Change and Continuity in Contemporary Business - Essay Example

A smart enterprise would keep a close eye on the changes in competitive advantages of the organization and realign their strategies & policies such that the business revenues and market share can be sustained. Such enterprises grow globally by carefully choosing their countries/regions of expansion after analysis of the external & internal factors that can drive the competitive advantages of the company in those geographies. Ford Motors is one such smart enterprise that has been changing their strategies & policies to sustain the challenges posed by the local factors in a country by not only globalizing rapidly but also changing their strategies pertaining to their regions of operations.

This report presents the internal and external factors and the corresponding responses by Ford Motors to sustain as well as grow their business globally. Balanced Score Card System developed by Kaplan and Norton via their book "Balanced Score-Card - Translating Strategy into Action" published in 1996 (Source: http://www.balancedscorecard.org/BSCResources/AbouttheBalancedScorecard/tabid/55/Default.aspx) Ford Motors was incorporated by Henry Ford in 1903 in Dearborn, Michigan, USA. Henry Ford is known to have adapted practices that were not popular in those days - like, doubling per day wages and reducing the shifts from 9 hours to 8 hours.

It was the worker friendly policies that boosted productivity of Ford much ahead of their competition. Ford is known for their methods of large scale car manufacturing and management of huge workforces globally. In 1911, Henry Ford established the first production unit outside USA in the UK by converting a tram works at Trafford Park that is in south of Manchester. In 1920, after the Second World War, the famous Dagenham facility was established that formed the base for launch of Ford Motor Company Limited (UK) in 1929 that was the hub of the European Ford organization (till the time Ford Motor Company Europe was established much later in 1967).

In 1971 Ford combined the US, Canadian and Mexican operations together and established the North American Automotive Operations. The Dagenham facility was one of the most productive in assembly plant in entire Europe which, however, was closed in 2001 amidst some local factors that reduced the economy advantages of Ford manufacturing in Britain while the manufacturing in Germany and other parts of Europe was much more economical. The primary reasons for Ford manufacturing closure in Dagenham was the insurgence of shop-floor militants that developed a powerbase disrupting production by launching almost continuous Guerrilla warfare while Germany offered much more peaceful and strike free industrialization proposition.

Moreover, Ford Motor Company