Charlie Rose

Nuwihas  03/22/2012 06:36 AM Report

Ford Motor Company has good quality automotive products. It has big sales in its business operation worldwide. Its success is the result of an organized management lead and competitive head. Automotive News reports that Ford Motor Co. wants to make the push for investment-grade stock status. It promises to accomplish this via the possibility of greater monetary flexibility, namely through the purchase of an increased line of revolving credit. You can get a brand new Ford with <a href="http://www.cardealexpert.com/auto-loans/">bad credit car finance</a>.

vongleichent  02/26/2012 03:49 PM Report

I love that piece of paper that he brought out. That way they are always reminded to follow the principles. A great way to transform the management. The company's culture is the utmost important thing. No doubt in my mind.

kraig47  09/06/2011 06:27 AM Report

Listening to the interview of Mr. Mulally, I never did quite understand how the union was responsible for losses generated by jaguar, astin martin, volvo or land rover. The UAW never represented the working people at any of these foreign factories. Mr. Mulally says that the hourly people received a performance bonus of $5000, but yet the only $5000 checks that were handed out were based upon profit sharing. These checks are issued pursuant to Ford's contractual obligations. The new jobs being created are temp jobs that pay half the wages of regular employees. Up until this interview, the only thing I heard from Mr. Mulally was his call to reduce the hourly peoples' wages and benefits even more, despite the fact that the hourly labor force is generating the best quality numbers in the domestic car market. If Mr. Mulally wanted to show some appreciation for a job well done by the hourly people, then why doesn't Ford give back their $600 Christmas bonus? Something that they didnt already have coming by contract? Mr. Mulally justifies his 50+ million dollar pay package based upon his performance, but then how can you keep cutting the wages and benefits of your hourly people, who have been producing the best quality numbers they ever have? How many of our children and families must go hungry to insure that Mr. Mulally keeps getting his multi-million dollar paychecks?

JohnGelles  07/29/2011 01:24 AM Report

Tabs writes:

..... "Mulally's one failure is in thinking that education should be a public and private partnership -- in that government is neither equipped, has the temperament nor talent to accomplish the task efficiently."

I did not understand Tabs' thought -- does it mean government need not partner with academia to finance a great deal of R&D that may not be profitable for a very long time -- such as fusion to produce electric power?

JDC  07/28/2011 09:44 PM Report

Thanks your for this interview. Mr Mulally is a great example of a leader that truly knows how important it is to keep the organization focused, and more important he clearly knows how to do it.

tabs  07/28/2011 03:28 PM Report

Mr Mulally is an optimist and seems genuinely happy. His talent lies in his understanding of how each piece of an organization functions and how each piece interrelates in the function of the whole organization. Mr Mulallys one failure is in thinking that education should be a public and private partnership.in that government is neither equipped, has the temperament nor talent to accomplish the task efficiently. One largely thinks that this failing is generational in nature in that this line of thinking has been the conventional wisdom for decades Perhaps Mr Mulally should spend a day at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. While there if he is astute he can see why Henry Ford largely collected mechanical technology including early steam engines.

To understand American technological and scientific innovation one has to understand the history.Through the 19TH and into the first 1/3 of the 20TH century America did not have the first class, cutting edge institutions of higher learning. For one to be really polished intellectually and culturally one went to Europe to study..Britain and Germany in particular were thought to be the penultimate in science and technology. Yet during the 19Th and early 20Th century it was Americans who came up with many of the great technological innovations such as the Cotton Gin, Light Bulb,Telephone and Henry Fords Model T assembly line.process. The men who came up with these inventions were largely not well educated men who had access to the resources of higher education nor government. What they did have is the spirit of innovation in finding,solutions to the problems they were faced with in accomplishing a task.. This is where walking through the Henry Ford Museum gives an insight into the mind of Henry Ford. As one walks through the vast museum of artifacts that he collected, one notices an inordinately large number of pieces of farm machinery and equipment,.So other than being a Michigan farmer what was it that attracted Henry Ford to collecting farm machinery and equipment? The answer is that for Henry Ford it was how the problem of accomplishing a task was solved by that particular inventor. Ford could see the how and why these inventors arrived at their solutions in his minds eye and that is what he found intriguing about those pieces( he also collected the progression of technological improvements). Further Henry Fords knowledge of his factories manufacturing process was so complete that he could do every job in the manufacturing and assembly process..He would on occasion go into the Rouge replace a worker, do his job while telling him, "See this is how it is done."

With the advent of Hitler in the 1930's a great many of the leading German and Austrian scientists left the tyranny of NAZI Germany for Britain and the United States. This was the beginning of the rise of the United States as the world leader in science and technology. However it was after WW2 and the advent of the Great WW2 Prosperity Boom that the US became the undisputed leader in scientific and technological innovation. Simply America was where the money and opportunity was to ply ones trade and that is the reason America has 18 out of the 20 or so leading Universities in the world..

