Premium Essay

Alan

In:

Submitted By lederrius
Words 551
Pages 3
Recently, when the other major U.S. automakers accepted federal funds in order to stay in business, Ford
Motor Company—in the voice of CEO Alan R. Mulally— said no. The federal funds were to come in the form of short-term loans, which Ford determined that it didn’t need at the time to survive. Several years earlier, the firm had faced financial decisions and restructured its debt in such a way that, when the economy slowed down, Ford didn’t. Mulally observes that this timing was a bit of luck and a bit of strategic planning. “I go back to the fundamental point of view that the Ford Motor Company has taken about the future going forward, and the actions that we have taken to create that future,” he observes.
“[Several years] ago we decided that fuel efficiency was going to be very, very important going forward, along with quality and safety and good value. We also decided that we wanted to provide customers with an absolutely clear vision of Ford and focus on the Ford brand.” As part of this overall strategy, Ford sold off its luxury brands Aston
Martin, Jaguar, and Land Rover. Meanwhile, it invested in the development of moderately priced, fuel-efficient cars and trucks. Ford took on some extra debt at the time as a hedge against a recession—and had the cash on hand when the other two automakers didn’t.
Decisions like this are typical of the responsibilities that are faced by top managers like Mulally. They require strong leadership qualities that include a willingness to persist during tough times. But Mulally wasn’t always
CEO of Ford. His first management position was as an engineering supervisor at Boeing. He overmanaged his employees so closely that one engineer finally quit. Mulally says that this was an important experience early in his management career. He realized that his job as a manager was “to help connect people to a

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Alan Greenspan

...Alan Greenspan The Modern Economist Charter College Christina Cruz Abstract Alan Greenspan a great Modern Economist was the second longest appointed chairman of the Federal Reserve by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 and served five intervals until 2006. He describes himself as a “long life Libertarian Republican." He now works as a private adviser and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC. Alan Greenspan: The Modern Economist Alan Greenspan the modern day economist born March 6, 1926 into a Jewish family. He helped the United States prolong the modern day recession, but still seen the collapse. He served on the Federal Reserve as the second longest term in four year intervals. He was first appointed as President Gerald Ford’s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors. The job of the Council of Economic Advisors was consulting the President of the United States on the welfare of the U.S. economy. Then in 1987 Alan was appointed as chairman of the Federal Reserve by Ronald Reagan and there he served until 2006. As a child parents, Rose Goldsmith was a homemaker, and his father Herbert Greenspan was a stockbroker and a market analyst in New York City. While in high school at George Washington High school, Alan played the clarinet in a band named Woody Herman band, after graduating high school, Alan actually went to Juilliard School from...

Words: 813 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Alan Sugar

...Name: Alan Sugar Born: 24/03/1947 (Age: 66) From: Hackney, London Famous for: He's the man who loves to say "You're Fired!" on his hit television show, The Apprentice. Relationship status: Sir Al is married to his wife Ann. Twelve years younger than his three older siblings, Alan Sugar was the child of low-income, working-class Jews and raised in Upper Clapton Road - England. By the age of 12, he was rising at 6am every day to boil beetroots for a local ‘greengrocer’. Four years later, Sir Alan's earnings, after school and at weekends, were far better than his father, Nathan, who worked in a tailoring sweatshop. Leaving school at the age of 16, Sugar proceeded to obtain a post in which he worked briefly for the civil service as a statistician in the Ministry of Education. He also started selling car aerials and electrical goods out of a van he had bought from his £50 savings. In 1968, aged 21, he set up his own business, selling electrical products from intercoms to retractable car antennas and called it Amstrad, referring to (Alan Michael Sugar Trading). The company began as a general importer/exporter and wholesaler, but soon specialized in consumer electronics. By 1970, the first manufacturing venture was underway. He achieved lower production prices by using injection moulding plastics for hi-fi turntable covers, severely undercutting competitors who used vacuum-forming processes. Manufacturing capacity was soon expanded to include the production of audio amplifiers...

