Recession? Bring it.

“You have to get the business designed to be fit,” Ford CEO Jim Hackett told a crowd of 400 at a Detroit Economic Club lunch at Ford Field on Tuesday. “Part of this mindset is not to be recession-proof. It is to say, ‘Come on, recession, we’re ready for you.’ Ford will be ready for the recession.”

In an effort to overhaul the 115-year-old company, he talked of changing a culture that moves slowly and running a pilot project that cut in half time it takes to special order a vehicle and get it from the factory to dealership. Customer wait time shrinks and dealers hold fewer unpurchased cars on lots.

Thinking about everything differently and making big changes are essential to the success of Ford and all its competitors, Hackett said.

“We’re turning the corner,” he said. “Just trust me on this. You’re going to read a lot on Ford performance.”

In a moderated discussion that included reminiscing about his days as a football player at the University of Michigan under the guidance of legendary Coach Bo Schembechler, Hackett highlighted his commitment to integrity and his belief in what’s possible at Ford.

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“Leadership is about trust,” Hackett said. “You won’t have the trust if people think you don’t have integrity. They can be pissed off about the way you treat them. They can disagree with you. But if they think you don’t have integrity, you’re nowhere.”

Changing how people think about mobility and transportation design is essential, he said. Why isn't the industry planning for driverless cars to communicate directly with each other, he wondered. “We’re training the robot to learn the colors. Why are we teaching that?”

Challenging current thinking comes naturally, but getting “harpooned” afterward takes some getting used to, Hackett said. “I don’t really like talking about myself. I’m surprised how much I have to do that.”

It was a wide-ranging conversation in his own unique style that touched on everything from his personal bucket list and one-word description of Detroit to his vision for Ford Motor Co., apprehension about autonomous vehicles and inexperience with tariff battles.

Dealing with tariff issues is not something Hackett navigated in all the years he held a CEO role at Grand Rapids-based Steelcase furniture company, he said.

“We never talked about tariffs,” Hackett said. “This is a very current thing. What you crave in trade is equilibrium.”

While trade policies “need to be modernized,” Ford is poised to do well in the future as a top auto employer of U.S. workers that builds an estimated 80% of its cars in America, Hackett said.

Actually working on future

He praised the Ford executive team as “great” and said “they forget more than I know. I wasn’t brought in because I know more than they do about the auto business.”

The job of CEO is to “manage different time clocks in parallel,” Hackett said. “I’m also thinking about the future, not in a dreamy way or a fantasy way but actually working on it.”

Hired in May 2017, he noted, “I thought there were better people to run Ford Motor Co. And I asked (Executive Chairman) Bill (Ford) to think about it when he asked me. He did.”

In a way that people once hated computers, which used to crash and make life miserable, Ford is figuring out how to integrate technology in a way that enhances a driver’s relationship to the vehicle.

Hackett talked of the need to push himself and push the people around him. “Who wants to spend their time being average?”

Technology makes the world more intelligent, he said, and car companies need to figure out how to harness opportunity — so people will think, “I just like getting in my Ford. It’s mediating my life in ways I never expected.”

He outlined his work ethic, talking about never missing a football practice at Michigan over four years. Today Hackett has two artificial hips as a result of his football background.

In response to a series of audience questions, Hackett said:

Ford will launch autonomous vehicles in 2021 that will have a “narrow geofence” that allows the company to monitor the new technology.

The top item on his bucket list, as an Irish Catholic boy who hears stories about County Cork, Ireland and Corktown, is going to Ireland.

He would love to lunch with Martin Luther King Jr. because he was “somebody that inspired the world to alter its view of its bias. Slavery was over 200 years old. Think of the mouth of lion he walked into …”

His favorite song is “Old Man” by Neil Young and told a story about the musician buying property in Palo Alto, California, and not firing the ranch hand, as he expected with the sale, but keeping him because he made the property beautiful. “A great lesson” about who we are and what’s authentic about that, and its innate value.

He played baseball, basketball and football. While he could once dunk a basketball, football “was a meal ticket."

Describing Detroit in one word is easy. Soulful. “It’s a signature of who we are.”

Advice he would give his 25-year-old self? “Remember you’ll be known for who you are and not what you do. Simple.”

Ford challenges

The Dearborn-based company is in the midst of an $11 billion global restructuring. North America is the only region where Ford made a profit in 2018, financial documents show, though U.S.-based white-collar jobs are part of the reductions.

In March, Ford announced the closure of two assembly plants and an engine plant in Russia, which meant the loss or reassignment of 3,700 jobs. In February, it announced plans to idle a plant in Brazil and the elimination of 2,000 to 3,000 jobs.

Also in February, Nikkei Asian Review reported Ford's main Chinese joint venture confirmed plans to cut 2,000 jobs, or about 10% of its workforce, in response to weak sales in the world's largest car market. Changan Ford Automobile is owned equally by Ford and state-owned China Changan Automobile Group. In January, the automaker announced 5,000 job cuts in Germany and an undetermined number in the United Kingdom, where Brexit continues to fuel uncertainty and corporate anxiety.

Since Hackett took the helm at Ford, stock has gone down and back up slowly. On May 22, 2017, when Hackett was named CEO, Ford stock closed at $10.87 per share, and is down roughly 14% during his tenure. It hit a post-recession low in December 2018 at $7.41. It closed Monday at $9.30, reflecting a 23.5% gain this calendar year.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in an April 5 investor memo that Fiat Chrysler and General Motors are the "top" car companies to watch in U.S. autos. He said in a December 2018 investor memo that Ford could cut 25,000 salaried and hourly jobs globally as part of the restructuring overhaul.

Contact Phoebe Wall Howard at 313-222-6512 orphoward@freepress.com.Follow her on Twitter@phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.