The warning here is that where the money goes so goes the the opportunity and talent to achieve scientific and technological breakthroughs. So as Britain suffered the Brain Drain of the 1960's so could the United States suffer the same fate if the economy remains sluggish.

anne4444  07/28/2011 02:35 PM Report

Thank you, Charlie. It was a great interview.

robdverity  07/28/2011 02:14 PM Report

Mulally I'm sure has thought about this future dilemma. Would love to hear his cogent thoughts on the following conjecture:

Is it possible our system is out of sync with our technology (Fords et al)? If technology (robotics etc) continues to replace workers, retraining can only solve a fraction displaced. Ultimately a different system of distribution of assets (wealth?) will be needed. The masses can't buy what the robots make without it.

It seems that ultimately a form of (gasp, choke) socialism will have to be initiated proportionately with technology. Probably with a lag that causes social disruptions caused by the unemployment. Making people feel useful may develop into a national dilemma.

JohnGelles  07/28/2011 01:46 PM Report

This was a wonderful interview. CR has to be congratulated -- nowhere else on TV will hosts and guests dare to cover serious subjects in a serious way and stay in a colloquial talking mode that keeps an interested audience focused on the realities of our time.

Of course we need more than TV show time allows. So I went to Wikipedia:

===begin Wikipedia (Do visit it yourself!)===

Alan Roger Mulally (born August 4, 1945) is an American engineer and businessman who is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ford Motor Company.

Ford, which had been struggling during the late-2000s recession, returned to profitability under Mulally and was the only American major car manufacturer to avoid government-sponsored bankruptcy.

Mulally was previously executive vice president of Boeing and the CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA). He began his career with Boeing as an engineer in 1969 and was largely credited with BCA's resurgence against Airbus in the mid-2000s.

Mulally was born in Oakland, California to Charles R. "Dick" Mulally and Lauraine Lizette Clark, who met at a USO dance. Mulally grew up in his mother's hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, where he was a member of Plymouth Congregational Church. He considered Rev. Dale Turner "a mentor and an inspiration." He used to sit at the front of the church to study the minister's influence on the congregation.

Mulally said that he found himself motivated at the age of 17 by president John F. Kennedy's challenge to send a man to the moon. He has three sons and two daughters with his wife, Jane Connell

Mulally graduated from the University of Kansas, also his mother's alma mater, in 1969 with Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering.

He is an alumnus of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity and is its 2007 Man of the Year. He received a Master's degree in Management (S.M.) as a Sloan Fellow from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1982.

Mulally led the design team of the first all-digital flight deck in a commercial aircraft ... the Boeing 767.

Mulally was hired by Boeing immediately out of college in 1969 as an engineer. He held a number of engineering and program management positions, making contributions to the Boeing 727, 737, 747, 757, 767 and 777 projects. He led the cockpit design team on the 757/767 project.

Its revolutionary design featured the first all-digital flight deck in a commercial aircraft, the first two man crew for long range aircraft, and a common type rating for pilots on two different aircraft. He worked on the 777 program first as director of engineering and, from September 1992, as vice-president and general manager.

He was later named as Vice President of Engineering for the commercial airplane group.

He is known and recognized for elevating Phil Condit's "Working Together" philosophy through and beyond the 777 program.

In 1994, Mulally was promoted to senior vice president of Airplane Development and was in charge of all airplane development activities, flight test operations, certification, and government technical liaison. In 1997, Mulally became the president of the Information, Space & Defense Systems and senior vice president. He held this position until 1998 when he was made president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Chief Executive Officer duties were added in 2001.

...

For Mulally's performance at Boeing, Aviation Week & Space Technology named him as person of the year for 2006.

...

Mulally was named the President and CEO of Ford Motor Company on September 5, 2006, succeeding William Clay Ford, Jr., who remained as Executive Chairman of the company's Board of Directors.

Mulally was criticized for calling his Lexus LS430 the 'finest car in the world', just as Ford was about to announce his selection as CEO. William Clay Ford Jr. had been searching for his successor as Ford CEO for some time, with Daimler Chrysler's Dieter Zetsche and Carlos Ghosn of Renault/Nissan Motors both turning down the offer.

One of Mulally's first decisions at Ford was to bring back the Taurus nameplate. He said that he could not understand why the company previously scrapped the Taurus, which had been one of the company's best sellers until losing ground in the late 1990s.

Mulally took over "The Way Forward" restructuring plan at Ford to turn-around its massive losses and declining market share. Mulally's cost cutting initiatives led to the company's first profitable quarter in two years. Dividends to shareholders were also suspended.

In 2006, Mulally led the effort for Ford to borrow $23.6 billion by mortgaging all of Ford's assets. Mulally said that he intended to use the money to finance a major overhaul and provide “a cushion to protect for a recession or other unexpected event."

At the time the loan was interpreted as a sign of desperation, but is now widely credited with stabilizing Ford's financial position, compared to crosstown rivals General Motors and Chrysler, both of whom had gone bankrupt during the Automotive industry crisis of 2008–2009.