Words: 712 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Alan Sugar

...Alan Sugar- The Essex boy that showed ‘em all who’s boss. When Alan Sugar was 12 years old, he woke up one Monday morning thinking that he was going to be his own boss and setup his own business in the middle of what they called a recession. His father hadn’t got much money as he worked in a garment factory and decided to create Alan’s own school uniform. Alan’s dad barely could afford £13 and the Sugar family lived in a very rough area. By Alan’s standards he thought his father “wasn’t the greatest tailor in the world” and always feared that his hard earned weekly cash was going to fall onto the floor and taken by kids that took the mickey out of him. Alan hated being made to stand out amongst the crowd. However he had a keen business eye, by the time he was 15 he a few enterprises going including deliveries of ginger beer, milk and paper rounds and shifts for the bakers and local supermarket. Little did he know did he know he had begun his long career as an entrepreneur and soon to become business leader. Today, we know Lord Sugar as the witty, wise and blunt multi-millionaire with pockets that are becoming ever deeper. Lord Sugar’s worth is estimated at over £700 million and an annual turnover of £30 million. Not bad for someone who famously started with only £100 selling TV aerials from the back of van in 1969. The key to Lord Sugars wealth was formed when he setup his first formal electronics company called Amstrad which begun...

Words: 631 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Alan Turing

...In 1950 Alan Turing wrote the paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence. This document attempts to address the question "Can machines think?". Much of the paper involves speculation and the creation of theories without any solid facts to back them up. Due to the lack of digital computers, really the only one being ENIAC at this time, it was nearly impossible for him to test these concepts. Therefore one can view many of the statements within this document as both theory and philosophy. Additionally with Americas participation in the Korean war the development of computation would not be a major interest of the American public till the start of the space race in the late 50's. Alan Mathison Turing played a critical role in the evolution of computer science and subsequently the advancement of technology. While working as a cryptographer he came up with the ideas of representing data with ones and zeros and assigning computers with six essential...

Words: 493 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Alan Malally

...Alan Malally In less than one week, Alan Mulally will resign as CEO of Ford Motor Company after an 8-year run packed with achievements and an innovation track record that should be the envy of every executive today. When Mulally steps down, Detroit will lose a true innovation leader. Mulally’s turnaround of Ford will likely be studied by business students for years to come as an artful combination of needed financial belt-tightening, plus a cultural change that took the car and truck maker from the brink of bankruptcy to the forefront of growth in the U.S. auto industry. The cultural shifts Mulally put in place impacted how Ford’s teams were structured, how collaboration was fostered, and how innovation itself ultimately came to flourish under his guidance. From my perspective, Mulally joins top innovation CEOs AG Lafley (P&G), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Steve Jobs (Apple) and Howard Schultz (Starbucks) as the five most significant corporate leaders of the last decade. Ford Motor Company President and CEO Alan Mulally. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) Ford Motor Company President and CEO Alan Mulally. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) Ford In Tough Shape Long Before the Great Recession When Mulally took over as CEO in 2006, Ford was in tough shape. It had lost a whopping 25% of its market share since 1990. The company held a huge portfolio of brands including Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, and Volvo. But none of these brands was faring well, and each required major capital infusions...

Words: 1146 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Alan Mullaly

...In 2006, The Ford Motor Company, at 103 years old, found itself floundering, lacking leadership, and near insolvency. It had lost 25% of its market share since 1990 and lagged behind some of its competitors in innovation and design, all the while burdened with drastically increasing legacy and operating costs. The company’s Board of Directors recognized that bold leadership is required if Ford was to be saved. In September 2006, although faced with much skepticism for its decision to seek external candidates for its top job, decided to hire Alan Mulally, an executive from Boeing Corporation without any automotive experience, as its Chief Executive Officer. Eight years later, not only is Ford profitable again and on the path to continued prosperity and growth, but Mr. Mulally is considered as one of the five most significant corporate leaders of the last decade by Forbes magazine (2014), and one of the World's 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune magazine (2015). Through this case study, I will explore and discuss Mulally’s leadership approach, traits, and attributes, relative to the principles of leadership characteristics and attributes, leadership ethics and values, and leadership behaviors as taught by Bordeaux (2015), and Hughes (2015). Leadership Although there are various definitions for what leadership is, there seems to be common attributes among those who are considered effective leaders, past and present. According to Hughes (2015), “defining leadership...

