#MaverickMonday - Alan Mulally, CEO - Ford Motor Company

MAVERICK: Someone who bucks the current trend to stand up for a greater belief or cause. They are our living, breathing GameChangers

Everyone had seen the tumultuous fall of Ford in the later part of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Issues with transmissions and the rolling over of their prized Explorer in the early 2000s lost customers for a generation. For the first time in recent American automobile history, the coming of age generation was purchasing coupe sports cars from Nissan, Scion, Honda, Chevrolet or Dodge instead of the Mustang. Or buying sedans from Honda, Toyota, Dodge, and Chevrolet instead of the Taurus or Mercury. 

One man - Alan Mulally, the newly appointed CEO of Ford in 2006, changed Ford Motor Company's path and put them back in front of the automobile industry leading them to new heights. Coming from Boeing, where Mulally spent his entire career (from the late 60s) and onward, he faced a revenue shortfall of $17 billion. Through skillful planning and tremendous courage to shake up the norm - being a #GameChanger - Mulally set the course for a new Ford standard. 

$17 billion in the red, stock value dropping to 1 dollar, and no best-in-class showcases, Bill Ford (the great-grandson of Henry Ford) called Mulally and asked him to take the CEO position. Mulally saw Ford as being quintessentially American and took the request as a noble duty to help the automobile giant into profitability. Taking his life's inspiration from hearing in-person President Kennedy's goal to send someone to the moon, Alan Mulally got to work. 

At once, they did a thorough analysis of the company and realized it was too 'regionalized' all over the world, which hurt its focus from being great in any one vehicle class. Instead the company had spread itself thin and was struggling to survive in numerous vehicle classes of over 6 automobile brands. To combat the budget shortfall, Mulally went to investors and lenders and asked for $23 billion. This ended up saving Ford in the eyes of Americans during the recession. 

Then came the hard part. This is where we undoubtedly recognize the courage and #GameChanger attitude of Alan Mulally. He orchestrated the sale of several Ford brands in order to maintain the strength of Ford's fundamentals. One by one, he sold off the following brands: Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, and Volvo. He then sold Ford's 20% stake in Mazda and discontinued Ford's Mercury brand. 

Why was this such a #GameChanger move? The American automobile industry has always thrived over an internally diverse product line. You can already see the amount of brands Ford owned, as General Motors used to own GEO and Saturn, but currently operates Cadillac, Chevy, Buick, GMC, Hummer, and Opel. Fiat-Chrysler has also traditionally owned Plymouth, but now operates through Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram. 

By selling almost all of its subsidiaries, Mulally drastically changed the way people saw Ford in the automobile community. This shift represented a return to Ford's fundamentals: the Ford and Lincoln brands while being dedicated to having best-in-class vehicles. He pushed the company to start focusing on smaller, fuel-efficient cars because that was the trend of the future. This led Ford to become a more positive household name. A famous quote about his desire for smaller cars showcases his resilient attitude to making Ford successful: "Everybody says you can't make money off small cars. Well you'd better damn well figure out how to make money because that's where the world is going." 

Eventually as the automotive industry when bankrupt during the Great Recession, Mulally's shrewd planning: cutting in the right places and saving where possible, SAVED Ford from being bailed out by the federal government. Traditional giants like GM and Chrysler had to bite the bullet and take money from the federal government while Ford rode the popular wave of not using tax dollars to support their business. 

To a Board of Directors who are bent on doing business as is, it is tough coming into an organization where you do not have the industrial resume to compete in the industry. With his lack of automotive experience, Mulally still made the difficult decisions needed to push Ford in a successful direction. Selling 4 of Ford's internal brands and then discontinuing Mercury was almost heresy in the automobile industry, but he did not let up - he maintained his courage and a #GameChanger attitude. The foresight to save up $23 billion before the recession ensured that Ford did not have to accept tax dollars. They maintained their household image of being an American First company and are rising in the ranks of the American automotive industry.