Ironicall, Nasser’s larger-than-life persona no longer worked at Ford, a company founded and run by some of the biggest industrial titans of the 20th century. “For many, many years–probably all the way back to Henry Ford I and you can fast forward it right on through–there’s always been a cult of personality that swirled around Ford Motor Co.,” says Bill Ford, Henry’s great-grandson and the first family member to take the wheel in two decades. “But this company is bigger than any individual and it’s proven that time and time again. We’re a strong family with a strong ethic and strong culture and it transcends any individual, including me.”

Last Tuesday, the day after Bill Ford fired Nasser, he spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Keith Naughton about how he will lead the nearly century-old company. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Why did you do this now?

Bill Ford: Jac [Nasser] and I sat down to talk [in Bill Ford’s wood-paneled office atop Ford World Headquarters.] It was a very normal conversation. We both realized that the pounding that the company had taken and the divisiveness that had ensued and the paralysis that was about to set in really made clear to both Jac and to me that this was probably the right thing to have happen.

But you’ve said before that you weren’t ready to be CEO at this stage of your life, with four young children. Isn’t this bad timing for you personally?

That’s true. This comes at a terrible time in my life personally. My children are young. They’re all still at home and they are the most important things in my life. But when I look at what issues this company faces, and you start with relationships that are frayed. You start with employees, hourly and salaried–particularly salaried–and with dealers, government. It was clear to me I was in a position to really help bring everybody back together again and to get us all on one page and get us all moving forward.

Sometimes you don’t have the luxury of choosing your timing, and this is one of those occasions. I know the kind of time it will take and I know the kind of sacrifices I will have to make. One thing I won’t be willing to give up is my family life, and I’ll just have to work around that. I may be naive, but I believe both are possible. Of course, I’ve given up everything else. But that’s OK. That happens to every parent with young children. People ask me, ‘How was fly fishing this summer?’ I only went once. But that’s fine. I’m not resentful. What I really enjoy doing is hanging out with my kids, going to their games and helping them out with their homework. Tonight, I’m carving pumpkins. So that will be my life–Ford Motor Co. and my family. And I’m comfortable with that.

Did you look at outside CEO candidates?

No, I didn’t. I talked with a couple of outside people I respect enormously. But no, never for this job. It was always clear to me that I was going to be the one to take this job and it was clear that the board wanted me to do that.

From whom outside Ford did you seek advice?

Roger Penske [founder and chairman of the Penske Corporation] is one. Roger is a close friend of mine. He knows our company. He’s been in this industry for many years. I trust Roger’s opinion on things.

But you didn’t ask him to become CEO?

No. Talk about a guy who’s conflicted in terms of business dealings. I think Roger’s got dealerships, racing arrangements and manufacturing arrangements with virtually every other [automotive] manufacturer out there. Plus, I think he’s one of our largest dealers. It would have been absolutely impossible for Roger to come here and drop all that. I just went to Roger to talk.

Did he encourage you to become CEO?

Absolutely. Roger has been a guy who has been very encouraging to me over the years and he’s a guy to whom I listen because I respect him so greatly. We really spent more time talking about the issues facing the company and how to go about fixing them. I never offered the job or considered offering the job to anybody else. Didn’t really want it personally myself at this time in my life. But once I’m here I will do it with great enthusiasm. I will not do this dragging my heels.

When did it become clear you needed to make the switch and become CEO?

It was evolutionary. There was never an aha moment. I was feeling a great deal of frustration in having the responsibility and not the authority. As I saw us get off track in a number of ways and people were saying to me increasingly: ‘How could you let this happen?’ But it wasn’t fair to Jac for me to insert myself. That would have been a total recipe for disaster. So I stayed back.

When you became chairman, you were accused of being too lightweight. Do you expect the same criticism now?

