“How Bill Ford Turned an Automaker Into a Tech Company” was the gist of several headlines in recent days. But a subhead to that should read: “With the help of CEO Alan Mulally.” Or better yet, we might suggest replacing Mulally’s name with Ford’s in the original.

The official company line is that both men saw the need to steer the Blue Oval brand away from the cliff that the entire domestic auto industry was hurtling toward during the middle of the last decade. As Bill Ford Jr. said during an event this week to celebrate the induction of Ford’s Sync system into the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. -- and to coincide with the opening of the automaker’s Silicon Valley lab in nearby Palo Alto -- the vision to turn the company around was a mutual one.

Henry Ford’s great-grandson also noted that the turning point came while he sat with Mulally in his living room and both men decided that fuel economy and technology would be the two main pillars on which the future of Ford would be built. While no one man can take credit for such a drastic reversal of fortunes, Mulally’s seizing the reins at the Blue Oval -- along with his outsider's perspective and matter-of-fact style leadership style -- shouldn’t be overshadowed by the Ford scion’s pedigree.

Many doubted whether Mulally, who had performed a similar turnaround at Boeing, would make headway in the insular world of Detroit’s auto industry. But we submit that it’s exactly Mulally’s interloper perspective and easygoing personality that made him so effective. Both Ford executives and rank-and-file have told stories of the CEO’s blunt accountability and results-oriented approach to the automaker's survival strategy, but also of his amiable and details-oriented demeanor. (Contrast that with larger-then-life, ego-driven automotive executives of the Bob Lutz variety.)

We’ve also been privy to conversations among the team that helped launch the Sync system, and have heard stories of how hands-on Mulally was during the development of the game-changing infotainment technology. While a whole group of talented Ford folks were behind Sync’s success -- and the co-mingling of an old Detroit company with a newer tech industry entity in the form of Microsoft* played a significant role -- many credit Mulally as a cheerleading taskmaster who helped get the system pushed through and into cars quickly. Mulally has said several times, and backed it up with action, that he wants Ford to act more like a technology company than an automaker.

Nothing against Bill Ford Jr., but let’s give credit where it’s due – that being from outside of Detroit in this case – and hand Alan Mulally the lion’s share of the recognition for turning Ford into a technology innovator. And the extra thanks for making Ford the only American automaker to not take taxpayer dollars in order to stay afloat.

*Note: Exhaust Notes is part of Microsoft Corp.