Ford was the only one of the Detroit Three that did not ask for a government loan. While GM and Chrysler expect to be dramatically downsized as a result of bankruptcy, Ford is poised to emerge as the largest US automaker and shows signs of recovery.

In May 2009, Ford chairman William Clay Ford, who hired Mulally, said that "Alan was the right choice ... and it gets more right every day".

...

In 2007, he presided over the sale of Jaguar Cars and Land Rover to Tata Motors, an Indian car and truck manufacturer. Mulally said he had "no regrets" over the sale, preferring to concentrate on the Ford brand, as then-CEO Jacques Nasser was criticized in 2001 for paying too much attention to new overseas acquisitions while letting the main Ford operations in the US decline.

Ford received $2.3 billion USD on the sale, considerably below what they paid for it under Nasser. However, analysts said that Ford would have gotten much less or may not have found a buyer if they tried to sell it later in 2008, as Jaguar Land Rover sales subsequently plummeted due to high oil prices in the summer, causing Tata to request a bailout from the British government.

Mulally also sold off Aston Martin and Volvo Cars, and reduced Ford's stake in Mazda.

In 2008, amid mounting losses during an economic downturn, Ford announced a proposal on December 2, 2008 to cut Mulally's salary to $1 per year if government loans were received and used by Ford. During hearings for government loans to Ford, he and other industry leaders were criticized for flying to Washington, D.C. in corporate jets.

During a subsequent meeting, he traveled from Detroit to Washington by a Ford-built hybrid electric vehicle, while selling all but one of the company's corporate jets.

In 2008, Mulally earned a total compensation of $13,565,378, which included a base salary of $2,000,000, stock awards of $1,849,241, and option awards of $8,669,747. His total compensation decreased by 37.4% compared to 2007.

Due to his achievements at Ford, he was included in the 2009 Time 100 list. The entry, written by Steve Ballmer, says, "[Mulally] understands the fundamentals of business success as well as any business leader I know."

...

On February 2, 2009, WOOD-TV News in Grand Rapids reported that Mulally personally called Michael Snapper, a customer who recently chose to purchase a Ford Fusion Hybrid over the Toyota Prius that he originally intended to buy. He left a voicemail on Michael's mobile saying a personal thank you from the CEO.

===end Wikipedia (Do visit it yourself!)===

On the Rose Show Alan M. described his round table method of communicating with top staff -- his razor focus method of creating a business team that gets the brand and quality right and keeps abreast of affordability to customer issues and business sustainability (profit and wage) issues, simultaneously.

It is clear that Alan M. is smart, considerate, profound in production knowledge, quick, and neither a prima dona nor a patsy. He makes a good partner for governments and unions. He knows how important manufacturing industries are.

IMAGINE if Congress were able to learn from Alan M. how to organize teams for effective management of problems.

I believe we have to go beyond our present business policies within our political economy. We need to reduce the influence of price competition and increase the influence of stability in production to accomplish undisputed goals -- such as full employment, high wages, national security, advancement of human rights, etc.

Above all -- at the moment -- we need to promote government take over of the health care responsibility we have burdened business with. It makes no sense for car and plane makers to rule over medical doctors. Get producers and insurance companies out of our clinics and hospitals. Government now licenses medical professionals. Let government also pay all the bills for health care it can afford for most people. People who want care that cost more than what government provides should be allowed to buy it and they should not be taxed on any of such extra cost. Such extra care will set a standard to be reached for over time.

robdverity  07/28/2011 01:32 PM Report

Agree TRUST is key. Charles Schwab scammed me with bogus PE ratios ONCE; never again.

Ford seems to be doing something right. However, will lower level entry jobs serve to ultimately lower the overall standard of living or increase it relatively (to being unemployed)? I flunked Econ 101.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  07/28/2011 12:14 PM Report

On Government Motors (or GM for the old timers), Warren Buffet said it was a healthcare company that just happened to make cars.

President Obama says healthcare costs must be lowered because they suck up way too much of our GDP.

So if Ford is paying lower wages I hope they are providing better preventative healthcare choices for their workers. If we lose our middle class due to labor concessions at the very least the workers should be healthy.

REMant  07/28/2011 11:34 AM Report

Confidence is a kind of weasel word. I'd use trust instead. If business has the public trust it needs little else. Not producing things for your own ppl to buy as Henry Ford did when he built Ford I'd say is the epitome of mistrust. Yet American car manufacturers did just that, and limiting their market, ultimately had to subsidize purchases, and depend on cheap money to do that. Ditto the country. Protectionism makes subsidizing purchases necessary and that in turn requires cheap money, and we start talking about confidence as some sort of mania. Mistrust is the way we strangled American enterprise. The unfortunate thing is that after decades of this, it may well be justified.

BTW, I still think the idea of renting batteries from battery stations instead of owning them makes a lot of sense and would certainly make the initial purchase more affordable.