A Bloomberg Businessweek article titled “The Happiest Man in Detroit,” by Keith Naughton, highlights former Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally and his weekly 2½-hour Business Plan Reviews with the 15 top Ford executives. In this meeting, Mulally’s direct reports were required to “post more than 300 charts, each of them color-coded red, yellow, or green to indicate problems, caution, or progress.” There was no hiding from data with Mulally at the helm. As he said: “You can’t manage a secret. When you do this every week, you can’t hide.” Clearly, the charts were telling the truth, and through this
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