Words: 2227 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Alan Mulally

...performance and mentioning how Allan Mulally’s openness has gained him trust and helped him to reach his goal. Finally, my point of view on the impact of Mulally’s leadership style and how it effects the organization. Leadership is guiding people toward productive results to achieve the goals of the organization. An effective leader has the ability to motivate and influence others. Leadership influences organizational performance depending on the level to which the leader enables managers and team leaders to plan, organize, control, and act effectively. By accepting authority, responsibility, and accountability, managers can confidently face though situations that require decisions made. Faced with an overwhelmingly complex situation, Alan Mulally has been brought in as Ford Motor Company's new president and CEO. As diverse global dynamics confront the company and competitive pressures continue to build, he has the challenging task of improving Ford's brand image and returning the company to profitability. Mulally has invited your consulting firm to advise his management team on restoring the company's reputation and viability. Leaders significantly influence organization’s success, they must have the ability to develop new ideas, use that idea to set goals, and develop ways to achieve those goals. They must have aspiration to build vision, values, and goals, in order to accomplish great performance. Leaders have the talent to influence other people in order to have them...

Words: 963 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Alan Mullaly

...Alan Mulally, CEO, Ford Motor Company Mike Stout Strayer University Abstract This paper discusses the role of leadership and how an organizations performance is impacted by leadership and leadership development. The paper discussed Alan Mulally’s leadership styles and gives examples of how Mulally’s actions fit those leadership styles. The paper talks of how Ford Motor Company’s performance is impacted by Alan Mulally’s goal setting. The paper speaks to how Mulally’s communication openness impacts Mulally’s message transmission, trust and agendas and leadership. The paper concludes with the author’s opinion of whether Alan Mulally should continue using the particular leadership he is currently using. Alan Mulally, CEO, Ford Motor Company Leadership is a term that is widely used in all aspects or out lives. “Leadership is the process of developing ideas and a vision, living by values that support those ideas and that vision, influencing others to embrace them in their own behaviors, and making hard decisions about human and other resources.”(Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, p.4). Leaders must be able to lead by example, be inventive, and not be afraid to be held accountable for everything that takes place in an organization. In any organization that has a long track record of success you can find a strong leader. Leaders come up with the ideas, develop the people around them, set goals for those people, and are responsible for all of the outcomes that may arise. This paper...

Words: 2157 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Alan Mullaly

...1. Discuss the role of leadership and how it can impact organizational performance. Leadership is guiding people towards productive results to achieve the goals of the organization. An effective leader has the ability to motivate and influence others. Leadership impacts organizational performance depending on the level to which the leader enables managers and team leaders to plan, organize, control, and act effectively. By accepting authority, responsibility, and accountability, managers can confidently face though situations which require decisions made. Both the manager and subordinate understand how to distinguish right from wrong by using sound judgment. Also, the leader must to learn his own strengths and weaknesses at work as well as his personal life and seek to better himself with new professional knowledge. Everybody has different opinions and attitudes towards values, lifestyles, and behaviors. An effective leader will use diversity at the workplace to combat the fierce competition in the market place. Likewise, cultural diversity within the organization will only add to the company’s growth and good leadership values and respect in the differences in cultures and employees do not create negative stereotypes that could affect the company’s success. Leaders need to address the importance of open communications within the organization. Active listening, questioning, and placing emphasis on verbal and written communications between management and subordinates ensures...

Words: 2082 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Case Study - Alan Mullaly

...6 Leadership Tips From Ford CEO Alan Mulally By Ted Reed April 3, 2012 6:58 AM DETROIT (TheStreet) -- Let's just call it "Alan being Alan." Ford's F ebullient CEO, Alan Mulally, is a master of the warm-hearted gesture, of taking a little extra time to make people feel important, enthusiastic and ready to follow him anywhere. At Ford, which he joined in 2006, that course has involved a journey from an economically distressed company, habitually losing money, with debt rated seven levels below investment grade and every asset mortgaged, to emergence in 2011 as a profitable, glowing symbol of the revival of American manufacturing. | Ford CEO, Alan Mulally | In the case of Oakland A's baseball player and potential Hall of Famer Manny Ramirez, the widely used phrase "Manny being Manny" refers to a legion of incidents manifesting relentless obliviousness to his surroundings. In the case of Oakland, Calif., native and celebrity CEO Mulally, the phrase "Alan being Alan" connotes a string of anecdotes in which he engages with people, not only those who are members of the world's wealthy leadership class, but also with everybody else he encounters as he glides through life, answering questions with a smile and a "you betcha." Many of those he encounters come away with stories. Rebecca Lindland, director of research at HIS Global Insight, said that several years ago in a conversation with Mulally, she mentioned that her mother was pleased that Ford was bringing cars...

