Alan Mulally: Behind the Wheel of Ford

photo by Renato Araujo/ABr

In the wake of the 2008 economic recession, many American automobile companies lost money. Chrysler and General Motors were bailed out by the United States government and had to close many dealerships, and, in the case of General Motors, discontinue some car brands as part of the deal to avoid or recover from bankruptcy. Ford Motor Company, thanks to a generous line of credit it received in 2007, avoided both the bailouts and the bankruptcy due in no small part to the actions of its CEO, Alan Mulally.

Alan Mulally seemed, at first, to be an odd choice for CEO of an automobile company. His previous business experience was with Boeing, and he was named president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes in 1998, with some CEO duties added in 2001. He replaced William Clay Ford, Jr., who joined Ford in 1979 and had served as its CEO since 2001. Mulally was a then-radical choice, but his management style, unweighted by decades of auto company baggage, has left its mark on the industry as well as on Ford itself.

Mulally worked to make Ford a less insular company. When he was appointed, global operating regions were less interested in working together than in retaining whatever market share they possessed on their home turf; and that transferred to the corporate culture – hardly anyone below the upper levels of Ford management knew just how close the company was to dying when Mulally signed on.

Mulally refocused the company away from luxery car brands like Jaguar and Aston Martin, and to the Ford brand proper. In doing so, he trimmed away part of the fat that was sinking the company. Mulally also refocused the company on a management level, giving the whole operation a singular purpose: to make Ford profitable again.

Recent reports show he has done just that, with Ford posting $33.1 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2011.