Speaker 1: Vas Is Masters in Business with Barry Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: This week on the podcast, I have an extra special guest,
Speaker 1: Paul Raith, chief designer at Ford and the man in
Speaker 1: charge of the new Ford Bronco, an icon in the
Speaker 1: history of automobiles and a legendary car. This was quite
Speaker 1: a responsibility to come out with something that was so
Speaker 1: heavily anticipated and so long awaited. And if you haven't
Speaker 1: seen the new Ford Bronco, I suggest you go online
Speaker 1: and check it out. They very much hit a bull's eye.
Speaker 1: The car looks great. It's capabilities as an off road
Speaker 1: sports utility vehicle are just astonishing. They've managed to bring
Speaker 1: in the base version under thirty thousand dollars. I don't
Speaker 1: want to sound like I'm doing a commercial for Ford,
Speaker 1: and I'm a car guy, not a truck guy, but
Speaker 1: I have to tell you I'm really impressed with the
Speaker 1: way the truck came out. No impressed that I managed
Speaker 1: to track Paul down at Ford and say, hey, come
Speaker 1: on the show and let's talk about the process of
Speaker 1: creating a brand new vehicle like this. I found our
Speaker 1: conversation absolutely fascinating and I think you will also so
Speaker 1: with no further Ado. My conversation with the chief designer
Speaker 1: at Ford, Paul Raith, via is Masters in Business with
Speaker 1: Barry Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio. My special guest this week
Speaker 1: is Paul Raith. He is the chief designer for the
Speaker 1: brand new Ford Bronco. Previously, he was chief designer for Ford.
Speaker 1: He earned his master's degree in vehicle design from the
Speaker 1: Royal College of Art. Paul Raith, Welcome to Bloomberg. Thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. So let's start with the Bronco briefly,
Speaker 1: congratulations or in order. As soon as you guys announced
Speaker 1: reservations for the first edition, the truck sold out overnight.
Speaker 1: We're going to spend more time talking about the Bronco.
Speaker 1: But let's talk a little bit about your career. What
Speaker 1: sort of path does one have to go on to
Speaker 1: become a card designer. I think myself and all of
Speaker 1: my friends who are car designers and colleagues, I think
Speaker 1: we all have this little infatuation with the car or
Speaker 1: the truck from to the year dot, you know. I
Speaker 1: think typically our first words were probably car um and
Speaker 1: then we would have been the little kids in the
Speaker 1: back of the classroom somewhere scribbling pictures of cars into
Speaker 1: into our textbooks when we were at school. UM And
Speaker 1: it's sort of stuck with us. Really, it's a it's
Speaker 1: a sort of compulsion, and unfortunately some of us are
Speaker 1: able to get places in design school to develop our
Speaker 1: skills through degrees and master's degrees. Um. And then some
Speaker 1: of us, on top of that are then lucky enough
Speaker 1: to get positions in the industry and do what we
Speaker 1: were doing as children as a as a day job,
Speaker 1: which is well, it's amazing, really great fun. So you've
Speaker 1: been with Forward for about twenty years. In you were
Speaker 1: appointed chief designer for Ford. Tell us what that role
Speaker 1: en campuses in chief design I means essentially, I've got
Speaker 1: more toys to play with. Um. I have a lot
Speaker 1: of team around me of a very very talented people. Um.
Speaker 1: And it's a it's a better positions one to news
Speaker 1: your your point of view and your experience to apply
Speaker 1: to across a much more broad body of work. UM.
Speaker 1: And it's you know, it's an exciting challenge and it's
Speaker 1: a huge responsibility as well. UM And I you know,
Speaker 1: you bring with you your your prior experience, you bring
Speaker 1: with you your sort of formative ideas and wide eyes
Speaker 1: because you're always taking stuff in and you know your
Speaker 1: ears tuned in too to listen to everything that you're
Speaker 1: being told. And then somehow or other, you know you
Speaker 1: you're blessed by having a fantastic group of people to
Speaker 1: work with U. And then we do our best. We
Speaker 1: work like we work really hard, and we push like hell,
Speaker 1: and we we produce what we hope will be compelling
Speaker 1: future vehicles. Quite interesting. I have to imagine you are
Speaker 1: thinking about different regions of the world differently. How do
Speaker 1: consumer preferences vary from either North America to Europe or
Speaker 1: for either of those western countries to a place like China.
Speaker 1: How does that fit into the entire design process. It's
Speaker 1: a fundamental building block. I mean, vehicles are are owned
Speaker 1: and used by people, and everyone's different, and people's can
Speaker 1: be culturally different by region, and also the circumstances the
Speaker 1: situation that they're in can be very different as well.
Speaker 1: In the US, we've got a road system that speaks
Speaker 1: really being framed around the vehicle. Go to Europe and
Speaker 1: it's it's been framed around box. You know, in sort
Speaker 1: of medieval area, people moving livestock around the sort of
Speaker 1: wild landscape so um, you know, the road is smaller
Speaker 1: and much more complicated. The city centers are a very
Speaker 1: intense it's a very different situations they're here. So once
Speaker 1: you know and the people are living those environments as well,
Speaker 1: they have different needs and aspirations. Their circumstances are very
Speaker 1: different as well, so they may not have a garage
Speaker 1: stark and vehicle in at all. So you need to
Speaker 1: get into the into the skin of the people that
Speaker 1: you're designing for and as much as you possibly can
Speaker 1: sort of see the world through their eyes. And I
Speaker 1: think once you start to do that, the output in
Speaker 1: your work naturally sort of changes. Um. And it's a
Speaker 1: really you know, learning is terrific fund um, and experimenting
Speaker 1: is great fun. And putting your ideas out there to
Speaker 1: sort of test and stress testament is also interesting. You know.
Speaker 1: It can be disappointed sometimes when you when you've got
Speaker 1: to but it can also be really energizing when when
Speaker 1: you when you seek you're onto something which is new. Um.
