Rainbow of Honesty
The only way to change attitudes is to pull everybody together
In 2006, the Ford Motor Company was deep in the red – they had borrowed $26bn and lost $17bn the following year – and brought on ex-Boeing CEO Alan Mulally to take over as CEO and pull them out. He not only saved the company but led Ford to be the only major American car manufacturer to avoid a bailout fund provided by the government.
When he spoke to Peter Day (BBC Global Business) at the Paris Auto Show in 2010, he offered these insights:
“The only way to change attitudes is to pull everybody together – engineering, manufacturing, and product development. We started meeting every Thursday, 7 AM., everybody around the world, all netted in. Details of the plan, then expectations; everyone would say where they are, relative to the plan.
“Every Thursday. Compelling vision. Stick to the plan. Relentless implementation. On the back of the card:
• Foster technological excellence,
• Own working together,
• Role model Ford values,
• Deliver results, [by coincidence, it spells FORD]…
“Everybody worldwide, color coded – RED YELLOW and GREEN – we say, you’re not red, the issue you’re working on is red, so everybody can help… Everyone on the same screen, color coded.”
Once he convinced all of the departments to be honest about their mistakes, progress was set in motion.
“Next week, it’s RED still. Everybody is helping. Next week it’s YELLOW. Next week it’s GREEN. 2,000 vehicles start shipping. Next week, the entire 320 charts look like a rainbow! Everybody knew everything, everything for the first time. A RAINBOW OF HONESTY. RED, YELLOW, GREEN, now we’re managing the business, because when everything was GREEN it was secret, and people were managing the secret, now they are managing the reality.”
Under Mulally, Ford went on to become massively profitable once more, and saw glowing results as early as 2009, when Ford sales lead in Canada for the first time in 50 years (The Globe and Mail).