The Maker Revolution

CHAPTER 6Innovation

Bill Coughlin, CEO of Ford Global Technologies, sent me a text message in October 2013. It was a picture of Times Square with his smiling face on one of those massive big screens you see there. That's right, his face on a massive big screen in Times Square. His text went something like this: “I'm here to receive an award from Reuters as a top 100 Global Innovator, and I was trying to figure out which building to go into…I think I found it.” BOOM! He is a very humble person, but when you see your face projected across Times Square, you need to share it with someone.

I began to explain the story about Bill and Ford Motors in The Maker Movement Manifesto, but it has continued to get better. So, I'll retell some of it as context and provide an update.

In 2012, Bill helped to drive the creation of a thirty-five-thousand-square-foot, open-access makerspace near Ford Motors' R&D facilities outside Detroit. Bill runs the wholly owned Ford Global Technologies division of Ford Motor Company, which is responsible for licensing all intellectual property created by Ford. (This, by the way, is brilliant. By turning the licensing division into a stand-alone company, Ford created a highly incentivized CEO and a senior management team that focuses on maximizing revenue and profits from licensing. This is a model that contrasts with the internally captured cost centers in most other automotive companies. By organizing as a business instead of just a cost center, by having ...