Speaker 1: And from those kind of insights, we we we hope
Speaker 1: to design more relevant products that move the topic the
Speaker 1: subject of cars forwards. So that's consumer desires. What about
Speaker 1: the enthusiast crowd. Do you pay much intention to social media,
Speaker 1: the press and then the hardcore enthusiasts community, how do
Speaker 1: they impact the design and marketing of cars? I would
Speaker 1: say first of all that I was sold a long
Speaker 1: time ago that designers are like information filters. We just
Speaker 1: we just draw in this wild pile information. We sort
Speaker 1: of push it through our brains and somehow it falls
Speaker 1: out of that of our hands and our pens with
Speaker 1: in a form of cars that we're like, we're just
Speaker 1: filtering all this information all the time. Part of that,
Speaker 1: of course, is what we see in the press. So
Speaker 1: what we read social media players a really big part
Speaker 1: on it. UM. And then you wanted to get the
Speaker 1: the unsort of setter words of the of the user.
Speaker 1: And so it's great when you've got an enthusiast space
Speaker 1: to tap into. And we were really lucky with Bonco
Speaker 1: that we had that. So we spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time you know, reading, watching, listening, spending time with going
Speaker 1: to places, you know, using the internet. UM, and that
Speaker 1: was that was a sort of that wasn't a thing
Speaker 1: that we did now and again that was something that
Speaker 1: was happening constantly. UM. We were sharing as a team
Speaker 1: on the Bonco program insights and observations and images and
Speaker 1: quotes from from social media from the time that we
Speaker 1: got up in the morning until the time we were
Speaker 1: going to go to bed amongst the team, whether the
Speaker 1: word we were sharing via text or email or or Instagram.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a popular means of communication for us
Speaker 1: as well, So it's really important. Um and so nobody
Speaker 1: knows products better than the enthusiast, so you know, it's
Speaker 1: good to learn from from them and then trying to
Speaker 1: apply it into our into our future visions as well.
Speaker 1: We can't be constrained by it, of course, we can't
Speaker 1: just do what they know that they want. We need
Speaker 1: to also trying to stretch the topic further out so
Speaker 1: that we're always making progress. Quite fascinating. So I'm an enthusiast,
Speaker 1: I have a Gebrubican, and I'm kind of a fan
Speaker 1: of some of the older Toyota f js and Ford
Speaker 1: Broncos and land Rover Defender nineties and all of these
Speaker 1: have just gone crazy in the collector market. So the
Speaker 1: question I have for you, what took so long to
Speaker 1: bring out a new Bronco, Well, that's a very good question.
Speaker 1: I think you're right I think we've seen a shift
Speaker 1: in the in the in the classic car market is
Speaker 1: playing a lot of it each in to the vehicles
Speaker 1: that you've just listed. I think we are seeing a
Speaker 1: shift in there in the sort of public's ambitions for
Speaker 1: the sort of off road vehicles that they want um
Speaker 1: and I think there's there's going to be a lot
Speaker 1: of growth in the rugged SUV space, and the Bronco
Speaker 1: is really well primed for that. So I think it's
Speaker 1: a little bit of serendipity, if you like, in a
Speaker 1: way that the stars are aligned in just the right
Speaker 1: way to open the door for Bronco. But the Bronco
Speaker 1: has never gone away in the minds of the four team.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there are people have been working on opportunities
Speaker 1: to try and get it back for for a long time.
Speaker 1: But the circumstances have to be right. And it isn't
Speaker 1: just a question of someone like me doodling pictures of
Speaker 1: of a cool looking Bronco and hoping that that that
Speaker 1: would be enough to sort of kick the program off
Speaker 1: before I get to pick my pencil up. There isn't.
Speaker 1: There's an awful lot of work with some super sharp
Speaker 1: people who take on the colossal undertaking of trying to
Speaker 1: take all of the parts that they know might exist
Speaker 1: that would help form the vehicle that the engine, the
Speaker 1: platform or the wheels, electronics, the safety systems and so on.
Speaker 1: Overlay that against the legislative list of framework that will
Speaker 1: drop the vehicle into the amount of investment required to
Speaker 1: to set a vehicle up, the amount of resources that
Speaker 1: we have available, human and financial. You know, is there
Speaker 1: a factory in the right place at the right time,
Speaker 1: with the right capacity. There is a sort of miasma
Speaker 1: of variables, and if you can get all those sort
Speaker 1: of all those things to align and then you see
Speaker 1: an opportunity for for a segment of the market that's
Speaker 1: not really saturated, that has a lot of growth potential,
Speaker 1: then then then it works. And then I guess we're
Speaker 1: just really happy that, you know, the stars aligns in
Speaker 1: the right way this time such that the the overall
Speaker 1: product development team afford are able to get their teeth
Speaker 1: into this thing and do a really good job. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of passion behind the scenes to try and
Speaker 1: make it work, and you know, and I think it's
Speaker 1: well known that there've been a couple of runs at
Speaker 1: it in the past but in the past maybe the
Speaker 1: situation wasn't quite right. Thankfully, and here we are it
Speaker 1: clearly was right this time. It was pretty obvious to
Speaker 1: me that your bogey was the jeep Wrangler. They've kind
Speaker 1: of had that market all to themselves for a long time.