Words: 2789 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Alan Turing Research Paper

...Alan Turing is among many of the famous mathematicians whose efforts have drastically impacted our world. Alan Turing has many achievements such as creating the first Turing Machine and discovering the nonexistence of a universal algorithmic method in math. Today, we recognize Turing for his mathematic accomplishments and contributions that he so determinedly worked for. Alan Mathison Turing was born June 23, 1912 in Paddington, London, England to his father, Julius Mathison Turing and his mother Ethel Sara Turing. Turing was the second son of his parents; his oldest brother being John Turing. Both Alan and John saw very little of their parents, since his father was part of the administration presidency of British India. So, they were temporarily raised by a Colonel in Hastings, England. He grew up in the upper...

Words: 1012 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Characteristics of Business Leadership: Alan Mulally

...growth of the organization, therefore good leadership is necessary. There are different leadership styles; a particular leader that will be discussed is Alan Mulally a CEO of Ford Motor. Alan faced many challenges and he impacted his business style on a corporate level as well as socially. Alan Mulally is one of greatest leaders, who managed business challenges effectively and because of his effectiveness he brought high profits to the organization. Mulally was an engineer in 1969. He handled various projects that were in relation to airplanes. One of Mulally’s greatest achievements was introducing the concept of “all digital” flight deck in the commercialized aircraft field. By 1993 Alan Mulally had had drastically climbed the ladder and became Vice President of Boeing. Alan Mulally was known to the commercial airline group as ‘Vice President of Engineering” (Biography: Alan Mulally 2011) Currently, Alan Mulally is the CEO and President of Ford Motors. Mulally joined Ford Motors in 2006, during this time period Ford Motors was struggling to stay afloat due to the recession that began in the late 2000s. Alan Mulally joined Ford Motors without prior sales experience. Because of Mulally’s lack of sales experience, it was a very a challenging experience for him. Alan Mulally’s objective was to increase Ford Motors profitability. Alan Mulally decided to take out...

Words: 1559 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

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...

Words: 1631 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Alan Mulally’s Restructuring of Ford Motor Company

...MGT 504 Management & Organizational Behavior Case Study Alan Mulally’s Restructuring of Ford Motor Company Alan Mulally’s Restructuring of Ford Motor Company Case Study Alan Mulally received an opportunity to turn around one of the most famous brand names in the United States. Ford was struggling; losing more than 12.7 million in 2006 (Nelson p558) and desperately needed a change. Alan Mulally took the challenge, and stated he would do what many thought was impossible at the time – make Ford profitable. He did just that. Mulally knew Ford had issues and the first step was to identify those structural issues. The issues included a wide variety of models and styles of automobiles. A work force that was not collaborating or communication to a high standard, hypercompetitive and relentless competition in pricing and sales, and possibly the most important was lack of accountability. With the development of his strategic plan of “One Ford” Mulally was on his way to the turnaround of one of the biggest automakers in the world. The first major act of this plan was to sell the Aston Martin division of the company and focus on the customer by building what they really want. By eliminating 70 percent of his vehicle models in fewer than four years, and cutting labor costs by 22 percent, Mulally was well on his way to achieving great success (Nelson p588). The direction Mulally took in approaching his goals of the One Ford was through understanding what was needed. The focus was...

Words: 636 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Alan Mulally, Ceo, Ford Motor Division

...Alan Mulally, CEO, Ford Motor Company Steve Rhew Dr. Aiynak Finch BUS 520 Leadership and Organization Behavior August 7, 2011 1. Discuss the role of leadership and how it can impact organizational performance. Army Doctrine defines leadership as “The process of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation, while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization” (Department of the Army, 2007). This definition tells us several key elements of leadership that affect the organization at some point. In order to get the organization to function and employees to perform, there has to be a purpose, a direction of where the organization wants to go, and the employees need to be motivated to do what they are hired to do. Leaders set the tone of the organization and provide that purpose and direction of what they desire for the organization. To take it a step further, leaders define the goals which help provide the direction to the desired end result. Leaders possess several key traits necessary to accomplish goals. Leaders lead by example. The example the leader displays affects the behavior of those in the organization. You can normally determine the type of leadership that exists by the way the organization operates. Leaders also provide effective communication in order to ensure their ideas are understood and executed. Leaders are responsible for the culture that exists in the organization. Leaders provide encouragement to employees...

Words: 1489 - Pages: 6