his father’s Detroit Lions football franchise, is ready to take the field back at Ford if the call comes. Ironically, Bill could turn out to be the most professional–and least controversial–of any Ford at the top. For the inquiring reporter, he seems frustratingly anecdote-free, and compliments are of the ““he’s down to earth’’ variety. ““We’ve got a lot of prima donnas in the NFL,’’ says Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen. ““Bill Ford isn’t one of them.’’ He may, in fact, be that rare psychological product: a child of fortune who somehow escapes its nasty side effects.
But the story of Henry Ford and his descendants doesn’t lack for drama. Subject of more than 100 biographies, they rival the Kennedy clan for mini-series potential. ““You have the cruel Henry I, the virtuous and creative but weak Edsel I, the rapacious Henry II,’’ says Peter Collier, co- author of ““The Fords.’’ Henry Ford ranks with Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller and Bill Gates as an industrialist who not only made a fortune but changed the world. He was a visionary engineer, and the first to realize the potential of mass production and a mass consumer market. But in his later years he ruled the company with a combination of yes men and thugs, says Anthony Sampson in his book ““Company Man.''
Henry’s only son, Edsel, was a cultivated man with the flair for design his father (““any color car, as long as it’s black’’) lacked. But in 24 years as president, he never wielded any real power. Edsel’s oldest son, Henry II, made up for all the accomplishment his father lacked. He presided over Ford during America’s roaring postwar automotive age and retired in 1980 as it began facing its first stiff competition from the Japanese. As chief executive, he stood back at first, letting the professionals make the hands-on decisions and attracting such talent as the famous ““whiz kids,’’ including future defense secretary Robert McNamara. But as he aged, Henry followed in his grandfather’s footsteps; the climax was his famous 1978 firing of Lee Iacocca when the brash Ford president challenged Henry’s authority. He drank heavily, married three times and let nannies raise his children, including his only son, Edsel II.
Quiet rivals: There’s been no sniping between Edsel II and Bill, at least in public. But for the last decade, the two cousins–who both sit on Ford’s board–have been quiet rivals. As Henry’s son, and eight years Bill’s senior, Edsel might have seemed a natural contender. But Henry II, who died in 1987, ““never gave his son a leg up,’’ says Peter Collier. ““He was too obsessed with his own role as king.’’ Edsel’s powerful devotion to his wife and four kids could ““almost be seen as a reaction against his father’s playboy nature,’’ says Robert Lacey, author of ““Ford: The Men and the Machine.’’ Now 47, he began his career in Ford’s sales office, and by 1991 had become president of Ford Motor Credit Co. But observers speculate that his subordinates run the operation, and Edsel is universally, if reluctantly, viewed as lacking ““candlepower.''
The raves for Bill Jr. are equally universal. Handsome and athletic, he clearly got the pick of the family genes. His other big advantage: his father. William Clay Ford Sr. toiled for decades in Ford’s design center while brother Henry II ran the company, and was always in his shadow. Though he wields power on the board–and owns the biggest chunk of voting stock–his passion is the Detroit Lions, which he’s owned since 1963. He gets credit for heading the healthiest, most functional branch of the family. He and his wife, Martha, still happily married, even sent Billy to play Little League in a blue-collar town, so he would meet kids from other backgrounds.
Billy’s first-grade teacher, Jean Harris (yes, the one who later killed the Scarsdale diet doctor), wrote in his report card that ““whether Billy is under, beside, or over the desk, he seems to know what’s going on.’’ He went to Hotchkiss, then Princeton (where he wrote a thesis on Ford’s labor relations) and MIT, and married another Princeton graduate. Bill left only good impressions during his 15-year tour of duty at Ford. He did stints in climate control, vehicle design and overseas, and sat in on labor negotiations. Since 1995 he has headed the board’s powerful finance committee, which controls the company’s purse strings.
But Bill is most visible now as the man who runs the Lions. In August he struck a tentative deal with the city to bring the team back from the suburbs to a new downtown stadium. That has inspired comparisons with his great-grandfather, who built hospitals and schools, and his uncle Henry II, who built the Renaissance Center in the 1970s, an earlier attempt to bring back Detroit’s downtown.
Whether Bill’s growing public popularity will translate to the big job is still an unknown. It wouldn’t be hard to accomplish; the Fords hold 40 percent of the vote in the company and agreed in the 1980s to vote as a bloc. ““If the Ford family wants this, it will happen,’’ says University of Michigan historian David Lewis. Whether they do–and how soon–will be partly a function of what CEO Trotman does with the next two years. While generally respected, Trotman has come under fire for Ford’s recent lackluster performance. Even its star products, the Taurus and the Explorer, have lost ground in the market, and its stock price has slipped. Critics also say Trotman hasn’t done much to groom a successor. Product-development chief Jac Nasser, now the closest thing to heir apparent, is only 48 and viewed as not seasoned enough.
In the past a chairman named Ford might have signaled passivity or even abuse. Today it could be reassuring. ““It would be fabulous to see the family return to the helm,’’ says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, an Emory University professor and expert on family-controlled companies. A Ford would seem the antithesis of today’s stereotypical CEO, who is often suspected of being a ruthless, short-term player. It would bring a sense of connectedness to employees, customers and stockholders. “"[Bill Jr.’s] not just . . . looking at the bottom line,’’ agrees Collier. ““He has history in his veins.’’ Old Henry would no doubt be pleased to see his progeny back in the corner office, but for Ford shareholders, the fact that Bill Jr.’s family fortune rises and falls with theirs could be the trait that really warms their hearts.