Speaker 1: How close do you guys think you came to hitting
Speaker 1: the mark of what's going to be your most direct competition,
Speaker 1: the jeep Wrangler. I think whenever you launched the vehicle,
Speaker 1: there's almost certainly going to be something out there. It
Speaker 1: was a bit like it. Um. It's sometimes it can
Speaker 1: be a bit of a difficulty when when there's your
Speaker 1: segment composes of basically one vehicle, because that can become
Speaker 1: too much of an influence. So what I think it
Speaker 1: did for us is it redoubled our focus on just
Speaker 1: doing what was right for for us, for the Bronco
Speaker 1: as a brand, for its legacy, and for the users
Speaker 1: as well. Of course, we look at competitive vehicles for
Speaker 1: good and but you know, we want to poke holes
Speaker 1: and then we want to see what they're doing wrong
Speaker 1: to see if we can do it better. We want
Speaker 1: to look at what they're doing right and learn from
Speaker 1: that as well. But we didn't just six about one
Speaker 1: other vehicle we looked very badly. Fact as well in
Speaker 1: our on our benchmarking was as as why wide as
Speaker 1: side by side UTVs? You know there are road registered
Speaker 1: all the way over to the marine industry products and steamboats.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we didn't. I don't think we really spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time really thinking that one vehicle, how
Speaker 1: can we be like it? We use it as a
Speaker 1: as a measure that really our focuses about what we
Speaker 1: thought we needed to do. Quite interesting. I really love
Speaker 1: the thirty five in tires and the nearly foot high
Speaker 1: ground clearance. What are some of your favorite design elements
Speaker 1: from the new Bronco. You know, that's a really difficult
Speaker 1: question because you're so invested in all of it. I mean,
Speaker 1: some of these favorite elements would be the ones that
Speaker 1: you felt you have to hide, you know, push for
Speaker 1: in the greatest sort of vigor. Other things are just
Speaker 1: ideas that I think just seem to make a lot
Speaker 1: of sense and are a bit unusual. Um. I really
Speaker 1: love I really love the Bronco bolt. Actually, I love
Speaker 1: the fact that we have a bolt with Bronco smashed
Speaker 1: into its head. Um. Wherever you see one of those
Speaker 1: on the vehicle. It's an invitation for you to get
Speaker 1: the tool whut and get involved with the vehicle and
Speaker 1: undo those bolts and take that part off and either
Speaker 1: put another one in its place, or it's an opportunity
Speaker 1: for the answer market to come in and do something
Speaker 1: kind of exciting and creative and interesting. I think that's
Speaker 1: a really interesting part because generally, you know, in the
Speaker 1: contemporary automobile industry, we tend to want to not have
Speaker 1: exposed bolts all over our vehicles. We like this sort
Speaker 1: of I should finish everything's very discreet and very crafted.
Speaker 1: We sort of took completely the opposite attack at the
Speaker 1: same time is we were coming up with that initial idea,
Speaker 1: we discovered that actually the the that Forward produced willis
Speaker 1: cheeks during the Second World War. But what stand keeps
Speaker 1: the forward produced vehicles different to the others is that
Speaker 1: each should have bolts on the Forward produced cheap have
Speaker 1: an f bashed into their head. So we thought there
Speaker 1: was kind of a nice nod in the wink back
Speaker 1: to the history. I love that part. I think I
Speaker 1: also really love the the trial sites on the on
Speaker 1: the leading edge of the front fenders. The original Bronco
Speaker 1: had Peo called peaked fenders. It was a real nice
Speaker 1: piece of styling, but it was it was also very
Speaker 1: practical because when you sit behind the wheel of an
Speaker 1: early Bronco, you sort of see these peaks and it
Speaker 1: tells you exactly where the corner of the vehicle in
Speaker 1: the front corner of the vehicles, so it helps you
Speaker 1: position the vehicle very well. It's it's just a it's
Speaker 1: a nice, attractive, iconic piece of very small product designs.
Speaker 1: So we decided we would follow the same path. So
Speaker 1: we have peaks and offenders, but on top of that
Speaker 1: or you know, piercing offenders. In fact, we have these
Speaker 1: things called trail side, so they're like separate parts which
Speaker 1: you can bolt things to strap things through and also
Speaker 1: use as a visual guide to the corners. I really
Speaker 1: like those because they actually solve some I think, some
Speaker 1: problems that we're all and count them down again when
Speaker 1: we're trying to tie things off to the front of
Speaker 1: our vehicle with ropes running over the hood and the headlights.
Speaker 1: And they offer up an opportunity for the aftermarket and
Speaker 1: the public to get involved funagling original solutions to fit
Speaker 1: their very specific need. You know, we don't know what
Speaker 1: they are, all those needs and will be and we
Speaker 1: don't know what the solutions will be, but we've set
Speaker 1: the vehicle up in in that area to provide a
Speaker 1: good platform for them to to to do what they
Speaker 1: need to do to make the vehicle their vehicle. Just
Speaker 1: make sure no one tries to pull the truck out
Speaker 1: of the mud with those they have like a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty pound capacity. That is not where the winch goes.
Speaker 1: And I hope nobody makes that mistake. So what sort
Speaker 1: of additions did you consider? But ultimately decide that's just
Speaker 1: way too impractical, and you have a lot of really
Speaker 1: interesting things that I imagine we're hard to get past
Speaker 1: upper management. What was just a bridge too far? Well,
Speaker 1: the cutting room floor is very deep of broken dreams
Speaker 1: in the car industry. That is the case always, but
Speaker 1: maybe in this case where we have to lose a
Speaker 1: fewer ideas because the vehicle that we've we're producing the
Speaker 1: Bronco we're talking about less than more than the Bronco Sport,
Speaker 1: but the it has a degree of modularity, so you
Speaker 1: can do things with a vehicle which you couldn't do
Speaker 1: with an escape or an explorer. For examples even get
Speaker 1: the doors off and get the roof off. You can
Speaker 1: put different rooms on. You better put different doors on.
Speaker 1: You can get the fender flares off, you can there's
Speaker 1: multiple bumpers, multiple grills and to the vehicle has got
Speaker 1: this high level of modularity. So that unfortunately that means
Speaker 1: that we kept the door open to doing lots of
Speaker 1: cool things. Is there a specific thing that we didn't manage?
Speaker 1: And you know what, I think credit to the system,
Speaker 1: that to the Forward Motor Company that we managed to
Speaker 1: to keep the door open to the cool ideas. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm a designer. I've you know, I won't I wouldn't
Speaker 1: be happy till I wouldn't want to retire from this
Speaker 1: industry and sort have made something of flies or there's
Speaker 1: been three D printed in one go from graphite. So
Speaker 1: our imagination is always it is always going to be
Speaker 1: out there. Um. But I think in a sort of
Speaker 1: practical sense, I think we we we managed to come
Speaker 1: to it's just about everything, which was a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure on the on the team as a whole. We
Speaker 1: set ourselves, you know, more homework than normal, um, and
Speaker 1: we did everything in the same time as normal, which
Speaker 1: you know, for aard Is Tood's got amazing product of
Speaker 1: land process, very fast, very robust. But we just chose
Speaker 1: to do significantly more in the time available than normal. Yes,
Speaker 1: so please, I would imagine the base version comes in
Speaker 1: under thirty thours. That's a great bogey And all told
Speaker 1: there are seven models. I was kind of surprised, Big Bend,
Speaker 1: Black Diamonds, Outer Banks, bad Lands, Wild Track and the
Speaker 1: first edition, which the initial run has already sold out.
