Collision Course

On a shelf behind Ibsen's desk is a "Mighty Thor" action figure that was given to him as a gift, complete with a tiny plastic hammer. The real-life Thor has no patience for organizational strictures and boundaries, and it's not hard to imagine him swinging away at them with a hammer. He tries to avoid scheduling formal meetings with high-level Ford execs because, he says, "you get on their calendar two or three weeks from the time you schedule the meeting, and by then, either you can't remember what you wanted to talk about, or it has become irrelevant." Instead, he simply drops by or tries to catch them in the hall. Or he calls them on their cell-phones. "I found out where Jim's soft spot is," Ibsen says, speaking of Jim Schroer, VP for global marketing. Schroer is one of Ibsen's staunchest supporters: "I call him in his car on his way home. He's out of all the noise, and we can have a substantial conversation."

People who work for Ibsen know that he expects the same kind of no-holds-barred communication from them. "He is the furthest thing from a micromanager that you could imagine," says Frykman. "If he finds out that you waited for him to make a decision, he tells you never to do it again."

Ibsen explains his management style this way: "The only way we can keep so many balls in the air is to have a lot of jugglers and to trust them -- not always checking to see whether they're juggling in the right way. Once we establish a common vision and a shared purpose, I don't want to know what my team members are doing day to day. I trust them."

Ibsen believes that his approach frees up the team to take giant steps. Like partnering with the women's site iVillage.com to let that Web site's users collaboratively design a Mercury Villager minivan, which was shown at last year's convention of the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association. Or enlisting the "godfather of techno music," Detroit's Derrick May, to write a soundtrack for the ford.com site.

This year, the pace will quicken further. The Internet group plans to roll out something called ePrice, which instead of only offering car customers the manufacturer's suggested retail price will also reveal the average price paid in their local market, which is usually lower. A project with Ford of Canada will test most of the key elements of the company's build-to-order system with consumers, and Ford will begin using a Web site that lets businesses and other large customers configure their fleet orders. In North America alone, Ford has 60,000 fleet customers that collectively generate $28 billion in revenue a year. "If we could put 60% of that online, we'd be exceeding what Dell does," Ibsen muses.

Those numbers, along with the marquee partnerships that the Internet team has established, are forcing Ford and its divisions to pay attention. "While senior executives here were having difficulty hitting the 'reply' button on their email, Thor built this whole team," says Jim Schroer, 48, one of Ibsen's executive sponsors. "They didn't know what couldn't be done, and they were too naive to know what needed approval. The secret was, Let 'em run, and make sure that none of the organization's white blood cells got in the way."

Now, Schroer says, the momentum that the Internet team has generated is impossible to ignore. "We have an enormous opportunity as the industry shifts to e-business. The power goes to consumers. They'll have all the information they want. They'll know pricing, terms, margins -- it all will be out there on the Web. We understand that, in part, thanks to Thor's work. And we intend to lead the industry in e-business."

The Internet team's quick pace is also encouraging Ford's newer brands to get on board. Ford.com is a major source of traffic to Web sites of its divisions, such as Mazda and Jaguar, reports Jamie Allison, Internet marketing manager for the Consumer Connect Group. That's hard to ignore, as are partnerships with Internet heavy hitters like Microsoft. Within Ford, an Online Partners Forum meets weekly to hear pitches from potential Web partners.

As the Internet effort grows at Ford, there is a need, of which Ibsen is acutely aware, to continue pushing into new areas, at whatever risk to the status quo. "The reason we had leverage from the beginning was that we were working in a new, unfamiliar dimension," he says. "We have to keep operating outside of this organization's comfort zone." He acknowledges that this won't be easy to do in a company of Ford's size. "It's a difficult challenge. But for somebody who thrives on challenge, you couldn't find a better zone to work in."