On April 21, Ford announced a long-time insider Mark Fields (53) to replace the famous Alan Mulally (68) as the next CEO from May this year. Much has already been reported throughout the media on Mulally’s legacy at Ford, but TriStrategist wants to highlight below our own understanding of Alan Mulally’s top three “magic” from his CEO tool chest:

1. Fundamental culture transformation through consistent, simple, common-sense steps and principles.

a.) Motivate people by clear shared visions, not by structure or incentives.
From Alan Mulally’s own words:
“What I have learned is the power of a compelling vision, a comprehensive strategy, a relentless implementation process, and talented people working together based on those commitments.” [From the book “American Icon – Alan Mulally and the fight to save Ford Motor Company” by Bryce G. Hoffman)
“You’ve got to trust the process. You need to trust and nurture your emotional resilience. Do you have a point of view about the future? Check. Is it still the right vision today? Check. Do you have a comprehensive plan to deliver that? Check. If you get skilled and motivated people working together through the process, you are going to figure it out. But you’ve got to trust it.”

b.) Flatten the organization from top-down, effectively use weekly BPR (Business Plan Review) and SAR (Special Attention Review) meetings to enforce the basic principles of management: honesty, transparency, inclusiveness, accountability, discipline, quick decision-making, keeping all areas of the business leaders informed at the same time and all time, emphasizing interdependencies among all business areas, using goal-oriented openness and peer-pressure to foster business focus instead of individual focus or turf focus, encouraging everyone to work together as one team at all time, bringing out the best traits and best behaviors in talents and people. Following top-level example, because it was straightforward, worked effectively and was accepted emotionally, all business leaders would in turn use the same approach throughout the company – resulting in a flat, more transparent organization. All ideas/voices can be heard. People at all levels are informed of company situation and decisions. Everyone feels included and respected as part of the organization. In this way, everyone can think strategically and align their daily jobs to the company’s vision and strategic goals. Therefore the company can march as one entity – “One Ford”. All common sense, but very powerful.

c.) A calm, confident leader with relentless drive on results based on reality (no matter how harsh it is) and data, at the same time always with keen eyes to the future. It could mean tough negotiations and sacrifices, but a relentless leader and his team will focus on goals and results. “The data sets you free” – it fosters honesty, transparency, fairness and reality-facing, especially for this type of manufacture business. Constantly invest on the new products for the future even if in the middle of very tough realities – it is the only way to create a better, more successful future and outsmart the competitions. Opportunities are only for the prepared minds.

d.) Bring talented people to work together. Talented people working together will help a leader figure out ways to realize the vision and overcome any difficulty. As an outsider CEO, Mulally didn’t bring his own confidants (except he did bring in the HR Head from his Boeing Commercial Airplane department). He used most of the talents right at Ford. It needs courage and skills, but it builds trust and respect a lot faster as a true leader.

2. Prescient, timely, prudent and brilliant finance plays.

Timing played a big part in Mulally’s effectiveness and Ford’s survival and turnaround. Ford’s extremely well-timed, almost super lucky financial dealings at the critical junctions of events saved Ford from one of the largest tsunamis of the auto industry and world economy, enabled it to leapfrog the competitions by a large margin immediately out of the recession. Without these finance plays as one of the core implementation strategies, no matter how visionary and motivating a leader can be, Ford would not be able to survive as it did. The wisdom, prescience and brilliance of Bill Ford, Alan Mulally and Ford’s Finance Team provided us an excellent playbook on the importance of finance plays for any large enterprise that is going through business transformation or dealing with large-scale crisis. We’ll elaborate more on this point in another blog article later.

3. One Globe approach – true global inclusive views and implementations on business.

a.) Mulally and Ford did smart, comprehensive global leverage on talents, assets, brands, production platforms, technologies, best practices and markets. They provided some of the best illustrations on the success of such global plays which are valid to all types of businesses.
b.) Truly make “World is my oyster” and one will win in today’s business. All business strategies, hiring, operations, and future investments need to be put on a flattened global playground. A leader needs to constantly think that he is standing on One Globe.