Speaker 1: Why so many variations? Normally these things get fed out
Speaker 1: in year two and year three. Why come out of
Speaker 1: the gate with so many different choices. I think there's
Speaker 1: a few things there so well. First of all, we're
Speaker 1: not using the typical series non licature. There's no TITANEUM
Speaker 1: or XLT or any of those things. Um, so broncageserve
Speaker 1: its own series walk. We chose to use locations instead
Speaker 1: of abbreviation, which I think is really fun. Um that
Speaker 1: becomes a creative opportunity in its own right, because our
Speaker 1: graphics team did an amazing job actually on the the
Speaker 1: series badges. They're all different. Um, they're all placed on
Speaker 1: the side of the vehicle, not the rear, And the
Speaker 1: cool thing with them is actually reflective as well. So
Speaker 1: when you're on the campsite, new flasher a light over
Speaker 1: the mild, they'll pop in the distance, which is really fun.
Speaker 1: So lots of creating opportunity even even with those things. Um.
Speaker 1: But to come back to the original points, I think
Speaker 1: it's important to try. And our users are so diverse
Speaker 1: um and in fact, when we started the program, we
Speaker 1: had we had five target customers in mind. That's that's
Speaker 1: just to buy a way of explanation, that's relatively unusual
Speaker 1: in my experience. In fact, it's completely unusual. You tend
Speaker 1: to have a target customer. The target customer for an
Speaker 1: automobile design tends to be an amalgamation of available the sticks,
Speaker 1: um and and behaviors sort of created into some sort
Speaker 1: of virtual humans um And it's a little bit it's
Speaker 1: a little bit superficial sometimes. But in this particular case,
Speaker 1: the five people that we were we were to trying
Speaker 1: to design for were very different and they were real,
Speaker 1: real people that we've really spend time with. So we've
Speaker 1: got to know a little bit and got to observe
Speaker 1: doing their thing, which we learned a great deal from
Speaker 1: and they stand in both genders. From twenty one year
Speaker 1: old to a fifty plus year old guy, someone who
Speaker 1: lived in the city, to someone who's just not happened,
Speaker 1: not happy and left there hanging their truck off the
Speaker 1: edge of the cliff somewhere. Um. And then when you
Speaker 1: get down to it, you go, these people are so different.
Speaker 1: You know what we need to do more to cater
Speaker 1: for them. Hence the greater number of series um, and
Speaker 1: also the different ways that we're going to allow customers
Speaker 1: to add packs to their vehicle to tune it, spec
Speaker 1: it lead to their needs. And so you say, interesting
Speaker 1: five inch tiles and everything. You know, no matter where
Speaker 1: you buy a base or you buy a bad land,
Speaker 1: you know you can get what you need. Quite interesting.
Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about the design process. Let's
Speaker 1: use the Broncos as an example. How long have you
Speaker 1: been working on this new car? And is that typical
Speaker 1: for either a new vehicle or the reintroduction of an
Speaker 1: older vehicle. Whether we're doing a new new vehicle or
Speaker 1: reintroducing an iconic nameplate. I think you take pretty much
Speaker 1: the same amount of time. It's always a very difficult
Speaker 1: question to answer this one because you sort of think
Speaker 1: that somebody would walk into the studio and say here, everybody,
Speaker 1: here's the brief, and then that's some indeterminate period in
Speaker 1: the future. They'll go, thanks very much, this is great.
Speaker 1: We'll just take this from here and how it goes.
Speaker 1: But we have a we have a build up too,
Speaker 1: and then we have a soft run out. So the
Speaker 1: amount of time it takes systems design it a vehicle
Speaker 1: is it's a little bit. It's a little bit difficult
Speaker 1: to tie down. But what I can tell you was
Speaker 1: I think it was the The North American also showed
Speaker 1: it's twenty seven team sitting up in the in the
Speaker 1: Cobo Hall in Detroit looking down at are Then CEO
Speaker 1: announced the fact that the Bronco was coming back, and
Speaker 1: I think that's probably for me the point when I
Speaker 1: really although it was on my plate, that was a
Speaker 1: bit where I really thought, actually know what, Yeah, this
Speaker 1: is the game is on. As he announced it, and
Speaker 1: they the screen behind him announced the Bronco coming back,
Speaker 1: and I noticed all the journalists heads around me all
Speaker 1: sort of went up. They all looked at each other
Speaker 1: and they all started scribbling curiously and writing text messages.
Speaker 1: I thought, things me, there's there's an energy from this.
Speaker 1: This isn't normal. This is much bigger than I've sort
Speaker 1: of anticipated. But you know, we don't we don't run
Speaker 1: away and start making models. So the way, you know,
Speaker 1: we need to go through a heavy period of learning
Speaker 1: and absorbing information before we then start to to start
Speaker 1: really start putting our pen to paper. And for us
Speaker 1: on this particular project, but putting the pence to paper
Speaker 1: was was quite unusual, and we bent the rules all
Speaker 1: over the place to to get this vehicle through. Because
Speaker 1: all those fourd has got a fantastic product development process,
Speaker 1: we needed to reshape it a little bit to to
Speaker 1: fit Bronco into it, and so we we didn't do
Speaker 1: glamour sketches might the automotive industry typically produces. My designers
Speaker 1: can all do it, It's just that we had a
Speaker 1: different focus. The design of the vehicle emerged from Chinese
Speaker 1: doodles on post it notes and on scraps of paper
Speaker 1: that was pinned to a wall, where we were trying
Speaker 1: to sort of imagine our way through a day in
Speaker 1: the life of our five customers. And then we were
Speaker 1: realizing that there were problems along the way in there
Speaker 1: this role plane, and then we were designing solutions for
Speaker 1: that and there's a designer puts a pen to the paper,
Speaker 1: they make something look like something. It was actually from
Speaker 1: those little drawings there that there's a glimmer of the
Speaker 1: design of the vehicle began to emerge. And then we
Speaker 1: went straight into virtual reality. We didn't make physical properties. Normally,
Speaker 1: the current stry makes scale clay models a little things
Speaker 1: are sort of a yard or so long. We skipped
Speaker 1: that process entirely, went entirely just virtual and then on
Speaker 1: our next stage was to make a full sized vehicle,
Speaker 1: but not one made from modeling clay, which is a
Speaker 1: typical car industry medium. We made something out of packing
Speaker 1: material that we could all get in and out of
Speaker 1: and stand on and play with an open closed doors
Speaker 1: and modifying hack and immediately start modifying. So we did
Speaker 1: the process somewhat differently, and it was kind of fun.
