People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1 - 46

Case Study
Regaining
Organizational
Health and
Vitality
Ford Motor
Company's Positive
Adaption to the
Challenges of the
Automotive Industry
Crisis
Chris Emmons, Ph.D.

46

PEOPLE & STRATEGY

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eaders struggle to keep their organizations alive in rapidly changing environments. This struggle to adapt and
survive-the old notion of the survival of the fittest-was
clearly illustrated by the players in the automotive industry
during the 2008-2010 automotive industry crisis. Ford Motor
Company's turnaround is an epic tale of going from the brink
of bankruptcy to becoming one of the world's most profitable
automakers. Under CEO Alan Mulally, the leadership team
captured the value of organizational health. The Ford story
offers several examples of leaders learning from relationships
and informal knowledge-sharing. By applying these same learning techniques, leaders in any industry can recognize and seize
opportunities to improve and sustain superior performance for
their organization.
The ability of an organization to regain vitality and deliver
superior performance after an industry crisis is the essence of
resilience and organizational health. Organizations adapt and
survive over the long term by building capacities for resilience
and delivery. The concluding chapter of American Icon (Hoffman, 2012) described Ford Motor Company as a symbol of
American resilience and hypothesized that the Mulally approach
of working together and the weekly business plan review was
portable to all types of organizations.
The Mulally approach, illustrated through the Ford Motor Company (FMC) story, demonstrates the power of learning from relationships and informal knowledge-sharing. These learning
techniques allowed FMC leaders to develop resilience, deliver
superior financial and operating performance, and regain organizational health.
The work of De Smet, Schaninger, and Smith (2014) indicates
organizational health is determined by an organization's "ability to align around a clear vision, strategy, and culture; to execute with excellence; and to renew the organization's focus over
time by responding to market trends." Alan Mulally incorporated all three determinants of organizational health into the



People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of People & Strategy Winter 2015 Vol. 38 Issue 1

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