Next time you question why Ford is struggling to turn a profit....

[Elguapo]

Consider this....

When Nicki Mulally wants to travel, she can usually hop on one of Ford Motor Co.'s Falcon twin-turbo jets.

The reason: She's married to Alan Mulally, Ford's chief executive.

To woo Mr. Mulally from Boeing Co. last fall, Ford promised that his wife, five children and guests could fly on corporate aircraft without him, as long as he authorizes the travel. Personal flights by Mr. Mulally and family members cost Ford $172,974 during his four months with the auto maker last year. A Ford spokesman declines to disclose the family-member and guest component of that sum.

Taken from this article...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1183...oo_hs&ru=yahoo

And finally if you think it isn't to excessive racking up that sort of travel bill because after all he is the CEO of FoMoCo then just take note of another line a little further down the article...

Ford paid Mr. Mulally $28.2 million last year, including an $18.5 million bonus.

I would have thought he could well afford to fly his family around at his own cost....don't you??

[Piotr]

Why is he being paid a bonus if the companys position is not improving? He obviosuly hasn't done his job

[Ives]

He's earning like $900,000 a week.... ok after tax...$500,000 a week.

[Elguapo]

When you earn that much I bet your finances are structured so you pay no where near what the average "joe punter" would pay in tax percentage wise. In my view no one is worth that sort of money. That said if I earned that sort of $$ I guarantee I would giggle myself to sleep every night. Just the shear thought of it makes me chuckle.

[Deadman]

I think I read somewhere (Wheels or Motor) that Holden executives have actually forgone bonuses etc to try and save their company money. (correct me if I am wrong). Makes you wonder...

[Go baby Go]

Holy cow Batman...........

I'd do his job for a week... okay, a day. (Geez a minute if it came down to it!)

[Yellow_Festiva]

So this guy makes more in a week than our PM in a year. :

What a joke.

[sleekism]

How do I get his job???

I know a lot about Fords and study engineering?

Someone please give me his job I swear I will make a Falcon Coupe.

[BTTB]

Originally Posted by Elguapo

Just the shear thought of it makes me chuckle.

Just the shear thought of you thinking/chuckling about it made me chuckle

power of the coin huh :togo:

[XR Martin]

You guys dont understand.
If you want good staff you've got to pay them well. He turned around Boeing from a similar position as Ford years ago to where it is now.
Do you think he would hang around without the pay he is getting? : He could easily pick up a job paying the same if not more in a second.
Basically if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

Also $170k is nothing to Ford, its a tax write off. They would make more money from the profits of ten F-350s.

[XR Martin]

Sounds like he's way overpaid : Unlike previous Ford CEOs, (who were only family members) this guy may actually have a clue.

Mulally was hired by Boeing immediately out of college in 1969 as an engineer and advanced through the company in a series of engineering and program management positions, making contributions to the 727, 737, 747, 757, and 767. He worked on the 777 program first as director of engineering, and from September 1992 as vice-president and general manager, and was also the Vice President of Engineering for the commercial airplane group. In 1994, Mulally was made the senior vice president of Airplane Development and was in charge of all airplane development activities, flight test operations, certification, and government technical liaison. In 1997, Boeing made Mulally the president of the Information, Space & Defense Systems and senior vice president. This lasted until 1998 when he was made president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Chief Executive Officer duties were added in 2001.[2]

Following the forced resignations of Phil Condit and Harry Stonecipher, Mulally was considered one of the leading internal candidates for the CEO position.[4] When Mulally was passed over in both instances, questions were raised about whether he would remain with the company.[5]

For Mulally's performance at Boeing, Aviation Week & Space Technology named him as their person of the year for 2006

[Full Noise]

Although I don’t agree with the amount of money being paid, sadly, XR6Martin is spot on. The use of the company jet would have been agreed on long before he took up the position, so for someone like him, it would be like using a company car for private purposes.

If he eventually turns Ford around and puts it into the black, everyone will be praising him, except perhaps for the thousands of sacked workers.

A funny thing is that he probably doesn’t even make the list of the top 100 US executives in pay rankings. He could go anywhere.

[schnoods]

Maybe he recieved that much because Ford is still in business?

No one is worth 28 million a year. No one.

[pb02]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

You guys dont understand.
If you want good staff you've got to pay them well. He turned around Boeing from a similar position as Ford years ago to where it is now.
Do you think he would hang around without the pay he is getting? : He could easily pick up a job paying the same if not more in a second.
Basically if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

Also $170k is nothing to Ford, its a tax write off. They would make more money from the profits of ten F-350s.

Lee Iacocca actually took a huge pay cut to save Chrysler when he was in charge. Not only did he hang around but he basically rebuilt them into a profitable company again.

Sometimes it's not about the money as much as it is about how GOOD of a leader you have!

[ClevlndStemer]

Originally Posted by Piotr

Why is he being paid a bonus if the companys position is not improving? He obviosuly hasn't done his job

Rebuilding the position Ford is in at the moment is NOT an overnight process. It will take years. Maybe in our eyes he hasn't done much but underneath he may have introduced many new processes, re engineered other ones and has begun the turn around of Ford. I'd give it another 2 or so years. Ford did pay out a lot of money for entitlements to former employees in the last year, so maybe next year the figures MAY look better. We'll see.

