Leading the High Energy Culture: What the Best CEOs Do to Create an Atmosphere Where Employees Flourish

CHAPTER 9

Create the Rally Cry

It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

—ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY,FRENCH WRITER, POET, ANDPIONEERING AVIATOR

At an interview with a reporter during his first year as the new CEO of Ford, Alan Mulally was asked, “So how do you intend to fix Ford?” It would’ve been possible for an economics student to write a dissertation on this topic. What a complicated challenge, turning around the Ford Motor Company! You could write whole chapters on financing, marketing, manufacturing, and communications. The most mind-numbing PowerPoint slide in the history of visuals would not be able to capture the countless strategic and tactical steps that would ...