Alan Mulally, Ford Motor Company
Company: Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI
Company Description: Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 176,000 employees and about 80 plants worldwide, the company’s automotive brands include Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and, until its sale, Volvo. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company.
Nomination Category: Management Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Executive of the Year - Manufacturing
Nomination Title: Alan Mulally, President & CEO
Tell the story about what this nominee achieved since January 1 2010 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
Throughout his career, Alan Mulally has been recognized for his contributions and industry leadership, including being named "Industry Leader of the Year" by Automotive News magazine, one of “The World’s Most Influential People” by TIME magazine, one of "The 30 Most Respected CEOs" by Barrons magazine, “Person of the Year” by Aviation Week magazine and one of “The Best Leaders” by BusinessWeek magazine.
It is said that a man is not defined by his challenges in life but rather by his response to them. The same could be said of communities and organizations, including public companies. During the most recent global recession, key financial and automotive business sectors ended up needing U.S. government aid to help them navigate through the toughest patch of the downturn. However there was a notable exception within the US auto industry, ONE company that never asked for or received any direct monies from the government, and that was The Ford Motor Company, under the leadership of Alan Mulally.
Having never asked for or taken a dollar of support from the US government, Ford reported a profit of $2.7 Billion on January 29 ,2010, for fiscal year 2009, after having had a loss of $14.6B in 2008. This was Ford’s largest pretax operating profit in six years. The company also outsold GM in February 2010, something that had not happened in more than 50 years, aside from several months in 1998 when GM workers were on strike.
In April Ford reported a profit of $2.1 Billion for quarter one of 2010 a big reversal from year ago period where it had a loss of $1.4 Billion. It was Ford's fourth straight positive quarter and its highest quarterly profit in six years.
In July 2010, Ford reported earnings of $2.6 billion for the second quarter and expected to have more cash than debt by the end of 2011. It was the fifth consecutive quarterly profit for Ford, which had continually increased its market share for 22 out of the previous 23 months. It had this success even as the government stimulus programs were expiring and while consumers had continued nagging fears about an overall further global slowdown.
At the bottom of its business results trough on Nov 19, 2008, Ford stock reached a low of $1.26 a share (not the only company to bottom around this time). At time of writing its stock price has recovered to the $15 range. Remarkably, over the period from 2005 to 2010, Ford’s stock price has actually outperformed Toyota in overall percentage gain.
These results are all the more impressive when one considers that GM, Chrysler and even Toyota (with quality issues relating to accelerator pedals), were floundering in the marketplace due to this unprecedented economic downturn.
Ford’s performance, at a time when the total available US market shrank by close to 40%, from 16 - 17 Million unit sales to less than 10 Million unit sales (with similar reductions in most developed countries), is nothing short of amazing. It is for these reasons that The Ford Motor Company is worthy of the “Best Turnaround” of 2010.
List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:
Sources: http://www.bvgintl.com/ford-turnaround-success/ http://www.bing.com/finance/search?q=F&FORM=DTPFSA&qpvt=Ford+Motor+stock
Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the nominee:
Alan Mulally is a member of Ford Motor Company’s Board of Directors in addition to being President and CEO. Prior to joining Ford in September 2006, Mulally served as EVP of The Boeing Company, and President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. In that role, he was responsible for all of the company’s commercial airplane programs and related services. Mulally holds BS and MS degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the University of Kansas, and earned a master’s in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a 1982 Alfred P. Sloan fellow.