Built Ford Tough? Ford needs it in next CEO
Ford is close to tapping a hard-charging executive as its new CEO — and the list of challenges facing him will test whether his decision-making can match the legend he is replacing.
Mark Fields, known for his brash, in-your-face style officially will be named to replace seemingly more laid-back Alan Mulally, the former Boeing executive credited with steering Ford clear of the bankruptcy reorganizations that ensnared General Motors and Chrysler Group.
The new CEO will take over, however, an automaker facing manufacturing hurdles, such as a smooth rollout for the industry's first high-volume aluminum-bodied pickup truck, and facing global challenges, such as becoming profitable again in Europe and catching up to other auto brands in China.
Fields, 53, has been the heir-apparent since December 2012 when the board created the No. 2 job for him as chief operating officer and put him in charge of day-to-day operations. Mulally, 68, meanwhile, said he would retire this year.
Several reports Monday said the announcement of the transition and its timing could come within a month. Bloomberg News, citing unnamed sources USA TODAY could not independently confirm, reported it could be as early as May 1.
Fields, will present an interesting alternative to Mulally's strikingly different style.
Fields doesn't hold back. Known for straight talk, he hasn't forgotten his New Jersey roots. He has had AC/DC's blasting anthem Back in Black as the ringtone on his smartphone. The Rutgers grad with a Harvard master's in business isn't afraid to knock heads with other executives.
Mulally, by contrast, is more the diplomat. Soon after he arrived at Ford in 2006, he created a "war room" listing the status of various projects.
Executives were required to pin green, yellow and red Post-It notes to boards placed around the room to denote how initiatives were faring. In a company notorious for executives who cover up bad news, the boards become an ocean of green with a smattering of yellow. No red. Fields became the first to stick out his neck, reporting a delay on a new model rollout. Mulally congratulated him and others execs soon fell in line.
While Mulally will forever be known as the one who sought loans to bolster Ford's cash reserves before the recession — saving it from a bankruptcy filing — Fields has his own reputation as a turnaround expert. He ran Japan's Mazda, then a Ford unit, from 2000 to 2002 and reinvigorate it.
Even now as he faces such daunting challenges as shaking up Ford's European operations, Fields will arrive in the top job with needed experience under his belt: he was a vice president for Ford of Europe.
Some of the projects that Mulally initiated will be left for his successor to clean up. The country's best-selling vehicle, and reportedly one of the most profitable, the F-150 pickup, will be largely made of aluminum instead of steel to save weight, and fuel. But aluminum is a tricky material in which to make vehicles in mass quantities, creating potential rollout issues.
Likewise, another Mulally project has been to try to reinvigorate the Lincoln brand, trying to move it to the same level as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus. But it remains a work in progress. Still, barring the unforeseen between now and then, Mulally leaves Ford in enviable condition.
"Ford is a brand with some of the greatest potential to find success in the next decade," said Alexander Edwards, president of consultants Strategic Vision. "All Ford needs to do is give the customer a reason to purchase and customers will come and buy."