His name has long been tied to great commercial jetliners from The Boeing Company. A great Boeing CEO takes a crack at Ford - and both win!
Who'd have thunk it? An engineer. A businessman. An aerospace executive. The new fresh face of Ford.
Alan Mulally, former chairman of the The Boeing Company, came to Ford Motor Company in 2006 to lead and to get Ford back on a winning track. To date, Mulally has accomplished things at Ford no other president or chairman has been able to accomplish at the nation's Number Two automaker. And Ford Executive Chairman William C. Ford knew this when he approached Mulally nearly five years ago about coming to Ford. In four years, Mulally has managed to bring people together who've never spoken to one another before. He has create a team spirit unequaled, enabling Ford to quickly produce a line-up of products faster than ever before - and it's working.
Because Mulally leads by example, he lives just three miles from Ford World Headquarters and puts in long 12-hour days. He keeps people on the same page with regular meetings that keep associates connected - ready to solve problems and get projects back on course.
Mulally's inspiration comes from President John F. Kennedy a lifetime ago. It was Kennedy's speech addressing sending a man to the moon at the dawn of the 1960s when Mulally was 17 that gave him the vigor and spiritual horsepower he continues to have. Mulally learned at an early age never to allow adversity to get in his way. Additional inspiration came from the Reverend Dale Turner at the Plymouth Congressional Church where he grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. It was the Reverend Turner who left a lasting impression on Mulally.
When Mulally graduated from the University of Kansas in 1969 with a BS and MS in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, he was quickly scooped up by The Boeing Company where he spent a 37-year career. Mulally has made positive contributions to every Boeing jetliner over the past 40 years. He headed up the cockpit team for the all-new Boeing 757 and 767 that came out in the 1980s. If you travel on the Boeing 777 to any degree, you might want to know Mulally was hugely influential on that project first as the director of engineering, then, as a Boeing vice president and general manager. Boeing's "Working Together" program under former Chairman Phil Condit was very successful thanks to Mulally's leadership skills and special way of getting things done. As a result of his efforts as Boeing for more than 30 years, Mulally was named CEO at Boeing Commercial Airplanes in 2001.
In 2006, Mulally begin reviewing his options after 37 years with The Boeing Company. He considered offers from Ford, Daimler-Chrysler, and Renault-Nissan. He chose Ford because it offered extraordinary challenge. The challenge was to fix Ford's problems. First thing he did was ask whatever happened to Taurus. When he was told Taurus was replaced by the Ford Five-Hundred, he strongly suggested bringing back the Taurus name as a means to boosting sales. Taurus also had to have a powerful image and a line-up of engines that would impress buyers.
After Mulally joined Ford, he quickly worked out a plan with Ford insiders to restructure the company and return it to profitability. Like Lee Iacocca at Chrysler in the 1980s, Mulally asked Ford associates to make significant sacrifices to get the company back on course. He downsized the company by getting rid of anything that wasn't making a positive contribution to the company's success. Divisions like Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, and Volvo were sold off to help generate operating capital and get Ford back to the basics of what it did best. A painful decision was made to drop Mercury Division. Mulally mortgaged Ford's entire worth in order to reorganize the company back to profitability. He knew that if Ford didn't have fresh and exciting product to sell, there would be no Ford.
As a result of Mulally's great achievements at Ford, he was named in Time's 100 list. Mulally has led Ford back to profitability with strategic moves that have made Ford a better car company along with exciting products buyer's want. And quality? It has never been better in the company's history.
We salute Alan Mulally for his ability to bring people together for a common goal and his great contribution to Ford's legendary comeback.