Respond to 2 Discussion Questions need it tomorrow by 8pm Central

Read a selection of your colleagues’ posts and be ready to respond to any questions your Instructor presents to the class.

Respond to two or more colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

· Ask a probing question of the lessons of this case study that your colleague discussed in their initial post. Be sure to base your question on prior research or experience.

· Provide an alternate viewpoint of Mulally’s role at Ford than the one posted by your colleague. Use the Resources to support the alternate view that you present.

· Ask a probing question about how your colleague would apply the lesson to his or her current organization, based on prior research or experience.

I have attached the Case Study in case that can help. APA citations and References

1st person to respond to: (At Least 1 paragraph or more)

Hello Everyone, 

     While reading the article entitled, "At Ford, Turnaround is Job One" by J.B. Shein, I was amazed at the incredible story of Alan Mullaly. I am fully persuaded that Mullaly is an effective and ethical leader.  After serving almost 40 years from engineer to President of Boeing, Mullaly successfully led Boeing and helped to build it on his belief in working together. He later took this same philosophy and excellent leader and management skills over to Ford which helped turn the company around in 2006. During that time, Ford was struggling due to several reasons including but not limited to, the lost of billions of dollars, poor employee morale, quality issues, stagnant sales and increasing competition. Ford's lack in communication, unity, transparency amongst different departments within the company almost drove the company to complete ruin.  When Mullaly arrived to Ford he initiated the his philosophy of working together to change the existing Ford workplace culture. He named it One Ford. Leveraging his experience, leadership skills, management skills, and bring people together under one vision he was able to not only salvage the company but also able to out them on track to be more successful. 

Mullaly faced many challenges. He would need to rally every employee and leader within the company under one vision and one goal. He was an outsider from the aircraft industry so he faced challenges regarding the changes that come from starting in a new industry. These challenges did not stop Mullaly from turning around the company.  Mullaly helped Ford in strategy, operations and leadership. He started One Ford-One Team, One Plan, One Goal. He also focused on making models best in quality, fuel efficiency, and safety. He focused on quality. He also improved manufacturing productivity. Finally he was able to turn the company around by team building and leadership. He pushed a culture of leadership and brought in a completely new prospective. Mullaly is am incredible leader.  

I have learned so much from Alan Mullaly while reading this article. The first lesson is that working together is essential for success. Mullaly focused on bringing everyone together. He believed that people are always first. A unified company can accomplish anything. In my future, I will use this lesson while leading. I will also focus on simplicity and unification. People will always be first. The second lesson I have learned is, an outside perspective can be extremely beneficial. Mullaly could have walked away from he opportunity to turn this company around due to his lack of experience in the car industry. Nevertheless, he did not allow this to stop him. He leveraged his experience, skills, and leadership abilities to help restore the morale and future of Ford. Mullaly has taught me that I can accomplish anything if I stay true to my values, trust my instincts, and be willing to try something  different. 

If within my current organization, we include the lessons from Mullaly, we would see a unified and productive department. The greatest struggle we face is the division and cut throat work environment.  Mullaly shows use that the foundations of a successful organization is a toxic and divided workplace culture. Where there is no transparency and communication, there will be failure and potential ruin. This article has led me to do further research and study into Alan Mullaly. I definitely desire to be like him in my  leadership abilities. 

 

REFERENCES: 

Michael Ray Hopskins 2014. Lead on Purpose: Promoting Leadership Principles in Product Management. https://leadonpurposeblog.com/2014/06/21/the-importance-of-leadership-in-effective-management/

Shein, J. B. (2012). At Ford, turnaround is job one. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School. 

2nd person to respond to: (At least 1 paragraph or more)

According to the article, “At Ford, Turnaround is Job One” by J.B. Shein and “How the Ford board recruited Alan Mulally” by Carey, D., & Keller, J. J., I have concluded that  Alan Mullaly is an effective and ethical leader. Mullaly was coming into Ford with 37 years of experience in leadership but was a leader who had never been in the automobile business but an engineer from the airplane industry. He had never been CEO of any company; he was passed over for the CEO position a few times by Boeing. He stayed and kept the company ahead even once the CEO’s Boeing promoted above him were failing.  

