Alan Mulally

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. ”

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. ”

Nothing will ever have the impact that 9/11 had on Boeing and on the world. It just changed things overnight. ”

If you have to improve your fuel efficiency every year, it leads to innovation. ”

I grew up with Microsoft. I know the leadership of Microsoft. ”

My career has been spent developing airplanes. ”

Don't manage your career. Follow your dream and contribute. ”

It's all about competitiveness: are you making the products that people really do want and value, and are you making it more efficiently and using less resources and less time than the competition? ”

I'm more convinced than when I accepted this job that we can create a viable Ford Motor Co. that makes cars and trucks that people really do prefer. And we can make them using minimum resources and minimum time and be competitive with our competition. ”

I taught my executive team how to argue. ”