Culture Lens
Culture lens
Ford went through a hard time, not just because of the outside gloomy economics, but also the pressure of a dysfunctional, often defeatist culture. In Ford’s long business history, culture is not constant; it evolves, the business culture had been changed generation by generation in the economic progress and globalization. Both of essence and dross has been passed down in a grown bureaucracy, where people lost their innovation and structure is messy. The new chief executive of Ford Motor Co., Alan R. Mulally was taking a culture revolution in this giant machine in order to pull it out of the deep mud.
Organization values
• Pioneered modern management techniques
Period 1: Ford is the birthplace of the assembly line and home of the celebrated Whiz Kids, which highly increase the efficiency in the production and copied by the other companies.
Period 2: After 1960s, Ford fell into a reverse way and has degenerated into a symbol of inefficiency. Right now, it has four parallel operating units and the company has more than 30 engineering platforms worldwide, each with its own costly bureaucracy, factories, and product development staff.
Period 3: Mulally took a big step and would like to reduce the level of complexity. He wants to get that number down to five or six platforms, similar to Honda. More importantly, Ford tries to eliminate all of its unnecessary duplication.
• Cooperation and efficiency
Period 1: After assembly line been introduced to the world, Ford impressed all of their competitors by their highly cooperated work and their efficiency, employees worked together and impede the flaws passing to the next connection. Until the mid-'60s, Ford was considered a management shrine.
Period 2: The bureaucracy at Ford grew, and managers took refuge in the structure when things got tough rather than innovate or try new ideas that seemed risky. Personal ties became important in Ford, ambitious managers focused increasingly on kissing the
Ford went through a hard time, not just because of the outside gloomy economics, but also the pressure of a dysfunctional, often defeatist culture. In Ford’s long business history, culture is not constant; it evolves, the business culture had been changed generation by generation in the economic progress and globalization. Both of essence and dross has been passed down in a grown bureaucracy, where people lost their innovation and structure is messy. The new chief executive of Ford Motor Co., Alan R. Mulally was taking a culture revolution in this giant machine in order to pull it out of the deep mud.
Organization values
• Pioneered modern management techniques
Period 1: Ford is the birthplace of the assembly line and home of the celebrated Whiz Kids, which highly increase the efficiency in the production and copied by the other companies.
Period 2: After 1960s, Ford fell into a reverse way and has degenerated into a symbol of inefficiency. Right now, it has four parallel operating units and the company has more than 30 engineering platforms worldwide, each with its own costly bureaucracy, factories, and product development staff.
Period 3: Mulally took a big step and would like to reduce the level of complexity. He wants to get that number down to five or six platforms, similar to Honda. More importantly, Ford tries to eliminate all of its unnecessary duplication.
• Cooperation and efficiency
Period 1: After assembly line been introduced to the world, Ford impressed all of their competitors by their highly cooperated work and their efficiency, employees worked together and impede the flaws passing to the next connection. Until the mid-'60s, Ford was considered a management shrine.
Period 2: The bureaucracy at Ford grew, and managers took refuge in the structure when things got tough rather than innovate or try new ideas that seemed risky. Personal ties became important in Ford, ambitious managers focused increasingly on kissing the