Analysis of the Ford Company - Case Study Example

Ford Motors Company Introduction: Ford Motors is one of the biggest and most well known automobile companies of the world. It stands fourth on the Fortune 500 list. Ford has been in the market for years now and it has created a good brand name for itself. The company has always concentrated a lot on the society and has contributed when the society has been in times of distress. Ford has been very supportive and this can be proved by the fact that they contributed generously after the September 11th attacks (Willie, 2002). It also participates in providing help to fight breast cancer by contributing generously. Ford also stands fourth on the Global 500 list and 39th on the best companies for minorities list (Davies, et.al, 2008). Ford was founded in 1903 by Henry Ford and has grown to become the world leading automobile company. This report aims at understanding the competition faced by the company and the strategies used by the company to face the competition and out beat the performance of the competitors. Competition: Ford Motors has been in the industry for a long time now and faces a lot of competition both locally as well as globally. It is essential that we understand the importance for a company to have a global presence. With the growing awareness of the global markets, it is very important that companies do not limit their business to one particular market but start to expand worldwide. As in the case of Ford, the company has grown across the world and has created brand awareness all across. It has ensured to cater to all markets in accordance with the needs of the specific market. Ford is an American Based company, with its head office located in Dearborn Michigan. Ford has grown into markets in Europe, Asia Pacific, South America and Africa and Middle East markets. The company faces competition from companies like Aston Martin, Mercedes, General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota, Audi, Daewoo, Honda, Porsche, etc., globally and in the local markets the company faces a lot of competition in almost every country like in Asia Pacific itself the company faces competition from different companies like Fiat, Tata, Hyundai, Maruti Udyog etc. Ford Motors has taken a lot of steps to ensure that the market has a variety of cars from the company. The company manufactures cars which are suited to simple living as well as high caliber cars. It is to be noted that almost all the car companies follow the strategy of manufacturing just one type of car, i.e. either Mini, Economy, Compact, Intermediate, Standard, Full size, Convertible, Sports cars, Minivans, pick – up trucks, Premium cars, or Luxury cars (TravelNow, 2008). The companies generally specialize in any one of the above mentioned car types, like Aston Martin, Audi etc focus on the luxury and premium markets only, similarly in the domestic markets Maruti Udyog focuses on economy cars only. However Ford has ventured into production of a number of different types of vehicles. The company has provided a variety of cars and it is quite evident from the diversity which is very wide like Jaguar, Volvo, Mercury, Lincoln, Mazda, and Land Rover (Davies, 2008). The company has also moved into rental business and owns a Hertz Rent a Car, which allows the company to increase its customer database to a great extent. Even though General motors, which is the world’s leading automobile company and stands 3rd on the Fortune 500 list and on the Global 500 list, has ventured into providing the customers with a wider choice of vehicle types, Ford has also been able to keep up to the same level and provide a number of different types of vehicles. Ford has utilized the weakness of General Motors, which is that they are very diversified thus making the company unable to provide equal attention to all the sectors, and has ensured that all sectors are given equal attention without missing out on the needs of any type of customer. Also looking at the financial reports of Ford, it is very evident that due to its never ending aim of producing better vehicles, Ford has utilized all the technology and designs to the maximum extent to ensure more comfort to their customers. Another very important factor which Ford has kept in mind is the importance given to all the markets equally, not emphasizing on the business only in one single market. Looking at the annual reports it is very evident that the company focuses on almost every market equally and the revenues earned are also almost at the same levels except for America which is the home country for the company (Ford Motors, 2006). Ford has created a competitive edge over the other competitors by correctly focusing on the products and working on the brand image. Also the company has worked on improving itself using the strengths rather than focusing on working too much on the weaknesses. The company is now also working on a cleaner, greener future and has already improved the vehicles by utilizing all the available technology to provide customers with vehicles that are more environmental friendly. Also with the new increased ‘go green’ attitude among the people the company has been able to meet the peoples’ requirements and has been one among the first to create environmental friendly vehicles. Also Ford is the first to introduce the Website strategy, which has helped the company save a lot of money on each car produced, hence reducing the overall expenses. Also the strong strategy of the company where a strong focus is placed on products, cost reductions and right sizing of the business also helps the company gain an edge over the others (Ford, 2008). Also with the company having joined the fifty other companies in endorsing the ten point code of environmental conduct set by the ‘Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economics (CEREs)’, it has created the company to get a competitive advantage over the other companies. Conclusion: In conclusion it is safe to say that the company has worked hard on improving its brand name and image over the competitors. Also with the above mentioned strategy used by the company, it has ensured complete customer satisfaction, and has created a very strong customer database for itself. Ford has also had the competitive edge among the automobile companies as it has always focused on being in sink with times and moving fast along with the technology, without wasting any of the available technology. References Davies, M., Kim, C., King, A., Larson, B., Redmond, S., Schick, A., 2008, ‘Automobile Industry’, Accessed on 30 October 2008, retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/thibault.peant/swot-ford-gm-daimler Ford, 2008, ‘Corporate News’, Accessed on 30 October 2008, Retrieved from http://www.ford.co.uk/ns7/corporate_news/-/-/-/-/-/- Ford Motors, 2006, ‘Annual Report’, Accessed on 30 October 2008, Retrieved from http://www.ford.com/doc/2006_AR.pdf TravelNow, 2008, ‘Car type Definitions’, Accessed on 30 October 2008, Retrieved from http://www.travelnow.com/cars/classes/index.jsp Willie, G., 2002, ‘Ford Motor Co.’, 12 November 2002, Accessed on 30 October 2008, Retrieved from http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/105755.html Read More