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Hear Mark Fields describe the day Ford's dysfunctional culture began to crumble

Tracy Samilton

Mark Fields will become Ford's CEO on July 1, replacing Alan Mulally, who was hired in 2006.

The automaker was posting massive losses at the time.

One of Mulally's first moves was to insist that his executives honestly disclose problems at a required weekly meeting, using a red-coded slide for "big problem!"

That ran contrary to decades of cultural dysfunction at Ford, when telling the truth could mean getting fired.

Fields was the first to test if the new boss meant what he was saying.

Tracy Samilton covers energy and transportation, including the auto industry and the business response to climate change for Michigan Public. She began her career at Michigan Public as an intern, where she was promptly “bitten by the radio bug,” and never recovered.