Ford Motor Company was started in 1903 in Detroit, Michigan, by Henry Ford. 2006 brought a tremendous change to the multinational automobile producer, when Alan Mulally came to the head of line to lead Ford into a new era. In the past several years, Ford has been in danger of failing, causing a shift in its global position and a restructure of its company portfolio. Ford has become a global competitor with brands including Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda, Aston Martin, Jaguar, and Land Rover.
Mulally was welcomed to his new position with a financial crisis waiting on his desk. Although never working in the auto industry, Mulally had a plan to manage Ford out of the economic down spiral it had it found itself with the foreseeable economic challenges of the entire US economy. Ford has reported losses for the pass several years. * Lost of $12.6 billion in 2006 * Lost of $2.7 billion in 2007 * Lost of $14.7 billion in 2008 * Lost of $1.4 billion in 2009 (first quarter) (Hellriegel, 2011)
Mulally created more debt to make up the shortages by borrowing to keep Ford from government bailouts. Under the Mullaly reconstruction, Ford will discontinue the Mercury line in 2010 year end, maintained a stake in Mazda and Aston Martin and sold off subsidiaries Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo within the last two years. While realizing the loses and selling of part of their portfolio, government guidelines on “fuel-economy standards”, Ford has produced the Focus, Fusion and Fiesta as economy cars. (Hellriegel, 2011). Ford presented a contribution to the solution to global concept of global warming and cutting fuel cost by the end user. There has no doubt Ford has had challenges that Mulally has had to put forth a management style that would capture and maintain
