Ford’s CEO On Purpose, Focus, And Leadership

I read an interesting Q&A with Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford. What I liked was the way he talks about the  role of a leader. Here are some excerpts from Mulally’s responses:

The more senior your management position is, the more important it is to connect the organization or the project to the outside world… I think the most important thing is coming to a shared view about what we’re trying to accomplish… What are we? What is our real purpose?… and then everybody gets a chance to participate and feel that accomplishment of participating and contributing.

Mulally lists four things that he really focusses on:

  1. Connecting to the outside world — where is the world, technology, customers and competition going?
  2. What business Ford is in; what are they going to focus on?
  3. Balancing the near-term and the long-term; will the plans work in the near term and also create value for the long term?
  4. The values and standards of the organization; what are the expected behaviors?

My take: Mulally provides great insight into leadership; which is quite different from management. Getting a large organization to work together in a way that drives value isn’t the same as pushing for high quality output from your direct reports. Leaders need to instill a clear sense of purpose throughout the entire organization.

The bottom line: Mulally has shared some valuable leadership lessons.

Written by 

I am an experience management transformist, helping organizations improve business results by engaging the hearts and minds of their customers, employees, and partners. My "job" is Head of the Qualtrics XM Institute. The Institute is still being established, but our goal is to help organizations around the world thrive by mastering Experience Management (XM). As part of this focus, I examine strategy, culture, interaction design, customer service, branding and leadership practices. And, as many people know, I love to speak about these topics in almost any forum. Prior to joining Qualtrics, I was managing partner of Temkin Group (leading CX research, advisory, and training firm), co-founder and chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org), and a VP at Forrester Research. I'm a fanatical student of business, so this blog provides an outlet for sharing insights from my ongoing educational journey. Check out my LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/brucetemkin

5 thoughts on “Ford’s CEO On Purpose, Focus, And Leadership”

  2. Bruce, Any tips on budgeting the CE project? How to calculate? What key things to keep in mind? I am not at all good with numbers, your help would be appreciated.

    Reply
  3. Pingback: Ford's CEO On Purpose, Focus, And Leadership « Customer Experience … | Unit Ford Focus Car

  4. Nice post. It is always good to see people expressing themselves in different ways.

    Since you seem to be associated with Management, I would like to suggest you a new magazine – PEOPLE MATTERS started by an ISB Alumni, which was suggested to me by a friend and which I have found very useful.

    It deals with various important aspects of management, especially those related to Leadership & People Management.

    Their last issue had an enlightening article by Robert Kaplan where he talks about how organisations can create opportunities out of current economic downturn.

    If you wish to subscribe, you can get the subscription online through their website: http://www.peoplematters.in

    If you like the magazine, kindly refer it to your friends or colleagues in the organization you work. They may be interested in subscribing to it.

    Thanks

    Reply
  5. Pingback: Improve “Purposeful Leadership” In 2011 « Customer Experience Matters

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