CEO of the Ford Motor Company -Alex Trotman

1. CEO of the Ford Motor Company -Alex Trotman “ I am a businessman, and that’s what I brought to the job. ”

2. About Alex Trotman • Alex Trotman was chairman and CEO of the Ford Motor Company from November 1993 to ecember 1998. Although born in England, Trotman moved with his parents to Edinburgh to escape the Blitz and was educated at Boroughmuir Academy. Alex joined Ford in 1955 as a management trainee after serving with the Royal Air Force in Britain. He rose through Ford's management ranks, filling senior roles in Europe, Asia and the US, before he was named president of the Ford Automotive Group and elected to the Board of Directors in January 1993. Later that year he became Chairman and CEO. He retired from Ford in January 1999.

3. About Alex Trotman • He was knighted in 1996, and in 1999 he was created a life peer in recognition of his contributions to industry. Alex Trotman became Chairman of ICI in January 2002, having previously served on the ICI Board since 1997. In addition to his responsibilities with ICI, he is a member of the board of directors for IBM, and recently retired from the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange. He is chairman of CMI (The Cambridge, MIT Institute), a trustee of Shakespeare's Globe and President of the Hakluyt Foundation.He also chairs the University of Edinburgh Fundraising Campaign Board.Alex Trotman was born in July 1933 in Middlesex, England. He was educated at Boroughmuir School in Edinburgh, Scotland, and holds a Master's degree in business administration from Michigan State University.

4. Lessons form Alex Trotman Trotman focuses on the future Trotman focused on increasing competition from a global market where traditional trade barriers are being destroyed. New business opportunities will arise from this "borderless world" as well as a "dogfight" between companies aspiring to survive and thrive. Currently 20 percent of the world's population accounts for 92 percent of new car purchases, Trotman said. "As the Asian and South American economies open and grow, Ford believes that its potential market will expand dramatically."

5. Lessons from Alex Trotman Nationality doesn’t matter There was a period, certainly up through the 1970s, when management decided that you couldn’t trust the natives, and you had to send a good American to every trouble spot around the world. However, Trotman believed the adjective doesn’t belong with the noun. There is no such thing as an American business leader or a Japanese business leader. There are good ones and mediocre and absolutely awful ones. We know some very good executives of all shades and colors and backgrounds.

6. Lessons from Alex Trotman International experience is one key aspect of leadership Experience as much as skill is required to be able to inspire diverse people to work together as a effective team and deliver global results in a highly complex organization. It is an extremely difficult task. But the likelihood of scoring a 10 on a 10 scale is much enhanced if a talented person- and talent has to be a given- has had the experience of multi-cultures and functions has worked in marketing, sales, perhaps in manufacturing or product development, and has been around in two or three different countries and is comfortable in the Spanish culture as well as ordering a meal in an English pub. That kind of person is much more likely to be an inspiring leader for a multi-cultural group of people.

7. How do you get a diverse team of people to want to do great things? And then, how do you inspire them to keep on doing them despite all of the difficulties and the hard work that will face? That’s leadership and that’s hard. Look what happened to Brazil in the 1998 world cup final. They had the most talented players in the world, but they couldn’t get them to work together. And the French did not have the highest level of talent, but they had total cohesion and passion. They said to themselves. We are going to win this thing, and we don’t care that the other guys are a 10 on the skills scale and we are not on that level. We are going to beat them and they did. Results stem from a combination of passion and skill.

8. - How do you develop that passion? It begins with knowing the people. Establishing trust in the key movers and shakers in a company. Getting rid of the people that you don’t trust. You can’t sit around for years saying I’m going to have to wait until Jack retires. You have got to move people out of the way if they have not totally dedicated to making whatever it is we want to make work. If there’s not total dedication to that, then they’ve got to go. So, first, you’ve got to get a team. You start with a group of people who have all agreed to join hands and are committed to putting their maximum effort into working together and trusting one another. That’s first. And until you’ve got that done. Don’t waste your time, making beautiful strategies and talking about beautiful symphonies, because you won’t play them unless all the instruments are totally dedicated to playing together. Do that first. And be totally sure you’ve got it right.