At the recent Wisdom 2.0 conference, Ford Motor Company Executive Chairman Bill Ford sat down with Jack Kornfield, founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock Meditation Center, to discuss what role compassion, mindfulness and wisdom play in modern business. In front of an audience of entrepreneurs, mindfulness practitioners and technology leaders, Ford shared personal anecdotes illustrating how he used these philosophies to navigate through a number of crises to help position his company today as a thriving global enterprise and a strong sustainability leader in its industry.
Throughout the discussion, Ford returned to his central theme of compassion and encouraged the next generation to never turn a blind eye to its importance in the quest for growth. "At the end of the day, every business is about the people," said Bill Ford, emphasizing his point by discussing the challenges the company faced during the recent downturn. He also surprised the audience by sharing how his world view has led him to now focus on thinking about a world of mobility that goes beyond the automobile and links all forms of transportation into one seamless network - bringing greater efficiency, safety and freedom.