Ford Robs Toyota To Fill Top Marketing Job
October 11, 2007

Toyota has been robbed again!

Ford announced Thursday that it has hired Jim Farley away from Toyota. Farley, 45, currently group vice president of Lexus, will be Ford's first global chief marketing and communications officer.

"I wanted to bring to our team  world-class marketing talent," Ford CEO Alan Mulally told AutoObserver in a phone interview just after the Ford board of directors agreed to hiring Farley.

Mulally has maintained the management team that was in place when he arrived a year ago. Farley is his first major hire -- and one outside of Ford from a company Mulally has openly admired. Mulally has been very critical and publicly vocal in his criticism of Ford's marketing, which triggered the automaker's international search for someone to head Ford's global marketing.

Mulally said Farley has two major assignments: create awareness and excitement for Ford's new models, which are underappreciated by the market; and feedback into Ford's product-planning process what customers want and need in their vehicles.

Mulally said Farley brings a lot to Ford -- his engineering training, his experience as head of Lexus, Scion and Toyota Division marketing as well as "his relentless focus on the customer."

One of Farley's challenges will be as an outsider trying to make a difference in a very hierarchial, tradition-bound Ford. In response, Mulally, recruited to Ford from Boeing, quipped: "We now have critical mass. We have two of us [outsiders]."

Farley, originally from Detroit, was known to be restless at Toyota.

Farley's departure is yet another blow to Toyota. In recent months, Chrysler has hired Jim Press, Toyota's top-ranking exec, and Deborah Meyer, head of Lexus marketing. 

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