Surrounded by pristine forests, shimmering lakes and lush mountains, Darryl Hazel stands near the shores of Lake Placid with a purpose. On this brilliant July day, New York State’s scenic Adirondacks provide the perfect backdrop to unveil the 2006 Ford Explorer to the automotive press. For the adventuresome, there’s some off-road driving in store along the rugged mountain trails — a chance to see if this sports utility vehicle really lives up to its name.
In a rustic lodge that serves as the meeting point for the day’s test drives, Hazel hypes Ford’s newest Explorer, the company’s redesigned flagship SUV. His 6-foot-3-inch frame belies his personable and easygoing manner. Hazel addresses reporters as though they are old friends, boasting to the gathered throng about improved handling, a stronger frame, and a quieter ride. He’s convincing, but not overbearing, still possessing the winning charm of a salesman after all these years. It’s a bravura performance, one expected of a 33-year auto industry veteran who presides over the mammoth Ford Division.
It may be coincidental that the No. 2 U.S. automaker chose to have its unveiling in the same venue that hosted the 1980 Winter Olympics, but the symbolism is too hard to ignore. That was the year of the “Miracle on Ice,” when the underdog U.S. Olympic hockey team beat the heavily favored Soviet team at the height of the Cold War. Hazel is hoping the new Explorer will bring Ford out ahead as competition from rival automakers grows increasingly intense.
Since its introduction in 1990, the Explorer has been the best-selling SUV, but similar models from foreign and domestic manufacturers have eaten away at market share. It’s not lost on members of the media that Hazel made his presentation one day after Ford Motor Co. reported a 19% drop in second-quarter profits on car and truck sales.
Hazel has been tapped to repair the automaker and steer it toward greater profitability. He knows every nook and cranny of the business, having spent more than three decades at Ford Motor in various positions within its sales, marketing, and operations units, including Ford North American Automotive Operations, where he managed CEO and progeny of the founding family William Clay Ford Jr.
Hazel also understands the needs and challenges of auto dealers, having contributed to the success of legions of them, including David L. Stephens of Stephens Automotive Group (No. 35 on the BE AUTO DEALER 100 list with $75.19 million in sales), whom he helped land a Jaguar dealership. Hazel’s quiet, unassuming demeanor doesn’t mask his full-throttle leadership style or razor-sharp marketing skills — qualities needed to turn the company around and move it forward.
Hazel is well-positioned to play a key role in retooling the automotive giant. He was promoted to president of the Ford Division in April, overseeing virtually all marketing, sales, and distribution operations.
“Darryl has the best marketing skills in the company. He has an unbelievable understanding of what the customer
wants and brings that to engineering, so every [Lincoln Mercury] product has Darryl’s stamp,” says Joe Laymon, group vice president of corporate human resources and labor affairs. “He turned around Lincoln Mercury and is in the process of repositioning the Ford Division. There will be a significant need for marketing [throughout the company], and do not be surprised if Darryl is at the top of that space.”The 56-year-old was recognized as one of BLACK ENTERPRISE’s 75 Most Powerful African Americans in Corporate America in February. At that time Hazel was president of Ford Motor’s Lincoln Mercury Division (LM), which accounts for some 2.2% of the parent company’s market share versus 15.6% for the division he currently manages.
As LM’s president, he increased the number of products brought to market, adding seven new nameplates in 14 months. He also revamped the brand’s marketing campaign, quality control, and customer service operation. According to the J.D. Power and Associates 2005 Customer Service Index, Lincoln ranks highest in customer satisfaction for dealer service. For achieving such phenomenal growth and serving as a force for revitalization and renewal within his company, BE has named Darryl Hazel our 2005 Corporate Executive of the Year.
BIG CHALLENGES, BOLD SOLUTIONS
There’s no doubt Ford has seen better days. Standard & Poor’s expects Ford’s automotive revenues to grow a mere 1% to 2% on the introduction of new products and on greater average revenue per vehicle. S&P maintains a sell rating on Ford shares based on its eroding market share. The stock, which traded as high as $30 in 2001, spent most of July hovering between $10 and $11.
