Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, has a new job at hand in India. Revive Ford’s sales and increase market share. And he has chosen to lay out the totally-new-for-India compact SUV dish for starters.
It was Alan Mulally’s first field trip to an auto-testing facility, four months after he had joined the Ford Motor Company as its new CEO in September 2006. Mulally, had till then proven many-a-time to the Ford management and the world, why he was all about “gut-feel”. That morning of February 2007, he was out to prove the same. His Falcon single-aisle jet landed on the airstrip of a 330 acre facility in East Haddam in Connecticut. With him were two engineers from the company. Mulally spent 4 hours at the facility, gathering feedback about his company’s cars from third-party experts. One complaint that was thrown across to him was that the new Ford Edge SUV not only lacked an electronic opener, but also a handle on the rear hatch. His engineers put forward wise arguments why the company made what it made. Mulally’s gut told him otherwise. Today, the Ford Edge SUV not only comes with an electronic keypad enabled opener option, but also with a universal hatch door opener!
Mulally has never hesitated from taking steps that he has been completely convinced about. From pledging all of Ford’s assets in November 2006 (including the logo for $23.6 billion) to dumping famous brands (Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover & Aston Martin), to postponing his plans to launch the new version of the record-selling F-Series in early 2009, this former Boeing veteran has never been bothered by the disgust-filled grunts of his board of management. He knows: rescue a company, only an autocratic leader can. He has.
Besides following his gut, and being authoritarian, there is a third dimension to Mulally’s character. That he is wisely unconventional. A year after he had taken over at the company, Mulally decided to place his bet on small cars, and in the year that followed burnt 61% of the company’s cash reserves in the process. Ford was by then considered a champion of the trucks and pick-up category, and spending more than half of the company’s resources on small cars was an act of self-humiliation for the Ford management. Mulally didn’t care. The result: Ford bounced back as the second-largest car seller in US and EU markets in 2009 and 2010 – thanks to its changed small car strategy. Call it unconventional, but this CEO taught a money-losing maker of gas-guzzling-trucks to focus more on small cars and make profits! Today, 48% of Ford’s global sales are accounted for by compact cars and in the 11 quarters since the start of 2009, has made profits totalling $15.88 billion.
Talking about small cars, we can’t miss Ford’s ‘very late’ entry in the Indian small car market. Despite being the second foreign carmaker to enter India, Ford became only the tenth to launch a small car in India. Experts believe that during the pre-Mulally days, not many in the Ford camp were convinced that the company should experiment with its image in India by trying to attempt a small car. Again, the gut told otherwise and you had the “Made in India” compact car unveiled in March 2010 by none other than Mulally himself! Understandably, the Figo was the first chapter of his “One Ford” strategy.
It was Alan Mulally’s first field trip to an auto-testing facility, four months after he had joined the Ford Motor Company as its new CEO in September 2006. Mulally, had till then proven many-a-time to the Ford management and the world, why he was all about “gut-feel”. That morning of February 2007, he was out to prove the same. His Falcon single-aisle jet landed on the airstrip of a 330 acre facility in East Haddam in Connecticut. With him were two engineers from the company. Mulally spent 4 hours at the facility, gathering feedback about his company’s cars from third-party experts. One complaint that was thrown across to him was that the new Ford Edge SUV not only lacked an electronic opener, but also a handle on the rear hatch. His engineers put forward wise arguments why the company made what it made. Mulally’s gut told him otherwise. Today, the Ford Edge SUV not only comes with an electronic keypad enabled opener option, but also with a universal hatch door opener!
Mulally has never hesitated from taking steps that he has been completely convinced about. From pledging all of Ford’s assets in November 2006 (including the logo for $23.6 billion) to dumping famous brands (Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover & Aston Martin), to postponing his plans to launch the new version of the record-selling F-Series in early 2009, this former Boeing veteran has never been bothered by the disgust-filled grunts of his board of management. He knows: rescue a company, only an autocratic leader can. He has.
Besides following his gut, and being authoritarian, there is a third dimension to Mulally’s character. That he is wisely unconventional. A year after he had taken over at the company, Mulally decided to place his bet on small cars, and in the year that followed burnt 61% of the company’s cash reserves in the process. Ford was by then considered a champion of the trucks and pick-up category, and spending more than half of the company’s resources on small cars was an act of self-humiliation for the Ford management. Mulally didn’t care. The result: Ford bounced back as the second-largest car seller in US and EU markets in 2009 and 2010 – thanks to its changed small car strategy. Call it unconventional, but this CEO taught a money-losing maker of gas-guzzling-trucks to focus more on small cars and make profits! Today, 48% of Ford’s global sales are accounted for by compact cars and in the 11 quarters since the start of 2009, has made profits totalling $15.88 billion.
Talking about small cars, we can’t miss Ford’s ‘very late’ entry in the Indian small car market. Despite being the second foreign carmaker to enter India, Ford became only the tenth to launch a small car in India. Experts believe that during the pre-Mulally days, not many in the Ford camp were convinced that the company should experiment with its image in India by trying to attempt a small car. Again, the gut told otherwise and you had the “Made in India” compact car unveiled in March 2010 by none other than Mulally himself! Understandably, the Figo was the first chapter of his “One Ford” strategy.
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