I think there’s a big difference. Were this to happen three years ago, there would be a lot of that. But if you read today what the analysts have written it’s been very positive. I’ve spent a lot of time with those analysts over the last three years. I suspect they feel very good about me and where I stand and the kind of people they know I’m going to surround myself with. In the end this is not a one-man band, nor should it be. This is too big a company. I think you have a very different reaction now on Wall Street.

You said today that people describe you as a “tree-hugger” because of your passionate views about cleaning up the environment by building factories and cars that pollute less. Do you think Ford stockholders worry about your green leanings?

They might. But in my mind, it’s not about doing some peripheral feel-good exercise. What it really is, is about applying technology to our core business to make us extremely acceptable to customers and society. Just look at the [Toyota] Prius [a hybrid gas and electric car]. It’s got a six-month waiting list. People want new technology that’s going to allow them to have the personal freedom and mobility that cars and trucks do. But also remove any kind of social stigma that may come of it.

Do you feel like you’re behind Honda and Toyota, who both have gas-electric hybrids cars already on the market?

Yes, we are behind. But I like the approach we’ve taken, which is the high volume approach with the Escape [a 40 mpg gas-electric SUV due in 2003]. If you are going to really have an impact on the environment, we want to go after the high-volume elements where you’re going to sell lots of them. That’s going to be our approach.

With the war on terrorism being waged in an oil-rich part of the world, many Americans say we should try to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Is it unpatriotic to drive a gas-guzzling SUV?

[Laughs.] Listen, we can never be in the position of dictating customer choice. That is very much an individual decision in terms of what they will want to buy. Our challenge is to deliver that vehicle in as responsible a way as we can. That’s why we’re putting a hybrid in an SUV. Customers do want those vehicles [SUVs] and they are driving them in record numbers. By putting a hybrid there, we feel we are addressing the heart of that issue. We can’t be in a position to dictate to the customers what they must buy. But we can be in a position to deliver those products in a responsible manner. We made all our trucks low-emission vehicles. We didn’t say: ‘Don’t buy trucks.’ We just said, ‘If you buy it, we’re going to do them responsibly.’

So does that imply that the current environmental state of SUVs is irresponsible?

It’s hard for me to attach labels to it. It is what it is. This is what customers want to buy. Each customer makes those decisions for themselves. But we as a manufacturer need to be very tuned in to exactly what the customer wants, but to provide it responsibility.

The company has had two consecutive unprofitable quarters and a lot of bad press. What has that been like for you personally?

It’s been a horrible year. On almost every front, it’s been a dreadful year. But I think there’s light at the end of the tunnel. There’s a lot of hard work that has to be done to get us to a point where I think we’re in great shape. But we have very strong brands and products. That’s something we didn’t have when we went into downturns in the past.

You’ve suffered a string of recalls and botched new model launches. What happened to Ford’s quality? This used to be the “Quality is Job One” company.

You bet. And we can’t claim that now. But we’re going after that again. That mindset is going to pervade this place.

You mentioned that you had a Ford family meeting three weeks ago. How often does the family meet?

I think we do it three times a year.

Did you get any push from the family to take the wheel as CEO?

They were really leaving it up to me to signal to them what should happen and how it should happen. All they ever said to me was, “Whatever you decide, we’re very supportive.”

So your mother didn’t nudge you on?

No, my mother doesn’t want me to do this at all. She thinks I will lose my life, maybe literally, but certainly figuratively.

What do you tell her?

She grew up with her father being CEO of Firestone and she’s certainly been around my family. She knows exactly what I’m getting into, which is what makes her worried. She knows the kind of sacrifices that it takes. She’s very pleased I’m doing it on the one hand. But on the other hand, she’s worried as a mother.

It was a big surprise to see former Wells Fargo CEO Carl Reichardt become your vice-chairman. He’s been a key player on Ford’s board for years, but how did you convince him to come on staff?

