"My Goal Is To Fight Toyota..."

By Dorinda Elliott, Joseph Szczesny

Bill Ford is so committed to the environment that his office is decorated with biodegradable curtains and carpets. He sits at his uncle Edsel's old desk, near a photo of himself breaking boards to earn a black belt in Taekwondo. His favorite car: Mustang. He recently spoke with TIME's Dorinda Elliott and Joseph Szczesny. Excerpts:

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE? To restore a sense of confidence, externally and internally, in the company.

HOW DO YOU CHANGE YOUR CORPORATE CULTURE? Interestingly, this doesn't require a tremendous amount of change to our culture. Innovation is going to be the driving force of this company going forward. But the good news is, that is very much the history and the culture of this company, all the way back to the Model T and the assembly line.

WHEN YOU TOOK OVER AS CHAIRMAN, NOT EVERYBODY LIKED YOUR IDEAS. It was hard to get alignment within the company. It was the system that had developed over many years and the people who were running various departments. I was perceived perhaps as a bit of a Bolshevik early on.

NAIVE WAS ONE OF THE WORDS. Well, yes. Let's see who's naive now. But when you have a company that grows up over 100 years, there are a lot of strengths that come with that, but there's a lot of baggage too, including a propensity to look backward more than look forward. We're very proud of our history, but it can't be what defines us going forward.

DOES BEING HENRY FORD'S GREAT-GRANDSON MAKE CHANGE EASIER? Perhaps there is something to that. This is a long-term path we're on. I'll be around here for probably the rest of my life. I may not always be CEO. But I'm not leaving the Ford Motor Company. I care deeply about what this place looks like in 20 to 30 years.

CAN YOU SAVE THE COMPANY ON YOUR OWN? Absolutely not. If you look at the big issues that face our industry--whether it is health care, global warming, energy dependence, pensions--the problem I have is, each one of those issues requires both tremendous national [and] international cooperation. There's no way any one company can provide answers to any of them unilaterally.

DO YOU HAVE TO REINVENT THE RELATIONSHIP WITH AMERICAN LABOR? We are at a pivotal point.

HOW CAN WORKERS CONTINUE TO MAKE $65 AN HOUR WHEN THE CHINESE ARE DOING IT FOR $2 AN HOUR? There's an opportunity in this country for high-value, high-intellectual-content work to be done. I think of things like hybrids and the next generation of hybrid systems and transmissions. But there's no question that for other parts of the work stream, it's going to become much more difficult to be a player in this country.

DO YOU HAVE TIME TO CATCH UP? We don't have a lot of time, but we're changing on the run. We've done it before, and we will do it this time.

ISN'T TOYOTA GOING TO RULE THE WORLD? No! My goal is to fight Toyota and everybody else and come out on top. I'm not ceding anything to Toyota. They're an excellent company, and they're a terrific competitor, but I look forward to taking them on.

YOU DON'T COME ACROSS AS RUTHLESS. It's important to separate my demeanor from my determination. All along the way, I could have chosen to do something else. We're taking very tough actions that I wish I didn't have to take, but I'll take them knowing that it's going to make us a better company. If it ever gets to the point where I have to eliminate my humanity from the job, then I'll have a real problem.