The automaker is beset with challenges. After a dismal performance in the first half of the year, Ford may lay off up to 30% of its white-collar workforce — about 10,000 of its 35,000 salaried workers — in North America over the next few years. Contract agreements with labor unions will mean rising healthcare and pension costs. If interest rates edge up as expected, financing a new vehicle will be less attractive to consumers, and more creative strategies will be needed to sell off inventories.
There’s also fierce competition from foreign and domestic auto manufacturers. General Motors walloped Ford this summer. In June, GM announced it would give consumers the same discount as its employees, driving vehicle sales a staggering 41% that month. Both Ford and DaimlerChrysler now offer similar deals and, as a result, sales rebounded in July.
But Ford can’t win market share in a no-holds-barred pricing war. The automaker must reshuffle its product offerings. In fact, Hazel has been one of the most vocal executives about Ford’s addiction to trucks and SUVs, staunchly advocating reinvestment in passenger cars. “Part of our challenge is to retain and move forward faster than the competition as far as innovating where we’re strong,” says Hazel. “We’ve now opened up another chapter where we’re spending more resources and more time on cars.”
Such maneuvers,
however, won’t be easy to pull off. The market for passenger cars is dominated by Japanese manufacturers, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Corp., according to Michael Robinet, vice president of global forecast services for CSM Worldwide, which provides market forecasting for automakers, suppliers, and financial organizations. “The Japanese are being very protective of their passenger car [market] share,” he says. “It’s very difficult to take share away from some of those folks. So [Ford] strategy on an international scale is to look to emerging markets, which they feel are underserved. They can make some easy gains in terms of market share in markets like India, China, Thailand, South Africa, and Russia.”But it’s not all doom and gloom. Ford continues to lead the pack with its trucks, anchored by the popular F-150 pickup truck, which sells more than 900,000 units a year (making it the best-selling vehicle on the market). “The Mustang and several Volvo models are also performing well. Right now Mustang is very, very popular,” says Robinet. “People like the styling, it’s a well-put-together vehicle, and it kind of harkens back to the emotion of the late ’60s Mustang. They can’t keep it on the lots now. People don’t pay extra money for bland vehicles.”
Generating excitement for products like the Mustang is one of Hazel’s strengths. He’s adept at understanding ever-changing market trends and adapting to them. While Ford captured market share with its trucks and SUVs, it lost ground with traditional, smaller cars — something Hazel plans to fix. “Companies, to a certain degree, have developed their own personality. And the personality of Ford, largely dominated by trucks, is sort of rural tending to suburban,” he points out. “The people who do really well in th
e car business are urban tending to suburban. So part of what we’re trying to do, or at least one of the things we have to think about, is work on this whole issue of maintaining the position we have in truck but re-establishing ourselves in car. And that means doing more with urban markets and marketing.”
Another key component will be revving up Ford Division’s network. Hazel has always had the confidence of auto dealers. For years, he’s been one of their relentless supporters within the company’s Dearborn, Michigan, headquarters. Moreover, he’s spent hours in dealership showrooms, peppering customers with questions about their aspirations, preferences, and concerns. Not only does the exec know what customers want, but he’s tuned in to the challenges dealers face in moving certain models off their lots.
MASTER OF ALL TRADES
It will take someone with Hazel’s vast skill set to bring these elements together. His experience has made him a dynamo within the company and throughout the industry. “Leaders like Darryl Hazel are intensely focused on moving the company forward,” said Jim Padilla, president and chief operating officer of Ford Motor. “His knowledge of the auto industry, relationships with dealers, and ability to drive results are helping make us a better company.”
After earning his bachelor’s degree in economics from Wesleyan University and his master’s in economics from Northwestern University, Hazel joined Ford Motor in 1972 as an analyst in LM’s New York district sales office. “At the time, I was just looking for a job, not a career,” quips Hazel, a married father of two.
