Ford Motr Company Essays - Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Company

Alan Mulally, CEO, Ford Motor Company Elizabeth Haskins Strayer University Instructor: Dr. Yohannes Abate Leadership and Organizational Behavior ? BUS 520010VA016 August 7, 2011 Abstract This case focuses on the challenges Alan Mulally (Mulally); CEO of Ford Motor Company faces to implement a new beginning for Ford. Upon Mulally?s arrival, Ford was on the verge of a financial collapse, reporting a $12.6 billion dollar loss in 2006 and a $2.7 billion dollar loss in 2007. Bill Ford hired Mulally to lead the company as he felt that only an outsider could take the extreme steps needed to save the company from financial failure. In a strategic move to ensure Ford maintained its independence and sensing a recession as well as not to be forced to accept a government loan , Mulally borrowed $23 billion against Ford?s assets. This was a strategic move in the hopes that Ford would maintain its independence. This case study will highlight the challenges faced by Mulally, his management and leadership style and what changes were implemented into the organizations culture to ensure its success and place in the car industry. Introduction Mulally moved to Ford in September 2006. When starting at Ford, he had not engineered, designed or built any cars. He came from the defense industry. Previously, he had been employed with Boeing since 1969. At Boeing, he held a number of engineering and program management positions, making contributions to the Boeing 727, 737, 747, 757, 767 and 777 projects. (Wikipedia, 2011). He was known at Boeing for enriching Phil Condit's (Chairman and CEO of Boeing) "Working Together"-philosophy through and beyond the 777-program. Mulally had no previous experience in sales arena and he certainly was not known, as the quote goes, as a ?Detroit car man," much less a car man at all. What was clear was his ?results oriented" leadership style. His management style is invigorating, reliable and authoritative. His leadership style is what brought him to Ford. As an intelligent leader, with little or no car experience, he defers to Ford?s design experts, on the ins and outs of the product lines. On the big questions of the company's past misfortunes, mistakes and where the company wanted to go in the future, was in now going to be driven by Mulally, his leadership and management style, and desire for success. Discuss the role of leadership and how it can impact organizational performance. Leadership as described by Noel Tichy (Hellriegel and Slocum (2011), who has studied many outstanding leaders, describes leadership in these words: Leadership is accomplishing something through other people that wouldn?t have happened if you weren?t there. And in today?s world, that?s less and less through command and control, and more and more through changing people?s mindsets and hence altering the way they behave. Today, leadership is being able to mobilize ideas and values that energize other people. (p. 4). Leadership is vital to an organization as successful leadership implements decisions successfully. Successful leaders influence the judgment, outlook, attitude, and behaviors of others. Leaders put in place a path for those to follow, they help employees to see the future, not just the past or the present, but what lies ahead, they assist employees in setting goals for what they can achieve; they support, encourage and motivate team members. Successful leaders can transform an employee from a worker simply completing assignments to a valuable team member. Leadership skills can help change an employee?s mentality by instilling an ownership attitude. Employees who believe they have this type of ownership relationship with the organization will find ways to improve their attitude, motivation and productivity. Without successful leadership, on conflict exists. Successful leaders energize people toward a common goal. Leadership will result in high levels of unity, commitment, trust, loya lty, motivation, and consequently high performance in the organizations environment. Discuss Mulally?s leadership style at Ford Motor Company and provide examples of how his actions fit this style. Arriving at Ford Mulally dived in head first, interviewing dozens of employees, analysts, and consultants, and filling those five binders with typed notes. His extensive research and investigation allowed him to develop a point of view about the auto industry which would frame his decision-making process. Mulally?s style was to focus on the Ford brand (nobody buys a