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The Detroit Lions are undefeated. And it's already October. The team had a big 34-30 win on the road at Dallas Sunday after it had appeared early in the game that it was back to the business of old for the Lions.
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But there's a new day in Detroit. In the end, the Lions showed that a new era is emerging for the franchise. It's not just talk of some day -- it's happening now. And nobody will be happier if the trend continues than Ford Motor Co. chairman Bill Ford Jr.
His family owns the Lions, and he's involved in the team's operations, though not on a daily basis. He's wanted few things more than seeing the Lions win on the field, and he's bound-and-determined that it happens.
When I got to know Bill Ford Jr. years ago, the Lions were mired in a years-long slump. He was chairman and CEO of Ford at the time, the company founded by Henry Ford, his great-grandfather, and that company was struggling as well. He was fighting with everything he had to change the trend, but it was a process.
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We know what happened with Ford Motor -- the company is winning, and winning big. It's one of the greatest American business turnarounds we've ever seen.
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Still, Bill Ford Jr. often gets an unfair rap for his leadership abilities. Ford CEO Alan Mulally saved the company, they say.
And that's true. But it took the leadership of Bill Ford Jr. to keep the company alive until he could find and hire the right leader, and it took the leadership of Ford to know that Mulally, from Boeing, was a perfect fit for the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker.
Mulally will tell anybody that fact, and he often has. He understands that it perhaps couldn't have been done without Ford.
Ford is now earning big profits for shareholders, reducing its debt, and gaining market share while avoiding bankruptcy and without taking government TARP money. In business lore, that's about like winning back-to-back-to-back Super Bowls considering where the company had to fight back from.
In writing the only book on Bill Ford Jr. eight years ago, I got to know the man, his leadership characteristics and vision. In the years since, I've told anyone who will listen that he's a subtle powerhouse of sorts. Ford likes to keep a lower profile, and thus his leadership often goes unnoticed beyond where it occurs. But he's not shy to speak his mind, to take big-but-calculated risks, or demand that it be done right.
He's also smart. Understand that Ford was talking about the need for environmentally-friendly cars back in the 1990s -- while the rest of Detroit snickered, suggesting maybe he had a screw loose. Turns out, he was a bit ahead of his time, and right on the mark.
Everybody in Detroit is singing that tune now, a decade later.
But one thing I learned from Ford is that he has hated the Lions' losing over the years as much as any Detroit fan. And that's saying a lot. While writing the book and spending time in the Detroit area, I was frequently told by residents, "Tell (Ford) we want the Lions to win."
I heard this over, and over. And my response was always the same: "He already knows that, and he probably feels stronger about it than you."
