Lest you think Ford’s “Bold Moves” ad campaign is simply the brainchild of ad agency yuppies, witness one of the boldest moves yet by the Big Blue Oval. Rather than the traditional protocol of moving executives up through the ranks to the CEO position (or moving the most promising member of the family into the seat), the troubled automaker has gone outside its ranks and, indeed, outside of the automotive industry, to tap Boeing’s Alan Mulally.

Lest you think Ford’s “Bold Moves” ad campaign is simply the brainchild of ad agency yuppies, witness one of the boldest moves yet by the Big Blue Oval. Rather than the traditional protocol of moving executives up through the ranks to the CEO position (or moving the most promising member of the family into the seat), the troubled automaker has gone outside its ranks and, indeed, outside of the automotive industry, to tap Boeing’s Alan Mulally.

Mulally, by his own confession is “not a car guy.” While us enthusiasts may bemoan this as yet another Roger Smith-style bean-counting regime in which all passion for automobiles will be thrown out the window in the interests of penny-pinching, I think Bill Ford, as well as Mulally and many others, realize that cost-cutting can only go so far until it affects quality, perception, and, ultimately, sales. Ever heard the term, “it takes money to make money”? More important, though, than how much money is spent is where it’s spent.

The “Three Magic P’s”–Performance, Perception, and Price–need to be the lenses under Mulally’s microscope focused on Ford. The Duratec35 is coming out of the gate strongly, with output and economy putting it shoulder-to-shoulder with Nissan’s and Toyota’s similar-sized engines. Yet all is not rosy in Dearborn. Lincoln, though showing some signs of life, needs some clear direction. Is it near-luxury, or full-luxury? If it moves down-market, where does that leave Mercury? This, among dozens of other critical questions, demand an immediate answer.

Ford employees no doubt have looked at Mulally’s track record at Boeing and saw that it included job cuts of more than 50 percent during his tenure during some radical restructuring. I don’t think anyone is under any illusions that Ford’s “Way Forward” won’t have a few potholes and rough patches ahead. But considering the depths from which Mulally pulled Boeing, perhaps his experience as a turn-around specialist is what’s most needed at the company. There are no shortage of enthusiasts at the company, as Hau Thai-Tang and the now-retired John Coletti are testament to. But if just gearheads were put in charge of the day-to-day operations of the company, every model would likely have 500 horsepower, cost $100,000, and sell maybe 2,000 models a year. You just can’t run a car company like that.

Ford needs high-volume hits, and soon. It will indeed be an interesting 2007 in the car business.

Additional Article:
Ford’s new CEO: Alan Mulally