Bill Ford steps down?

You can't help but think of that Clint Eastwood line from "Dirty Harry": "A man's gotta know his limitations." William Clay Ford Jr., whose name had something to do with his rise to chairman and chief executive officer of the Ford Motor Company, may finally have learned his. With the world's number two-and-slipping automaker desperate for turnaround, Bill Ford is openly looking for a buyer for Aston Martin, is more quietly looking for someone to buy Jaguar and Land Rover, would love to find an alliance partner like Renault/Nissan, and not coincidentally has courted Carlos Ghosn for a top job at Ford Motor.

With no sign of Ghosn moving from Paris and Tokyo to Dearborn, now comes word that Ford, 49, is stepping down as chief executive officer of Ford Motor. His replacement is Alan Mulally, who becomes Ford Motor president and CEO, and gets a post on the board of directors. Bill Ford says he's "not going away" and remains executive chairman, a post he's held since 1999. He showed Jacques Nasser the door and took his CEO title in 2001.

Mulally, 61, comes to Ford from Boeing's Commercial Airplanes Division where he was an executive vice president. He passes by Mark Fields, president of the Americas and Anne Stevens, COO of the Americas for Ford.

"Bill Ford said he expected Mulally would assist Mark Fields and the Way Forward team as they accelerate their business plan." Step right up and place your bets on Fields' future.

Another interesting thing: Ford's website says Mulally helped lead the turnaround of Boeing Commercial Airplanes by studying Ford's development of the Taurus, a car that had great success at launch, before Ford quickly let it go to seed. Mulally joined Boeing in 1969 and served in a number of engineering positions, and he led development of the 777 airliner. Let's hope this adds up to a car guy leading Ford, a personality trait that the young Mr. Ford seems to lack.