Speaker 1: I got into trouble a few times for not having
Speaker 1: things the normal things ready at the normal times, but
Speaker 1: I had another things which I thought were probably more
Speaker 1: useful to to learning and experimentation and furthering the development process.
Speaker 1: I read somewhere that one of the vps at Ford
Speaker 1: had one of the origin all Brancos and your team
Speaker 1: took it and did a laser scan and imported it
Speaker 1: into VR so you could literally get all of the
Speaker 1: proportions and measurements as a frame of reference. Well, first
Speaker 1: of all, is that story true? And if it is true,
Speaker 1: how helpful was that process? That it's really true that
Speaker 1: specific Broncho that we used to belong to and still
Speaker 1: does belong to. My boss, the vice president, designed Maury Callum.
Speaker 1: And what's terristic about his bronco? Is it actually pretty stock?
Speaker 1: You know, there's almost no such thing as standard bronco
Speaker 1: any longer. They've all been modified as they passed through
Speaker 1: the hands of all the owners and three families, and
Speaker 1: they've changed their purpose, you know, and parts needed to
Speaker 1: replace them. Marries is really original and it's quite beautiful.
Speaker 1: So it stood as a good reference point to us.
Speaker 1: In fact, we did scan it. We have very sophisticated
Speaker 1: equipment that is super accurate. It can pick up the
Speaker 1: orange peel in the painted surface scans down to the
Speaker 1: factions of a millimeter thousands of a millimeter. So we
Speaker 1: did scan it, and we did import it into our
Speaker 1: particularly into our engineering CAD software, and it became a
Speaker 1: layer of information and amongst all the other layers of
Speaker 1: information that we were doing with at the time, So
Speaker 1: we took our best guests on the platform and power
Speaker 1: train and cooling packs. We have all the zones for
Speaker 1: all of the light to allow to go, zones where
Speaker 1: we think we need to clear points for crash for example,
Speaker 1: cone visibility cones for radar, and there are a myriad
Speaker 1: of other things that we need to accommodate. If you
Speaker 1: imagine a sort of CAD engineering software with all these
Speaker 1: multitude of inputs and hovering somewhere in the middle of it,
Speaker 1: all of this ninety six to Bronco, it was pretty
Speaker 1: unusual actually to see it. I had to say that,
Speaker 1: you know, it didn't just sit there preserves. It quickly
Speaker 1: became chopped up and moved around, and elements of it
Speaker 1: got lifted, reproportioned. As we use it as a baseline
Speaker 1: that the objective at that point was not to try
Speaker 1: and make the new Bronco like the old Bonco at all,
Speaker 1: but it stood as an excellent bookend and amongst all
Speaker 1: the other sort of modern day issues that we're having
Speaker 1: to sort of deal with, and and it served a
Speaker 1: great purpose. Upon reflection, it was fascinating to bring, bring
Speaker 1: that vehicle back home, put it back in product development
Speaker 1: center in Dearborn, and then interrogate it in that way
Speaker 1: and then use it as a reference point for a
Speaker 1: new vehicle. I don't suspect there's been another Bronco used
Speaker 1: remotely like that. Certainly that original Bronco would have never
Speaker 1: have been designed with any catatol. It would be drawings
Speaker 1: and pens. So it was a fun process, I can
Speaker 1: I can imagine you keep discussing your team. I'm curious
Speaker 1: how many people are on a typical design team like
Speaker 1: the Bronco and how are they divided up. Are there
Speaker 1: interior exterior, power trained people, electronics people or does everybody
Speaker 1: wear multitude of hats. So from my point of view,
Speaker 1: I'm responsible for the appearance and the sort of product
Speaker 1: design of the vehicle interior and exterior as well. And
Speaker 1: so that team comprised of about well varied in numbers,
Speaker 1: but it was around about ten to fifteen people all told.
Speaker 1: Then we have to work very closely with our engineering
Speaker 1: colleagues who are concerned with electrical and interior and exterior
Speaker 1: and sheet metal experts and lighting experts, and you know,
Speaker 1: there's every area of the vehicle you can imagine as
Speaker 1: ares an expert engineering team to work with. So we
Speaker 1: tend to be in the middle of quite a lot
Speaker 1: of it because we're sort of trying to do the
Speaker 1: overall image of the vehicle together. But fortunately, you know,
Speaker 1: we've got an extremely talented group of people. We had
Speaker 1: a few more on this project, perhaps than some other programs,
Speaker 1: but mainly because of the complexity of it required more
Speaker 1: eyes and more hands on it. Yes, supertality group of
Speaker 1: people who actually some of who drive their own Broncos
Speaker 1: every day to work or in a pro current in
Speaker 1: the process of restoring them. So I will enthusi ast
Speaker 1: crowd as well. Quite fascinating. Let's talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about the future of of cars and designs and technology.
Speaker 1: One of the things I was kind of fascinated by
Speaker 1: was the mac E platform chassis, something that the Mustang
Speaker 1: Marquee truck is going to be based on. How versatile
Speaker 1: is something like that? Are we going to see other
Speaker 1: vehicles coming out using that platform? And in general, do
Speaker 1: most carmakers like to come out with a versatile platform
Speaker 1: that you could put a variety of different vehicles on. Well,
Speaker 1: I can't comment on future product actions of course, I'm
Speaker 1: sure you'll appreciate this industry is highly secretive, but it
Speaker 1: is to accept that we need to fit some of
Speaker 1: the technologies we're using. Our vehicles are so critical and
Speaker 1: so expensive to the develop that reuse is really important.
Speaker 1: And so this funny word terms at platform, you're the
Speaker 1: manufactured sort about platform strategies or which platform is this
Speaker 1: new vehicle based upon so I degree with the US
Speaker 1: is typical in the industry, but the platform can refer
Speaker 1: to this sort of otherwise usually hidden underbody of the vehicle.
