Research Details

Abstract

The case opens with the Ford Motor Company seemingly on the path toward bankruptcy. Ford had been bleeding red ink for more than ten years when it decided in 2006 that continuing the same turnaround attempts was not going to right the ship. The company was facing significant external challenges, such as intense competition and changing consumer preferences, as well as internal challenges, such as quality and design issues and a stifling level of corporate complexity. 

As the case begins, CEO Bill Ford has taken the unusual step of hiring an auto industry outsider as his replacement. Alan Mulally, a thirty-seven-year Boeing veteran and principal architect of the venerable airplane manufacturer's own massive and successful turnaround, wasted little time in getting about the business of remaking Ford. He developed a plan to: 

• Focus on the Ford brand and divest the numerous other brands the company had acquired over the years 
• Simplify and streamline the company's manufacturing operations 
• Remake the corporate culture from one of fiefdoms and false optimism to collaboration and facing reality 

With an ardent belief in the plan's viability, Mulally raised nearly $24 billion and began to put his plan into motion. 

The case explores the many causes of this once-great company's decline and the steps it took to beat the odds and get back on the path of profitability. 

Type

Case

Author(s)

Date Published

06/28/2012

Citations

. At Ford, Turnaround Is Job One. Case 5-211-250 (KEL663).

PREVIEW or BUY