washington business
In Their Words
After spending 37 years at Boeing, Alan Mulally surprised many observers in 2006 by accepting the top job at Ford Motor Company, an
iconic American company that had fallen on hard times. Over the next eight years, Mulally led one of the most remarkable turnarounds
in American corporate history — during one of the nation’s worst recessions. Mulally is returning to Washington state in September
to deliver the keynote address at AWB’s annual Policy Summit, Sept. 15-17 at Suncadia Resort. Washington Business Executive Editor
Jason Hagey spoke with him recently and heard a preview of some of the leadership lessons Mulally will share with AWB members.
Alan Mulally
When you went to work for Ford in 2006, the company
was in bad shape. What drew you to the challenge of
turning around one of the nation’s most iconic brands?
What drew me to Ford was the importance of Ford to the United
States and also to the world. Boeing and Ford are two American
and global icons. They contribute to economic development, energy
independence and security, and environmental sustainability. And
clearly Ford had run into a tough situation by 2006 and Bill Ford
reached out to me and asked if I would consider joining Ford and
helping not only turn Ford around but get them back on track to
deliver an exciting, profitably growing company that was serving
people around the world with safe and efficient cars and trucks.
I never had any plans to leave Boeing, which I loved. I felt I was
being asked to serve a second American and global icon and that’s
why I decided to accept Bill Ford and the board’s offer to join Ford.
Some observers were surprised by the move — you had
been at Boeing for 37 years and you weren’t a “car guy.”
How did your experience at Boeing equip you to run an
auto company?
My experience at Boeing absolutely prepared me well to move to
Ford and help transform Ford. The experience, especially on the
airplane programs and also being CEO of (Boeing) Commercial
22 association of washington business
Airplanes, really helped because when you develop a new
airplane program — and I had the honor to serve at Boeing for 37
years and contribute to every Boeing airplane over the years, and
new airplanes have around 4 million parts. You have hundreds
of thousands of people working on it around the world. It’s so
important that you have a compelling vision for each airplane,
whether it’s short-range, long-range, point-to-point, non-stop,
quality, fuel efficiency, safety. It is also important that you have
a very comprehensive strategy for delivering that vision and
also a relentless implementation plan. And as everybody knows,
those were the program reviews — the Business Plan Reviews
where every week you get together with everyone around the
world and review the plan, the status against the plan, the areas
that need special attention and then work on it together. It’s the
same thing when you’re the president and CEO of Commercial
Airplanes, you help pull everyone together around the vision
for the company, where it’s going, the strategy for achieving
the vision and also every week, working together, ۛ