Alan Mulally Case Summary

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When Alan Mullaly was hired as Ford’s new CEO in 2006, the odds were fairly stacked against him. Prior to his hiring, Ford had long suffered a series of significant setbacks, and the company that was once the epitome of ingenuity, was quickly deteriorating and on the verge of bankruptcy. The company was clearly broken - its stock price had fallen precipitously and 2006 would go down as the worst year in its history with a $12.7 billion loss. Alan Mullaly had inherited a mess, and coming in, was pegged the savior that will help Ford reclaim its former glory. Expectations were high, pressure was mounting, and all eyes fell desperately on Mullaly to recalibrate Ford back on the path of success. One of Mullaly’s first order of business as Fords newly minted CEO, was to eliminate Ford’s dysfunctional corporate culture that has ravaged the company internally. Mulally recognized that Ford’s financial crisis was merely a symptom of a much larger problem – culture, or the lack thereof. Revamping the culture at Ford was an arduous task, made even more difficult considering Mullaly was brought in as an outsider. His very presence testified to the fact that Bill Ford had lost all confidence in his management team. Safe to say, Mullaly was not greeted with a warm reception. …show more content…

Mulally’s strategic plan at Ford would have been for naught had he not fundamentally changed the culture at Ford. Even the most well-planned strategic plans can fall apart if the execution in any way is lacking. That begins with rallying support around the plan from the primary stakeholders. Mulally was wise to include employees, from all levels of the organization, as stakeholders. He understood that forcing employees to comply was not a recipe for success, and instead sought to secure their “buy-in” as you would expect to do with a top

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