Mulally shows faith in Fields

D

ETROIT -- Word on the auto show floor was out -- Mark Fields, president of Ford Motor Co.'s struggling Americas unit, has six months to prove himself or he's toast.

ETROIT -- Word on the auto show floor was out -- Mark Fields, president of Ford Motor Co.'s struggling Americas unit, has six months to prove himself or he's toast.

No, they said, he has three months.

No, they said, he has three months.

No, he has this week.

No, he has this week.

All interesting and titillating, this talk that the head of yet another industry shooter would end up on a pike. However common rumors are at auto shows, those predicting Fields' imminent demise reached such a fever pitch during the North American International Auto Show press days that Ford CEO Alan Mulally did something about it.

All interesting and titillating, this talk that the head of yet another industry shooter would end up on a pike. However common rumors are at auto shows, those predicting Fields' imminent demise reached such a fever pitch during the North American International Auto Show press days that Ford CEO Alan Mulally did something about it.

"I think he is a really, really fine leader," Mulally told me Thursday. "I have the utmost confidence in him. He's a terrific leader. He's done a great job. And I really believe in him."

"I think he is a really, really fine leader," Mulally told me Thursday. "I have the utmost confidence in him. He's a terrific leader. He's done a great job. And I really believe in him."

Early this week, he sat down with Fields. He told him not to worry, that he shouldn't get distracted by the rumors, that he was a valued member of the management team, and that, if necessary, Mulally would say so to quiet things down.

Early this week, he sat down with Fields. He told him not to worry, that he shouldn't get distracted by the rumors, that he was a valued member of the management team, and that, if necessary, Mulally would say so to quiet things down.

On Wednesday, Mulally used a global meeting of Ford's top 320 executives at the Ford Conference and Events Center in Dearborn to say the same thing: "This is my team," the boss said, his hand on Fields' shoulder.

On Wednesday, Mulally used a global meeting of Ford's top 320 executives at the Ford Conference and Events Center in Dearborn to say the same thing: "This is my team," the boss said, his hand on Fields' shoulder.

Also on the team are John Parker, group VP for Asia-Pacific and Africa; Lewis Booth, chairman of Ford of Europe; Mike Bannister, chairman of Ford Credit; and Derrick Kuzak, Mulally's hand-picked head of global product development.

'This is my team'

Then on Thursday, even as a local TV reporter asked me whether it was true -- Is Fields gonna be out by Friday? -- and another scribe was said to be organizing an office pool predicting Fields' last day, Mulally made a cameo appearance at a Fields meeting with his top North American managers in Dearborn to give an overview of the business and deliver a message:

"This is my team," Mulally told the senior managers. "You guys have a fantastic leadership team led by Mark."

Enough said. But this is the global auto industry, where the boss supports you until he doesn't. And this is the town where ousted General Motors Corp. CEO Bob Stempel pledged his support for President Lloyd Reuss with the epigrammatic "Lloyd's my man." Not too long after, Reuss was out.

This brutal speculation about who may be poised to lose his job next is one of the uglier sides of an industry town like Detroit. The media here treats the Detroit automakers and their top execs, one longtime Wall Street analyst quipped to me, like the New York media treats its sports teams -- i.e., mercilessly.

But that doesn't mean the new guy from Seattle necessarily needs to play along. That he isn't is kind of refreshing and arguably long overdue at Ford.

Sure, a few rumors have proven right, such as former Chrysler COO Wolfgang Bernhard, effectively ousted Thursday by Volkswagen, or the German firings of Chrysler presidents Tom Stallkamp and Jim Holden.

Others are wrong -- like The Wall Street Journal's prediction last year that GM CEO Rick Wagoner would be out by summer. Or wildly premature, like chatter about Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda, former Ford COO Jim Padilla or Fields.

New boss, more change

There are no guarantees that any of Ford's top execs will survive Mulally 1.0, either. The whirlwind that is Mulally, a Boeing Co. executive recruited by Chairman Bill Ford, is restructuring Ford and assessing management at blistering speed. And that includes Fields, as Fields would concede.

Mulally isn't angling for Fields to "self-select," as the boss likes to say, and head for the exit. Quite the opposite. He's concerned that rampant speculation about Fields' future and his frustration over media reports criticizing his use of Ford aircraft to commute home to Florida might prompt Fields, 45, to leave Ford for a more lucrative job.

Not that Fields -- or others -- have been unaffected by Mulally's changes. In streamlining Ford's top-heavy bureaucracy, he has narrowed the number of senior executives who report directly to Fields. And creating heads of global product development and global manufacturing could, over time, dilute the power of Ford's regional presidents.

If that's the price for making Ford sustainably profitable again, it would be a mighty small one because the payoff will be much larger -- for everyone at Ford.

Daniel Howes' column runs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at (313) 222-2106, dchowes@detnews.com">dchowes@detnews.com or info.detnews.com/danielhowesblog.