Speaker 1: It can refer to the electrical infrastructure, the safety systems,
Speaker 1: and also power train as well. So to that point,
Speaker 1: you know the Doronco that produced, you know, we're launching
Speaker 1: really three Broncos, the Bronco two Doors, the Bronco Forward
Speaker 1: Or and the Bronco Sport. The two and the Foward
Speaker 1: door of sharing a platform with one of our trucks,
Speaker 1: the Ranger in fact, but how bit modified and developed
Speaker 1: and tuned to really suit the off road space that
Speaker 1: we're we're designing it for. And the Bronco Sport is
Speaker 1: most closely related to something like the Escape, very different. Again,
Speaker 1: it's had vast amounts of investment put into it to
Speaker 1: ensure that its capability off road is absolutely staggering, frankly,
Speaker 1: but that's how you use the platform to enable you
Speaker 1: to produce more vehicles affordably. Makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: So some manufacturers come up with a very recognizable common
Speaker 1: design or user interface across their entire product lines. Four
Speaker 1: doesn't exactly do this, but when I look at the Bronco,
Speaker 1: I can imagine elements of that finding its way into
Speaker 1: other vehicles. What is it about BMW, probably more than anybody,
Speaker 1: has a certain design ethos that you see literally in
Speaker 1: every single vehicle. Tell us a little bit about the
Speaker 1: decision making that goes into the idea of a line
Speaker 1: up being similar or very very distinct from each other.
Speaker 1: You're right, of course, that's the family look can be
Speaker 1: smeared across the entire range of vehicles. And I think
Speaker 1: for a number of years, decades, perhaps we've we've seen
Speaker 1: this has been a typical strategy. In fact, Board of
Speaker 1: used it as well. But you know, as our automotive
Speaker 1: space is stretched and we look at vehicles which aren't
Speaker 1: necessarily you know, haven't got necessarily four doors and a roof,
Speaker 1: that have got another form factor to them. There's a
Speaker 1: point where some of these design languages can become quite challenged.
Speaker 1: They don't quite make it. That becomes quite difficult to
Speaker 1: apply that language of a low sleek sedan, for example,
Speaker 1: to a semi truck, or to a flying machine, or
Speaker 1: to a robot, drone or whatever. So you can become
Speaker 1: a limitation. And I think we've been quite smart actually
Speaker 1: as a brand in saying, well, you know what, everyone
Speaker 1: loves a personality. You know, we turn on the TV
Speaker 1: and we love to see these personalities, these characters that
Speaker 1: we stand out and look different to one another. Imagine
Speaker 1: if you watch the chat show and everybody on it
Speaker 1: was exactly the same. You know, you want to see
Speaker 1: see differences and that creates tensions and excitement and discourse.
Speaker 1: And so you know, we're very lucky. It's forward. We've got.
Speaker 1: We have these nameplates that are so iconic that we
Speaker 1: can we can build on and really focus down on.
Speaker 1: So you mustangs one, Bronco is another, Transit Frankly is
Speaker 1: another one on as well. And I think then once
Speaker 1: you've taken this idea that it's cool, in fact, it's
Speaker 1: got great potential in its differences, then then it frees
Speaker 1: you to focus down on doing exactly the right thing
Speaker 1: for that particular nameplate, which is why then you know
Speaker 1: a Bronco doesn't look like Explorer for example. You know,
Speaker 1: it's important that the differences are made. There might be
Speaker 1: elements of you know, the Bronco's technology that we potentially
Speaker 1: could use elsewhere in our in our system, and that
Speaker 1: would be sensible good business practice to do if it
Speaker 1: if it offers the customer another vehicle line, a taffied improvement.
Speaker 1: But in terms of appearance, now we need to do
Speaker 1: things for Bronco that are true to Bronco and that's
Speaker 1: that's how you respect the brand, but it's also how
Speaker 1: you build the brand going forwards. So let's talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the future. Might we see at some
Speaker 1: point a hybrid Bronco or a diesel Bronco, or even
Speaker 1: an all electric Bronco. Is that conceivable? Again, you know,
Speaker 1: I can't can't comment on the future product actions. This
Speaker 1: is a competitive space, but the world of course is
Speaker 1: moving on, so we're open eyed to to all sorts
Speaker 1: of eventualities. Very much along those lines, Ford announced a
Speaker 1: plan to work with Rivian's platform as a way to
Speaker 1: jump start an acceleration towards a either a hybrid or
Speaker 1: an electric future kind of interesting. I don't really recall
Speaker 1: Forward doing anything like that in recent memory. Is that
Speaker 1: just a way to hedge their bet against the internal
Speaker 1: combustion engine or is it something new because technology allows
Speaker 1: you to try things like that that you couldn't do previously.
Speaker 1: Combination of all of those things that you know we have,
Speaker 1: that's a very spectacular piece of investment. And it's very
Speaker 1: exciting news that we're working with other companies all the time.
Speaker 1: A lot of their names will be not very common
Speaker 1: and unless you work deep inside the car industry. So
Speaker 1: I think a manufacturer like Forward wants to do the best,
Speaker 1: you know, and wants to progress as quickly as possible
Speaker 1: in a myriad of different directions depending on the needs
Speaker 1: of the products and the and the user. And I
Speaker 1: think that the remin is just pensively just a more
Speaker 1: public version of that. But you know, before we were
Speaker 1: deep inside the car industry, we could talk about all
Speaker 1: of the microscopic ones right down to you know, and
Speaker 1: being a small company that might have invented an interesting
Speaker 1: way of molding a switch, you know, that would also
Speaker 1: be a method of trying to advance the subject of
Speaker 1: car and truck forwards for us Chriss our competitors fascinating
Speaker 1: you earlier mentioned graphine. How important are materials like graphine
Speaker 1: in creating very lightweight but very strong materials that could
Speaker 1: be used in future products. You know, I yet to
Speaker 1: see graphine and really being used versus the promises that
Speaker 1: were originally made. But I think the key that we
Speaker 1: just need to be super open, open minded and constantly
Speaker 1: be looking towards and so you know, occasionally someone might say, well,
Speaker 1: you know, cars the same, don't they and you go,
Speaker 1: what can tell you? But the people who producing them
Speaker 1: do not necessarily chet out to produce something that looks
Speaker 1: the same as everything else that their eyes on the future.
