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Alan Mulally and The fight to save Americas Icon

The book is a story about Ford. And how Alan rescued Ford from the doldrums. What I liked about the book is the level of detail - not just in the story of Ford, but also in the details of the execution - as to how it happened.

At one point, Alan notes - compelling vision and ruthless execution - and simple as that might seem, it is difficult in small firms, so imagine doing that in a gigantic firm.

One of the remarkable features for me was the fact that in turning around Boeing in the post 9/11 scenario and in turning around Ford - Mullallys toolkits were the same. He continued to hone and use his core strength, he was technically sound, an engineer and took that level of interest and it paid. At each level - from appointing the right person to giving them the autonomy - measuring - building transparency - this is a story over a few years of both the vision and the execution and both of these would come under question.

The second remarkable feature is the time he took to start moving on big ticket items - there were many big decisions which one is tempted to take as soon as one lands in the top chair.  But Alan took his time.

I loved the principles enunciated for the weekly meeting - can apply practically anywhere:

People First
Everyone is included
Compelling vision
Clear Performance goals
One plan
Facts and data
Propose a plan, 'find-a-way' attitude
Respect, listen, help and appreciate each other
Emotional resilience - trust the process
Have fun - enjoy the journey and each other

Data sets you free...

And as is often shared - Culture eats strategy for breakfast - Mulally had to work on changing the culture at Ford - almost as much as he had to work on changing the strategy.

And, yes, he had to take many 'decisions' along the way. And many of them were tough decisions including to lay off workforce, shut down factories, ask executives to leave - but on each decision was his stamp and responsibility.

Overall this is a good book to read if you want to go over the nuts and bolts of how Ford was turned around - it is one of those rare books that gives a fairly deep insight into the 'how'.

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