Ford wants a new headquarters building that reflects who they think they are and who they want to be going forward. They don’t want to viewed as the car company from yesterday. They want to be viewed as a car company for tomorrow," said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. “And they need to attract new kinds of employees. They’re competing for software engineers, AI experts. Every company on the planet wants the same people. Those people are used to working in new, very cool offices.”Ford not only is focusing on modern amenities in its new home, it also is prioritizing proximity.When the new HQ is fully online in two years, it will have more than 14,000 employees within a seven-minute walk and another 9,000 within a nine-minute drive, said Jim Dobleske, Ford Land CEO.