After five rather unspectacular years, Bill Ford is stepping down from the CEO post at his grandfather's firm and is handing the reigns to Boeing executive Alan Mulally.
The change comes as a surprise and perhaps as a sign of just desperate things have become at Ford (Public, NYSE:F), the nation's second largest automaker. The hope is that Mulally will be able to bring his turnaround talents to the Dearborn based company.
I worked as a consultant to Ford at their Dearborn facility back in the 
1990's (no I'm not kidding - I actually worked with the cup holder redesign team so that all Fords could actually accomodate a 7-11 "Big Gulp") and I clearly recall how much waste there was. The culture resisted layoffs and encourages long, long tedious meetings - not to mention pre-meeting-meetings and post meeting wrap-ups. I wonder how the culture has changed and would love to hear from anyone who might be in the know.
The Ford family still owns 40% of the firm, and when I was there it was clear that they were running this behemoth as though it were a ma and pa shop. I give Bill Ford credit for letting someone who might know what he's doing take over.
In the meanwhile, I would think the first order of business for Mulally should be pulling those tasteless "Freestyle" ads.
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