BY SUSAN CARPENTER ORANGE COUNTY (CALIF.) REGISTER

Sheryl Connelly is the rare auto industry expert who has almost nothing to do with cars. As Ford Motor Co.s manager of global trends and future, her role isnt to look at the industry but outside it, to determine what factors will influence cars in the coming decades.

We sat down with her at Fords Irvine, Calif., headquarters to peer into her crystal ball.

Q: As Fords first and only in-house futurist, what exactly are you trying to achieve?

A: It takes Ford Motor Co. three years to bring a vehicle to market, so even if we have the most ingenious idea today, what feels cutting edge at this point might not be. We have no crystal ball, but we can look to five arenas for guidance: social, technological, economic, environmental, and political.

Q: Why those five arenas?

A: You start there because youll never be able to predict the future, but those will be the forces that shape the landscape. It gives us a framework to play in this space of What if? and If so, then what? You talk about the possibilities, and then you explore what it means for the industry what it does to demand, supply, competitors, retail, the distribution network. Only if youve explored all of that do you even ask what that means for Ford.

Q: What timeline are you looking at?

A: The most distant function in the Ford team is advanced product research and engineering. Theyre trying to figure out what technologies are on the horizon and what to invest in. Their time horizon is 10, 20 years out.

Q: How far into the future are you looking?

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Futurist at Ford looks far ahead