Speaker 1: But you know, if you're doing a one off, then yeah,
Speaker 1: you can make things out of exhausting materials and unobtainium.
Speaker 1: But the real challenge for product design is to try
Speaker 1: and take those principles and then bring them to the
Speaker 1: everyday person and to do it in volume as well.
Speaker 1: That's a heck of a challenge. And so you know,
Speaker 1: you can't blame the chap for dreaming those dreams. Sometimes
Speaker 1: they turn into reality. We'll keep pushing. So let's stick
Speaker 1: with the issue of reality. When you're early in the
Speaker 1: design process of any product, how are you balancing budget restrictions?
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is you have your
Speaker 1: internal cost structure and you have to work with that,
Speaker 1: but you also have a targeted m s r P.
Speaker 1: What the vehicle is going to go on sale for.
Speaker 1: How do those elements come into play as you work
Speaker 1: your way through the process. There are people far cleverer
Speaker 1: in the designer to talk about numbers believe belief. I
Speaker 1: think we want to make profit making vehicles. Of course
Speaker 1: we do, and there are lots of different influences upon that.
Speaker 1: You can't laden a vehicle full of unnecessary componentry that
Speaker 1: the customer won't appreciate and expect to improve your bottom line.
Speaker 1: So you've got to be I think quite focus on
Speaker 1: adding things to the vehicle where it's really necessary and
Speaker 1: where it's going to be really appreciated first and foremost.
Speaker 1: And then there's a constant tension between you know, what
Speaker 1: we're wanting to include, this is what we think we
Speaker 1: can sell it for, versus if you add a little
Speaker 1: bit of additional componentry or something to or feature technology
Speaker 1: or material to the vehicle. Will that actually make it
Speaker 1: worth more? You know, will come we command a high price,
Speaker 1: will out in the market. This debate, the yo yoing
Speaker 1: of of factors, it's continual throughout the entire process, and
Speaker 1: we're an active participants in it. But we don't sit
Speaker 1: there with a calculator trying to work out the percentages.
Speaker 1: We'll make our case for things that we feel quite
Speaker 1: strongly about, and then there's a tied team, and the
Speaker 1: PP team is really tight. You know, we can have good,
Speaker 1: frank and open debates about the merits of one execution
Speaker 1: versus another, and we're constantly looking for efficiencies to make
Speaker 1: things better. But in the case of the Bronco, I
Speaker 1: would come back and say that, you know, we were
Speaker 1: very open minded to the sort of less is more approach.
Speaker 1: There's really nothing on the outside of these vehicles that
Speaker 1: he is superfluous or unnecessary or rivals. And it became
Speaker 1: a little bit of a hobby of mind driving to
Speaker 1: work in the morning, just looking at the other vehicles
Speaker 1: around me and thinking what can I take off that
Speaker 1: vehicle and that's still function as a vehicle. There's things
Speaker 1: that you can't take off. Obviously, the headlights. You know
Speaker 1: they have to be there, but you know, extraneous pieces
Speaker 1: of trim, you know, redundant lighting elements, all those sorts
Speaker 1: of things. It became like a sort of training exercise
Speaker 1: to leave the excessive elements of cars starling behind and
Speaker 1: to focus exclusively on doing what was right for the Bronco.
Speaker 1: Really really, really fun. So I'm sure if that answers
Speaker 1: your question. But first of all, it's it's really complicated.
Speaker 1: The studio is definitely a part of that debate, and
Speaker 1: we ultimately come together to produce a vehicle it's going
Speaker 1: to be very profitable for the company. So there are
Speaker 1: a number of things beneath the skin of the Branco
Speaker 1: that looked like they aren't inexpensive. So your terrain management
Speaker 1: system is called Goat goes over any terrain. You have
Speaker 1: seven different drive modes creating that cross beam free roof.
Speaker 1: That whole roof comes off from the front of the
Speaker 1: vehicle all the way to the back. That looks like
Speaker 1: that was an engineering challenge. The trail furnacest. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of off roading tech built into this,
Speaker 1: the inclometer and including that, the ability to have a
Speaker 1: display on your dashboard of the exact degree of your X,
Speaker 1: Y and Z inclinations. None of that stuff looks especially inexpensive,
Speaker 1: so I'm just curious how you managed to, you know,
Speaker 1: work all that into a car that the base model
Speaker 1: is twenty Yeah, so you know this is again it's
Speaker 1: about focus, isn't it. So I'd much prefer to have
Speaker 1: trail turnasist as a feature on it because I think
Speaker 1: it's meaningful to the customer. For example, offer the bumpers
Speaker 1: in body color. You would all the intrinsic complexity and
Speaker 1: costs of that would drive you know. So it's all
Speaker 1: about focus. And I think some of those technologies you
Speaker 1: just listed us super super progressive. That's absually fantastic, and
Speaker 1: they will make being off road and easier more for
Speaker 1: filling a more accessible experience. You know, Broncos should be
Speaker 1: about these amazing stories. You learned this at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the development process. We have these beginning of a meeting.
Speaker 1: Everyone's sort of arrived and there's that little chatty bit
Speaker 1: before the gender starts, and it was a typical behavior
Speaker 1: for people to go our table too. Are the Bronco
Speaker 1: should be like? And then you you get these photographs
Speaker 1: will come out of wallets, or the smartphone will come
Speaker 1: out and be a picture of that person's Bronco or
Speaker 1: their brothers Bronco, or their mum's Bronco, or the Bronco
Speaker 1: picture of their mom and dad when they were much younger,
Speaker 1: or the one they're looking out on at on bring
Speaker 1: a trailer or the models would come out of the pockets.
Speaker 1: You know, here, here's a hot wheels. That's what the
Speaker 1: Bronco should be. What we learned very quickly was the
Speaker 1: Broncos is about stories, like human stories, rich enduring stories,
Speaker 1: and you know, you can't get to the point where
Speaker 1: the vehicle is going to be able to create news
Speaker 1: stories unless people are able to get access the vehicle
Speaker 1: and put it into the landscape. With those those stories
Speaker 1: be written most most intensely, and so technologies like that
Speaker 1: that make accessing the wilderness so much easier critical to
Speaker 1: the vehicle. He should not look like it can do it.