When I was thinking, how can I put together the best team possible… I thought who can I turn to for advice, who would be a good kitchen cabinet member? I immediately thought of Carl, who some described as the best CEO who never wrote a book about himself. Here we had a hall-of-fame banker on our board, so I called him and we talked about some issues. Then I said: ‘Hey Carl, don’t hang up on me, but I’m going to throw something wild out at you. Would you ever consider coming here?’… He said: ‘I’m 70 years old.’ I said: ‘You’re a young 70.’… I was very surprised and thrilled that he said yes.

When was that? Two days ago [Oct. 28].

That recently?

This has not been a long thing. Things came together very quickly.

Would you say you’ve known you’d become for the CEO for the last month?

Yeah, roughly. I’ve been getting ready for it mentally, as well as talking to some folks.

Do you think Jacques Nasser knew it was coming on that long?

It was certainly in his mind. Whether he expected it or not, I just don’t know … Jac could have quit at any point. He could have taken another job, because I know offers have come to him over the last couple years. But he really wanted to see it through here.

Was the discussion you had here in your office Monday afternoon emotional?

No. When you have a discussion like that where both parties have regrets, it’s never fun. It’s never easy. But Jac was really terrific, I must say. You never leave a meeting like that feeling good.

Henry Ford II told Lee Iacocca “I just don’t like you,” when he fired him. What did you tell Jacques Nasser?

First of all, I do like Jac. I like him personally. Despite all the rumors, I’ve always liked Jac and I know Jac has always liked me. We’re very different, that’s fine. You can be very different and still like each other very much. So on a personal level there’s no joy here, at all. But I have to look at what’s best for 350,000 people worldwide and a much greater number who depend upon us. And we need to be all on the same page and go forward as one group.

Will the company get back in the black in the fourth quarter?

I don’t know. The zero percent financing is very tough on us. We need to restructure North America. I can’t give you a timetable for when we’re getting back in the black. I can certainly say we’re addressing the issues starting today. And we’re going to put a game plan together that will give us a road map back to profitability.

Do you feel like Firestone is finally behind you?

In a large sense it is, but we still have legal issues that will probably drag on for some time. But I do believe the bulk of it is certainly behind us.

Most of the defective Firestone tires implicated in more than 200 highway deaths were mounted on Ford Explorer SUVs. Do you think the Explorer name is permanently tarred?

No. First of all, the new Explorer is a new vehicle and Consumer Reports gave it its highest rating. And NHTSA [National Highway Transportation Safety Administration] vindicated the old Explorer in terms of safety. But all that would mean nothing if people weren’t buying it. And they are buying the Explorer in big numbers.

What’s Job One tomorrow morning?

This is not a time for barnstorming tours or grand visions. We’ve got to settle this place down. That’s what we really need to do. I’m going to spend a lot of time with employees and dealers and government rebuilding the relationships…We need to polish the [Ford] Oval and we’re going to do that starting tomorrow morning.

Are you prepared for now being the guy who gets the blame for anything that goes wrong?

What was happening anyway, was I was getting all the responsibility with none of the authority. That’s a terrible position to be in. My eyes are wide open on this. I know exactly what I’m getting into. I saw my uncle go through it. I’ve seen every CEO at this company go through it. Do I welcome criticism? Of course not, nobody does. But I’m also realistic to know that it will come. You just stay the course and do the right thing and that’s all you can do.

Will you delegate power more as CEO than Jacques Nasser, who had more than 20 vice-presidents reporting to him?

I really want the very best people around me and I want them to do their jobs. And that is delegation. If I’m ever in the position to do their jobs for them, then something is really wrong. They should always know their job better than I do. In many ways, I liken it to a coach. My job is to surround myself with as much talent as I possibly can, make sure we’re all on the same page and that we all are going in the same direction. And to coach, counsel and cheerlead where I need. This company is way too big for any one individual to run. Even if I wanted to be autocratic and dictatorial and controlling, it wouldn’t work. But I’m not that way. That’s not my style. My style will be much more inclusive.