[Dark Horse]

XR6 Martin and Full Noise have hit the nail on the head.

For where Al is at, he could indeed go anywhere. I'd be exercising patience - he is very well known and respected in aviation circles and knows how to turn a business around.

Before leaving Boeing he was involved with the 787 program. This aircraft now has 634 orders and hasn't even been rolled out yet.

[EdFairmontGhia]

he should have flown jetstar.........

[merlin]

He is not running a bakery - big money for big responsibility, I have no issue with what he is earning.

[Elguapo]

You are right his not running a bakery or even the whole Baker's Delight chain. He is however trying to turn around a company in dire trouble. I would much rather have seen him earn a lot smaller amount in salary and have the rest tied to shares. that way the market decides what he earns. IF he does a good job the share price goes up and he earns more. If he is crap it goes down and he earns less. The problem is with people at this level of business they truly believe they are worth these vast sums and are so disproportionately out of touch with main stream society. Go and explain why he is worth so much to the people who were retrenched off the Broadmeadows production line with 40 years service and know no other job whilst the company that sacked them posts record losses.

[Piotr]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

You guys dont understand.
If you want good staff you've got to pay them well. He turned around Boeing from a similar position as Ford years ago to where it is now.
Do you think he would hang around without the pay he is getting? : He could easily pick up a job paying the same if not more in a second.
Basically if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

Also $170k is nothing to Ford, its a tax write off. They would make more money from the profits of ten F-350s.

I have no issue with him having a large salary (9.7Million) but his bonus was almost twice his salary which would mean he did an unimaginaly good job which clearly has not happened for Ford US.

Total revenue for 2006 FELL from $176.9 Billion to $160.1 Billion. Net Profits FELL from a profit of $1.4BIllion to a Net Loss of $12.6Billion. Car Sales volume fell in all markets apart from Europe.

This is obviously not a good enough performance to deserve the bonus he got.

[Ringo]

Renumeration comes with responsibility. That rule applies in business 99% of the time.

He has thousands of workers jobs in his hands and a major worldwide corporation in the deepest do do ever...You want the best - you pay for it.

That said if he fails to deliver he should get sacked and get no bonus.

For that sort of money they own you.....you eat, sleep, breathe your job 24/7 and schedule your family around your work....

[madmelon]

What people need to think about is what was happening BEFORE he was hired. The reason car sales volume has dropped significantly is because of the enourmous money grab that the "big three" US carmakers made. One of the first lessons taught and hammered home in engineering management subjects is that diversity is the key to success. The "Big three" have crammed most of their eggs into one basket- SUV's, 4WD's, trucks, etc. Basically huge gas guzzlers. This has left most of their other products severly compromised- including the Falcon.

SO what happens when the market fluctuates and you rely heavily on one product? You can all answer this question yourselves.

Now...what position would Ford have been had they not poached Allan Mulally from Boeing? Undoubtedly several thousand people would have kept their jobs, but how much longer would Ford have existed? NOT LONG. This is what happens when a company goes for a money grab rather than a sensible, broad product base and is pretty much the norm unless you have some sort of "brand image" that will reel in buyers regardless ofthe product- Ferrari, Lambo, Aston Martin (see especially some of the hideous Zagato special editions of late)

...and before anyone starts singing Lee Iacocca's praises, remember that he was in charge of the Ford Pinto project...

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Piotr

I have no issue with him having a large salary (9.7Million) but his bonus was almost twice his salary which would mean he did an unimaginaly good job which clearly has not happened for Ford US.

Total revenue for 2006 FELL from $176.9 Billion to $160.1 Billion. Net Profits FELL from a profit of $1.4BIllion to a Net Loss of $12.6Billion. Car Sales volume fell in all markets apart from Europe.

This is obviously not a good enough performance to deserve the bonus he got.

Since he's been there losses have gone from 1.6 billion first quarter last year, down to 250 million first quarter loss this year. And thats ahead of the companies projections. Seems like he's done well so far, cause stemming the bleeding in the first step forward.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Elguapo

Go and explain why he is worth so much to the people who were retrenched off the Broadmeadows production line with 40 years service and know no other job whilst the company that sacked them posts record losses.

The only people who left took volantary packages. No one is told to leave, they choose to leave themselves.

[AWD Chaser]

If I recall correctly, Apple Computer CEO's were earning so much that some of them aggreed to take a $1 p/y salery. Look what Steve has done for that company!

Apple Computer chief Steve Jobs once again took home a $1 salary.... Jobs has taken a $1 salary for the past several years

[Elguapo]

Originally Posted by au3 chaser

If I recall correctly, Apple Computer CEO's were earning so much that some of them aggreed to take a $1 p/y salery. Look what Steve has done for that company!

That is very true but he was also granted 7,500,000 stock options back in 2001. Given Apple's share price last Friday was USD$132.30. When Jobs got the Apple shares they were worth around USD$20 each. I'll let you do the maths to work out the numbers. The company has turned around their fortunes and are now worth nearly 7 times as much.That said this is what I would advocate for someone like Mullaly. Make Mullaly work damn hard for his huge returns and don't just pay him a cash salary.

And While Mullaly is hard at it he can start by sacking the engineer who thought it a good idea to put the TS/Ghia Territory clock where it is!! :