A star at Toyota, a believer at Ford

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At a dinner at the Bellagio hotel about two weeks ago, the ballroom buzzed with 1,400 car dealers fired up for a turnaround at the Ford Motor Co. With fresh products coming and a new ad campaign in place, they were ready to celebrate an attempted comeback by the struggling automaker.

But James D Farley was hardly in a festive mood.

He had been on the job as Ford’s chief marketing officer for all of six months, lured away from a stellar career with the Japanese juggernaut Toyota to inject similar sizzle into Ford.

The dinner capped a four-day summit of Ford’s dealers and top executives, and it should have been Farley’s time to shine, to feed off the enthusiasm of dealers eager for good news at Ford.

Yet as he sat in an empty conference room before his keynote speech, Farley was introspective. “How am I doing? You know, I can’t answer that question, how am I doing,” he said. “It’s too complicated.”

The challenges ahead were too profound for simple answers, he said. The survival of Ford was at stake, and he wasn’t about to carry his share of that burden lightly. “I’m not someone who is going to be smiling a lot,” he said.

As the lights dimmed, Farley didn’t lead cheers or shout slogans. Instead, he spoke from the heart, revealing a depth of passion for Ford that turned the room dead silent.

He talked about his grandfather, who had gone to work for Henry Ford at the celebrated Rouge plant in 1914; about his first car, a vintage 1966 Mustang; and about the dealers and their families.

Like a shy actor blossoming on stage, Farley became swept up in the emotional power of the moment. “I believe, in many ways, the future of Ford is the future of our country,” he said. “The work here is simply more important than the work I was doing at Toyota.” When he finished, the dealers rose for a standing ovation that left Farley momentarily stunned.

“These people,” he said, “want to believe.”

But it’s not easy to believe in Ford these days. The auto giant, based in Dearborn, Michigan, lost a combined $15.3 billion during the last two years.