Alan Mulally

“Never make a joke or try for humor at someone else's expense. In a high-stakes environment, everyone needs to feel safe.”

“You need to have a can-do attitude. There is always a way.”

“When I arrived in Ford, a decision was made to sell many marquee brands. This was because 85 per cent of the sales were from Ford and Lincoln brands. We were clear that for the company's strong future, we needed to focus on the Ford brands.”

“The One Ford plan drives the business to get PGA, Profitable Growth for All, meaning that every year we increase the profits and cash flow. So how do we do that? We serve all the markets around the world with a complete family of vehicles and use the One Ford Plan.”

“An important part of leadership is being able to hold two things in your mind at once: Dealing with the reality, whatever it may be, and focus on hope for the future. Any leader helping an organization through challenges needs to be able to do both.”

“Whatever we do toward energy independence has to be done in the context of using less resources.”

“Leadership is having a compelling vision, a comprehensive plan, relentless implementation, and talented people working together.”