Over a 29-year period, he was placed in a series of managerial positions — from sales and marketing to strategic management and product development — that made him one of the industry’s most versatile executives. By 2001, he became a Ford Motor vice president and head of Ford Customer Service Division. By 2002, he was named LM’s president, overseeing all aspects of the division’s marketing, sales, and service operations. Along the way, this straight shooter earned a number of fans. Says Mickey Bowers, president of the Ford Minority Dealers Association: “Every job that I’ve seen him at with Ford Motor Company, he has been successful at. He worked at Customer Service Division and he did a good job there. He worked at Lincoln Mercury Division and he did a good job there. And we are really glad to have him over on the Ford Division side now.”
What distinguished Hazel was his leadership style, one that emphasized not only fighting battles for market share side-by-side with his troops but living within proximity to them. Unlike his predecessor, who commuted from Michigan to the West Coast when he ran Irvine, California-based LM, Hazel sold his Detroit home and set up residence in Irvine when he gained the position.
Hazel’s success is rooted in his keen evaluation of his team’s strengths and weaknesses. “Part of my philosophy is to try to avoid asking people to do what they can’t do. If people want to contribute and want to work, then what you do is try to position it so they can make the largest contribution,” he says. “That, I think, had something to do with some of the success we had at Lincoln Mercury.”
The approach played a key role in the division’s resurrection. In addition to building a solid team, Hazel fought to get resources comparable to other divisions. For example, he pushed Ford’s product engineering staff to design models for the LM line that offered customers more style and performance. This enabled the division to expand from its two top-selling vehicles, the Town Car and Navigator, to a revenue-generating slate that includes the Aviator and the new-for-2006 Zephyr. “Darryl does a great job of articulating a message of hope and winning,” says Laymon of Hazel’s management skills. “He takes a group of folk, develops a clearly crafted strategy, and motivates them to perform at never-imagined levels. He has very long coattails. When he leaves a division, people want to follow him.”
CREATING A NIMBLER FORD
When Hazel was tapped to head the Ford Division, there was a bit of a culture clash. The
The Ford Five Hundred sedan is the company’s first serious step to reaching another niche market but so far its performance has been underwhelming. How does Hazel seek to generate sales for such models? He will apply digital marketing — effectively using the Internet rather than traditional advertising to zero in on diverse markets and target a narrow band of consumers who have shown interest in vehicles.
Throughout his career, he’s advised up-and-coming African American Ford executives, a group that’s included corporate officers Thomas Brown, senior vice president of global purchasing and one of BE’s 75 Most Powerful Blacks in Corporate America; Bennie Fowler, COO of Jaguar and Land Rover; Deborah Coleman, vice president of global quality; and Laymon. “Darryl is a mentor to all of us,” Laymon says. “He wasn’t the first [black] in senior management, but he has the most seniority, experience, and respect.”
At the end of the day it’s all about selling cars. Hazel keeps his attention focused squarely on his goals. And that means bringing new and exciting products to market. “You need new products, and the corporation has a whole pipeline of new product that’s coming,” he says.
As the Lake Placid event wraps up without a hitch, Hazel heads back to corporate headquarters on the company jet. The 90-minute flight gives him little time to prepare for a slew of meetings that will clog his afternoon schedule. There’s a lot of work to do to fix Ford’s problems — and he’s just the man for the job.
— Additional reporting by Derek T. Dingle and Tennille M. Robinson
DARRYL B. HAZEL
- AGE: 56
- TITLE: Vice President, Ford Motor Co.; President, Ford Division
- EXPERIENCE: 33 years
- INTERESTING FACT: Helped train current Ford CEO William Clay Ford Jr.
- EDUCATION: B.A., Economics, Wesleyan University 1970; M.A., Economics, Northwestern University 1973
- CURRENT RESIDENCE: Birmingham, Michigan
- FAMILY: Married 27 years, 2 adult children
- CURRENT CAR: Ford Expedition
- SOCIAL CAUSES CHAMPIONED: United Negro College Fund
- BOARD AFFILIATIONS: Chair, Detroit Police Athletic League; Board Member, Oakland Family Services and Congressional Black Caucus Foundation
- MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHY: “To try to avoid asking people to do what they can’t do. If people want to contribute and want to work, then what you do is try to position it so they can make the largest contribution.”