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The Blue Oval is riding high these days, buoyed by fat North American profits and the luster of CEO Alan Mulally’s star power with investors.

But neither of those pillars is guaranteed to last in perpetuity, whether the former Boeing Co. exec retires from Ford Motor Co. at the end of next year or leaves sooner to engineer a turnaround trifecta at Microsoft Corp. in his adopted hometown of Seattle.

The prospect of his departure raises two important questions for the rehabilitated Dearborn automaker: Is the Mulally Way now sufficiently embedded in Ford’s operations and culture to endure after he’s gone? And can its leaders, executive and union alike, manage prosperity?

“It’s one of the most important challenges we face,” Joe Hinrichs, president of Ford-Americas, said in an interview. “You can look back about every decade and find a book about Ford’s turnaround.”

 


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How Well Will Ford Survive If Mulally Leaves To Run Microsoft?

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