TOM WALSH: Now we'll see how good Mulally is

Now we'll see how good Mulally is BY TOM WALSH • FREE PRESS COLUMNIST • July 25, 2008 Alan Mulally, nearly two years after leaving Boeing Co. to quarterback Ford Motor Co.'s comeback effort, just got knocked on the seat of his pants. Now we get to see what he's made of. Can he handle adversity? Some booing? And the kind of second-guessing that goes with calling the signals as a chief executive in Detroit these days? Can he dust himself off, continue to exude confidence and instill it in his team? He had better, or his ball club is in a world of hurt. Let's call Ford's second-quarter financial report Thursday what it was: an ugly loss of $8.7 billion, the worst in Ford's history. A loss that's particularly disappointing because it followed an unbroken string of better-than-expected results since Mulally was named Ford's... [read full story]