The Farley Playbook

THE IDEA COMES FIRST

Ad agencies live in fear of being fired and mightily resist pressure to go outside for fresh ideas. Knowing that Ford's very survival meant thinking outside the box, Farley insisted that its agency draw talent from all over.

EVERYBODY IN

Any company that relies on distributors to sell its products needs to recruit these frontline troops as brand advocates. Ford's dealers had been left out for years and felt alienated from the process. Farley brought them into the decision-making and showed them some love.

WHO'S IN CHARGE?

Successful product launches have many authors; bad ones have none. Farley put a manager in charge of each vehicle, making these people directly accountable to him and eliminating the possibility that a muckety-muck with marketing pretensions could torch an idea.