The Way It Really Is

“See all those books over there? Those are all outside studies on us. All those big binders are consultant studies.

“The ones over there marked personal and internal, those are Ford employees that I talked to. I kept all that. I gathered everyone's thoughts, studied those for a long time, talked to the board. When you get that much input from that many stakeholders you get really good, robust feedback about the way it is. So you take that and you develop a strategy and a plan to deal with that reality…

“I know that's what I have to do. I need to network with these groups. I saw 4,000 dealers two weeks ago. I talked to them. I met them every night they were in Detroit. I know exactly what the dealers think because I asked them. You've got to ask them.”

(Alan Mullaly, CEO of Ford, in “Boss Talk: At Ford, the 'Outsider' Is Optimistic; In a Town of Pessimists, CEO Mulally Tells Everyone 'It's Going to Be OK'.” by Jeffrey McCracken and Joseph B. White. Wall Street Journal: July 23, 2007. pg. B.1)