Alan Mulally Presentation At CES 2010

Alan Mulally, the President and CEO of the Ford Motor Company is already something of a legend in the automotive business. A veteran of the Boeing aeronautical business he has managed to reinvent Ford at a time when his rivals’ principal concerns were with staving off bankruptcies. And this Alan Mulally presentation indicates he’s no slouch at presenting. Yes, he’s not an animated speaker as this Steve Ballmer speech suggests a different league. But, his audiences admire him and warm to his style.

Speaking at the annual CES show, the world’s largest technology show, Mulally detailed Ford’s achievements in “in-car connectivity.” And, what’s more, a variety of industry awards now recognise these achievements.

His presentation has a slow pace. The delivery is measured and at times we’d like more emotion in the delivery.

Autocue Stumbles In This Alan Mulally Presentation

There are some stumbles as he reads the autocue, (because, we all need autocue practice). His stumbles, of course, remind us that this is not the only thing he does. But he keeps going.

He’s At home with statistics, numbers and market research findings. And he’s also not tempted to revert to bullet lists to reinforce his figures. A good practice. In fact his use of words and images on the massive screen behind him was ideal.

They were in tune with his presentation. The words were readable and the images worked. They certainly didn’t distract attention from him. So he, in turn, wasn’t tempted to look at the screen.

There’s a fair amount of corporate jargon in here. But not as much as we might expect. Some examples include:

“compelling vision”
“raise the bar”
“the cars of tomorrow…today.”

In all, a well-received Alan Mulally presentation at CES 2010.