NorthIowaToday.com

Founded in 2010

News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region

Mulally’s successor will have to wait until 2015

By Alisa Priddle, Detroit Free Press –

DETROIT — Mark Fields has a higher probability of becoming Ford’s next CEO with his promotion to chief operating officer next month, but he will have to be even more patient.

Executive Chairman Bill Ford also clarified that Alan Mulally, the automaker’s venerated 67-year-old CEO, won’t step down until the end of 2014 at the earliest, making him Ford’s longest-serving CEO since Henry Ford II’s 34-year tenure.

“Alan is here two more years,” Bill Ford said, adding the time frame “could go longer.” The two have shared a strong working relationship ever since the founder’s great-grandson asked Mulally to replace him slightly more than six years ago. Since then, Mulally has orchestrated a financial, cultural and product-led turnaround, all without needing emergency loans such as what the federal government made to General Motors and Chrysler in 2008 and 2009.

“I’ve never enjoyed working with anyone so much, so I’d like him to stay forever,” Ford said.

Mulally’s retirement date was the subject of much speculation across the industry. Many observers had expected he would step down at the end of 2013.

“I was surprised at the length of the tenure for Alan, but also pleased,” said analyst Rebecca Lindland of IHS Automotive in Greenwich, Conn. “They are trying to show Wall Street that they have a succession plan.”

Extending Mulally’s leadership buys more time for Wall Street to warm up to Fields and other top leaders.

Equity analysts at S& P Capital IQ said Thursday’s news “should reassure investors and limit further speculation on how long Mulally will stay. This supports the continuity that we are expecting and also acts to give a career path for senior executives.”

Those other executives include Joe Hinrichs, 45, who moves from president of Ford’s Asia Pacific Africa business to succeed Fields as president of the Americas.

Also reporting to Fields is sales and marketing chief Jim Farley, 50, who will also oversee Lincoln. European chief Stephen Odell, 57, adds the Middle East and Africa to his duties. David Schoch, 61, will run Asia Pacific, filling the vacancy left by Hinrichs.

While most people saw the announcements as confirmation that Fields is Mulally’s heir apparent, a Morgan Stanley report said “a specific CEO successor is far less obvious today. The next Ford CEO is truly up for grabs. We believe Ford is keeping its options open to consider several talented managers in the organization to eventually take the wheel from Alan (including Hinrichs, Odell and Farley) — not just Mark Fields.”

Neither Bill Ford nor Mulally would say that Fields is being groomed to be CEO, but the executive chairman said again that he prefers that the next CEO be an insider.

Bill Ford repeated his assertion that he prefers the next CEO come from within the company. “I’d be surprised if we didn’t have the next CEO come from inside.” But he cautioned against reading more into it, saying it isn’t a transition.

Bill Ford said the board made the decisions Oct. 19, but chose not to announce them until Thursday.

In his new position, Fields will lead the Thursday business plan meetings that Mulally created after joining Ford in September 2006. The meetings became part of Ford’s internal lore for Mulally’s success in encouraging executives to bring him bad news as soon as they learned it. Mulally also reduced Ford’s corporate infighting and pounded his “One Ford” mantra into something of a religion for those reporting to him.

Mulally will still oversee the One Ford global plan, but with fewer direct reports, including Fields, Ford’s general counsel, head of human resources and chief financial officer.

The automaker’s leaner North American operations and more compelling portfolio of passenger cars are generating profits large enough to overcome what it expects will be a $1.5 billion loss in Europe this year. As the head of the Americas, Fields deserves much of the credit for the turnaround.

On Tuesday, Ford announced that North America generated $2.3 billion in the third quarter, or 44 percent more than its global profit of $1.6 billion.

“Mark Fields earned his stripes heading North American operations and turning them around, both on the cost side — by closing plants and cutting jobs — and the revenue side — by overseeing the launch of a long string of significant and ultimately successful new models,” said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with the consumer information company Edmunds.com.

Fields joined Ford in 1989. His career has included assignments running Mazda in Japan, Ford of Europe and the Premier Automotive Group, which included a number of luxury brands that Ford no longer has. He became president of the Americas in 2005, a year before Mulally joined the company from Boeing.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Even more news:

Copyright 2024 – Internet Marketing Pros. of Iowa, Inc.
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x