While this comes as no surprise to Ford watchers, its timing is, that Mark Fields will replace Alan Mulally with the announcement to come at Fords shareholder meeting May 1 and will become effective at the end of 2014. The timing is surprising, to me at least. It comes less than six months after Mulally reportedly turned down the top spot at Microsoft, taking his name out of consideration. This causes many industry analysts thinking that he would stay on at Ford at least another 24 months and retire after problems at Ford of Europe were totally fixed and the Lincoln Motor Companys turnaround was further down the road. If Mulally has a legacy is that he put in place One Ford. And unlike GM and Chrysler, was able to avoid bankruptcy by mortgaging the company, right down to the Blue Oval logo back in 2006, before the industrys painful 2008 meltdown. That process allowed Ford to avoid the need for a bailout and the stigma that came attached with it. Chrysler was able to avoid most of that stigma as it was acquired by Italys Fiat. GM was never able to shake its Government Motors tag and the baggage that came with it and now has a whole new set of problems to address. Fields quickly embraced One Ford and as COO, was probably the person most responsible for its implementation. Congratulations Mark.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 23:50:51 +0000
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