The state in which Ford was in at the time of Mullaly entry was a financial crisis with a global economy that was collapsing. He was entering a company that was fighting to stay out of bankruptcy and a government bailout. In 2012 Carey and Keller stated “There was Ford's high-cost structure, its balance sheet challenges, its distractions from numerous acquisitions, including Jaguar and Volvo (pushed by former Ford CEO Jacques Nasser). There were Ford's ongoing union and pension cost challenges” (p.32).

In Kloefkorn, “Leaders must be flexible and effortlessly move from one leadership style to another to meet the changing requirements of organizations and employees” (para.1). Alan Mullaly was an excellent leader who was determinate to change the tide for Ford. Under the Defining leadership code: Five rules of effective leadership, Alan is a “Make thing happen” kind of leader which is Rule 2 the executor. The executors put the strategy into action, and they also create the systems for others to follow.  They understand how to make change happen, assign accountability, make critical decisions, delegate, and to make sure that teams work well together. (Ulrich, Smallwood, & Sweetman, 2008).  

Shein(2012) wrote “Shortly after becoming CEO, Mulally reengineered the turnaround effort he inherited and rebranded it as “One Ford.” That stood for One Team, One Plan, One Goal. The new plan was built on the themes of focus and simplification” (p.4). Mullaly was a successful leader for Ford because he came into the company, assessed the situation, and brought all leaders and management together to create communication and build a team. Cherry (2009) states, “Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate. Not only are these leaders concerned and involved in the process; they are also focused on helping every member of the group succeed as well.” (para.2). He created a vision which comprises of creating new products. These products would later create revenue to turn things around for Ford.

In the beginning, the company faces a massive loss of billions, which was expected to happen when Mulally was hired. Over the year Ford has increased in revenue as Ford received top ten of J. D. Power & Associates’ Annual Initial Quality Study, which is measured from customer complaints during the first ninety days of buying. They receive awards over the years and Automobile Magazine named Alan Mulally “2010 Man of the Year” for his vision and determination. (Shein, 2012 p.10)

The couple of personal and professorial lessons that I can take from these articles that I can use in my future career and leadership is 1.) Keeping a good name for yourself; the work you do and how you carry yourself can open doors you did even know were available.  2.) Commitment; he was committed to Boeing even after being passed up for a job he deserved. His commitment to one company allowed him to become the CEO at another company in an industry he knew nothing about. His commitment also helped him to be able to turn things around for Ford. The lessons I get from this for my organization a few like not having exactly the background in a field does not mean you cannot do the job. Visions take time to manifest. Creating a team environment and communication can open the door for people to invest in the vision.  This is encouraging to know that hard work and dedication is what turned Ford around.

References 

Carey, D., & Keller, J. J. (2012). How the Ford board recruited Alan Mulally. Directors & Boards, 37(1), 3136.

Cherry, K. (2009, May 21). How Do Transformational Leaders Inspire and Motivate Followers? Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-transformational-leadership-2795313

Gale, S. F. (2019). Leadership Styles: One Size Does Not Fit All. Chief Learning Officer, 18(5), 60–63. Retrieved from https://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=136263143&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Lorsch, J. (2010). A contingency theory of leadership. In N. Nohria & R. Khurana (Eds.) Handbook of leadership theory and practice: an HBS centennial colloquium on advancing leadership (pp. 411–432).

Ulrich, D., Smallwood, N., & Sweetman, K. (2008). Defining leadership code: Five rules of effective leadership. In D. Ulrich, N. Smallwood, & K. Sweetman, The leadership code: Five rules to lead by (pp. 1–24).

Shein, J. B. (2012). At Ford, turnaround is job one. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.