Speaker 1: But it should not look like it can do it,
Speaker 1: but only in the hands of an expert. We should
Speaker 1: be able to make extra int of being off road,
Speaker 1: much more open to everybody, more democratic, so everybody involved
Speaker 1: in the program. Although it's not a product design, styling,
Speaker 1: design kind of element. Everybody would in the studio environment
Speaker 1: would recognize that those are deeply important and frankly and
Speaker 1: better trade off than, for example, a piece of chrome,
Speaker 1: you know, decorative chrome on the outside. So we work
Speaker 1: together to produce products not not just things that look nice,
Speaker 1: quite quite fascinating. I have another four hours of questions,
Speaker 1: but I only have you for another five minutes, so
Speaker 1: so let's jump right to our speed rounds. These are
Speaker 1: the questions we ask all of our guests, and and
Speaker 1: let's it out with a simple question. What are you
Speaker 1: streaming these days? Give us your favorite Netflix, Amazon Prime
Speaker 1: shows you're watching, or a podcast you might be listening to.
Speaker 1: What is keeping you entertained under lockdown? I watched very
Speaker 1: little television and all. Honestly, I spend most of my
Speaker 1: time researching things on social media. Podcast wise, actually, I'm
Speaker 1: a real fan of motor sports. Listened to the BBC's
Speaker 1: Checkered Flag formerly one podcast. I love the sort of
Speaker 1: references to high technology, teamwork and determination that comes through
Speaker 1: that that I started quite inspiring. And also soon I'm
Speaker 1: going to be listening to the Bring Back Bronco podcast
Speaker 1: that's going to help explain some of the stories of
Speaker 1: the Bronco so that I will be listening to quite interesting.
Speaker 1: Tell us about some of your mentors who helped guide
Speaker 1: your career and helped you arrive where you are today. Probably, yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say your family is very good at helping
Speaker 1: you start. You know that that child who was just
Speaker 1: fascinated with cars, who fortunately was dragged two places where
Speaker 1: amazing cars could be seen to sort of feed this fascination,
Speaker 1: I think that's a good starting point. Some of the
Speaker 1: tutors that I had at my universities were really instrumental
Speaker 1: and first of all allowing me to study in the
Speaker 1: first place, but then also helping encourage my enthusiasm and
Speaker 1: point it in the right direction. But you know, more recently,
Speaker 1: I would say that I wouldn't Namames, but I would
Speaker 1: say it's a combination of the many very experienced, very
Speaker 1: senior people in in this company who have provided fantastic
Speaker 1: guidance and decision making and the multitude of products that
Speaker 1: have been involved with over the years. And it's from
Speaker 1: from those insights and encouragement that you're able to do more,
Speaker 1: do more accurately and progress. It's it's not sort of
Speaker 1: Favorancis and it's frankly, it's just information, and you use
Speaker 1: that information in a in a really useful way to
Speaker 1: get better. Quite interesting. Tell us about what you're reading,
Speaker 1: What are you reading currently, or what are some of
Speaker 1: your previous favorite books? Wired? I read Wired Magazine. That's
Speaker 1: another book, but that that that I always read cover
Speaker 1: to cover, usually early the morning with a coffee. Twenty
Speaker 1: one Lessons than twenty one Century, I usual, Noah Hararis
Speaker 1: being through that a couple of times. Actually, that that
Speaker 1: that that finds constantly quite inspiring. And a couple of
Speaker 1: books by Bill Bryson actually, particularly on the Home. That
Speaker 1: book was fascinating. Again. I read that over and over.
Speaker 1: The amazing observations about something which is so familiar as
Speaker 1: a home, your house, you know, a journey through a house,
Speaker 1: each individual room and where that room came from, and
Speaker 1: what he's in that room, and where all those inventions
Speaker 1: came from. That simplicity that he's got in explaining things
Speaker 1: that we just take for granted. Um, it seems like
Speaker 1: a very good analysis of brilliant product designed to me
Speaker 1: says that seems to to to be on my best
Speaker 1: on my table quite often, quite interesting what sort of
Speaker 1: advice would you give to a recent college graduate who
Speaker 1: was interested in working in the automotive industry. This is
Speaker 1: advice I give often because I'm in the fortune position
Speaker 1: to be able to to employ people from college. And
Speaker 1: I guess why I always try and explain is is
Speaker 1: not to try and emulate what they think that they
Speaker 1: should be doing in the car industry, but too u
Speaker 1: former point of view, have a point of view about
Speaker 1: what they think mobility should be about in the future,
Speaker 1: and hang onto it and they keep keep driving that forwards.
Speaker 1: And listen most of all to that little instinct. You know,
Speaker 1: we've all got it, and we know that it's there
Speaker 1: because sometimes it will be in a situation we go
Speaker 1: I knew that was going to happen. Will rather than
Speaker 1: be commenting after the effect, we need to listen to
Speaker 1: that little voice, you know, very quiet voice, much earlier
Speaker 1: on and act on it and do something in advance
Speaker 1: of a thing happening. So listen to your instinct, have
Speaker 1: the point of view, and do something with it. And
Speaker 1: basically also worked really hard. We have been speaking with
Speaker 1: Paul Raith. He is the chief designer for the new
Speaker 1: Ford Bronco and the chief designer for Ford. If you
Speaker 1: enjoy this conversation, well, be sure and check out all
Speaker 1: of the previous three hundred and fifties such discussions we've
Speaker 1: had over the prior six years. You can find that
Speaker 1: at iTunes, Spotify, Overcast, Stitcher, wherever final podcasts are sold.
Speaker 1: We love your comments, feedback and suggestions. Write to us
Speaker 1: at m IB podcast at Bloomberg dot net. Be sure
Speaker 1: to check out my weekly column on Bloomberg dot com
Speaker 1: slash Opinion. Sign up for our daily reads at rid
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Speaker 1: I would be remiss if I did not thank the
Speaker 1: crack staff that helps put this conversation together each week.
Speaker 1: Michael Boyle is my producer. Michael bat Nick is my
Speaker 1: head of search. Marufal is our audio engineer. Attica val
Speaker 1: Brunn is our project manager. I'm Barry Hults. You've been
Speaker 1: listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.