KEY POINTS:
Ford Motor's chief executive officer Alan Mulally is a focused leader who has hit or exceeded targets set for turning around the US carmaker, says Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford jnr.
"Look at the results, every quarter is better," he said, assessing Mulally's tenure as CEO. Mulally, a former Boeing executive, replaced the Ford family scion as CEO of the carmaker in September 2006.
The No.2 US carmaker last month posted a smaller-than-expected third-quarter net loss of US$380 million, compared with a loss of US$5.2 billion a year earlier when it took large restructuring charges.
Ford praised Mulally for bringing a "sense of organisational discipline" to the carmaker and changing the "divisive, silo, kind of behaviour" at Ford.
The carmaker has been often criticised for a corporate culture that is inward-looking, politically charged and risk averse.
Bill Ford said Mulally had made a lot of progress in cutting bureaucracy and bringing a unifying strategy at the carmaker.
"(People are) clearly more focused," he said. "The kind of meetings that Alan runs, there is no room to hide."
Soon after Mulally joined Ford, he set up a weekly meeting during which heads of operations in North America, South America, Europe and Asia share progress in their regions and find ways to share resources.
Top executives view the same details on each other's units simultaneously at these weekly meetings.
Ford said the carmaker's culture was changing.
"Is it all the way there? No. But are we making progress? Yes," he said.
- REUTERS
