Associated Press
Boeing Exec Allan Mulally Named Ford CEO
By TOM KRISHER , 09.06.2006 (Forbes)

When Bill Ford decided that his family's company needed more leadership than he could offer, he started looking for someone who had successfully fixed a large but troubled manufacturing company.

He wasn't sure there was such a person, but as he asked around in and out of the auto industry, one name kept popping up: Alan Mulally, executive vice president of the aerospace company Boeing.

But Mulally, 61, who is credited with straightening Boeing Co.'s flight path in the dark days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was unwilling to leave a company he had served for 37 years.

"I resisted," Mulally said at a Tuesday news conference at Ford Motor Co.'s world headquarters in Dearborn.

Eventually, though, the 49-year-old Bill Ford prevailed, convinced that Mulally had the right experience to lead Ford's young management team through the troubled and uncertain times that lie ahead.

On Tuesday, Bill Ford introduced Mulally as the new president and chief executive officer of the nation's No. 2 automaker. Mulally will work in transition between the two companies through September and hopes to be fully on the job in Dearborn by the beginning of October.

Mulally was widely praised for being a key architect of the resurgence of Boeing's commercial airplanes unit over the past couple of years. He was a top candidate for the Boeing CEO job last year, but the company went outside to select aerospace veteran Jim McNerney, then the 3M Co. chief executive.

Boeing on Tuesday named Scott Carson to replace Mulally as president of the commercial airplanes unit. Carson, 60, had been vice president of sales for the Seattle-based division and is a 34-year Boeing veteran.

While acknowledging he is not an auto authority, Mulally said: "I'm certainly a product designer and I care deeply about having a viable business."

He said Ford and Boeing have much in common, producing products that need long lead times for development. Both industries, he said, are heavily affected by fuel prices and foreign competition.

But he said during the past 15 years at Boeing, the company was able to trim its product line from 14 airplanes to only four, and those four do the same job more efficiently than the 15 did.

Mulally, who drives a Lexus, said he took the job partly because there are people who believe the U.S. can't compete with the rest of the world in manufacturing.

"I personally think we absolutely can if we pull together," Mulally said.

Bill Ford, the great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, struggled for five years to steer the company toward financial stability.

He candidly admitted that he couldn't handle all the challenges that now face his 103-year-old company. He told his board in the spring that "I'm wearing too many hats."

He began courting Mulally in July, eventually winning him over.

"In this environment, it was clear to me I needed somebody with a skill set who can take us further," he said. "I think everybody's skill set doesn't fit every era and every time. When I looked at what we need now, it was very apparent to me that I wanted somebody, if that person existed, who had major turnaround experience in an industrial company."

Bill Ford, who took control of the company in 2001, decided to remain on as executive chairman to continue helping with strategy.

He said the company's planned announcement of moves that accelerate its "Way Forward" restructuring plan would take place as scheduled sometime after a Sept. 14 board meeting.

Mulally will have autonomy as CEO, and as he learns more about the restructuring, he will decide what areas to emphasize, Bill Ford said. He said he expected Mulally to work with Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, on the turnaround, which Fields has been heading.

 

The more I read about this guy, the more I like the idea of him being the new CEO. He looks like he could do it.

 

I'd love to know how much $$$ it took to lure him away from Boeing....

 

Probably a sickening number, but also guys like this live for this kind of work. It is their challenge to turn companies around. Once they get the company to where their goal was from the beginning, they look for another company to turn around.

 

I don't know but it must be more than 9,961,895. According to this wikipedia article (which could be wrong because after all it is wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Mulally that is what he was getting paid at Boeing.

Well even if it is a sickening number TechmanBD, it will be worth it if he can turn around Ford and save all those jobs. I'm glad that people like him exist. The thing that makes me sick is some actors and actresses get paid the same or better for just acting. The value of his ability to turn around the company is more valueable than making some good movies. He has the ability to make good products and keep all of the companies jobs, so I don't mind if he gets paid a sickening number if he turns the company around. If he doesn't then I will complain that he is overpaid (I did about Bill Ford).

 

You don't know half of it as far as the actors. You want to talk about BS. They get payed all this money, but then where do they cut? Production and Post Production employees. My wife makes the same amount a year as she did 12 years ago. May be less soon. They keep F"N cutting the budget at the lower ends while the actors claim all this money. Then of course they expect the same quality of work. And it bugs my wife because she wants to do the best job. But say a show takes 6 days to cut. Now they want it in 5 days. And she has a hard time "letting it go" and not do an average job.

 

That is redicilious! Paying her less? This is why I have contempt for the actors. They get overpaid and they don't appreciate anyone else. They think they are God or something. The people who work the hardests are the ones who get paid the least and have to go through the most unfair crap. Your wife sounds like a good person and I firmly believe good things happen to those who never give up and put in good effort.

 

Here is your answer

 

Remember part of the reason, they get paid so much is because we keep paying at the box office. Which is much the same reason athletes get paid such riducules
salaries. I am not so saying that this makes it right. It is all about supply and demand, the old marketing term which RLSH700 knows all too well.

Tell your wife this from the bible:

Ephesians 6:7 Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

 

That is very true; however, the thing I don't understand is why they really pay these actors and actresses some much because let's face it, they have no lack in actors and actresses. There are many good actors and actresses out there that are yet to have a chance; whereas, the talent in an athete is a little more different from one to another. An actor/actress doesn't make a movie or TV show good or bad, it's the writers. There have been many movies and TV shows that were flopped that had the "cream of the crop" actors and actresses.