CEO Alan Mulally with Chairman Bill Ford.
Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford Jr. has stepped into the swirl surrounding reports that the automaker’s CEO Alan Mulally might soon leave for a job with Microsoft.
The 68-year-old Mulally was recruited from Boeing seven years ago and has been widely linked to the search for a new CEO by Microsoft which is also Seattle-based. In fact, despite Ford’s insistence, new reports by the Bloomberg news service indicate the computer giant’s board of directors is still actively considering Mulally as the replacement for CEO Steve Ballmer who announced in August plans to retire within a year.
Don’t tell that to 56-year-old Ford Chairman Bill Ford, however. Asked about Mullaly’s possible move to Microsoft, he told Bloomberg Television that, “The plan is he’s going to stick around. I’m happy he’s sticking around.” But the Ford family heir quickly added that, “We also feel really good about where we are in terms of succession.”
Mulally is already well past the normal retirement age in the auto industry, though the traditional 65-and-out policy has been relaxed in recent years as executives like former General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz have shown both the skills and willingness to remain on much later. Lutz didn’t leave GM until he was approaching 80, for example.
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Ford’s chairman and board have repeatedly made it clear they want to keep Mulally around. While the former Boeing executive drew plenty of skepticism when he first moved to Detroit – a traditionally closed and insular community of “car guys” – he quickly proved his merit. Mulally’s skill at bringing down the normally highly politicized Ford management culture has been hailed as a critical factor in the maker’s ability to avoid bankruptcy in 2009, unlike GM and Chrysler, and its current surge in profitability.
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By the end of this year, Ford is expected to have earned around $40 billion since 2009. It lost $30.1 billion during the previous three years. In fact, one of Mulally’s first challenges was having to announce the biggest loss in Ford’s history.
Last year, the Ford CEO took a step back from day-to-day management duties, turning those over to new Chief Operating Officer Mark Fields, the former president of Ford’s operations in the Americas. Mulally, in turn, shifted his focus to more strategic, long-term issues. At the time, the one-time aircraft engineer indicated he would stay with Ford until at least the end of 2014.
But as that date starts to loom in the headlights, it appears Mulally is being wooed to consider other opportunities. His possible move to Microsoft has been widely covered in recent weeks and appears to be part of that company’s push to shift directions after the oft-controversial rein of the divisive CEO Ballmer.
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Several current and former Microsoft executives have told TheDetroitBureau.com that the Seattle firm faces many of the problems with overwhelming corporate politics that long stifled Ford – issues that have allowed high-tech competitors such as Apple and Google to gain ground on Microsoft.
Ironically, Chairman Bill Ford signaled the possibility that there would be competition for Mulally when he declared “Every corporation in the world should want Alan,” during an interview meant to focus on the upcoming 100th anniversary of the first Ford moving assembly line.