Strategic Management and Leadership - Essay Example

The major European countries where General Motors has strong sales network are Britain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Turkey, France, Spain and Ukraine. Chevrolet, Cadillac, GM Daewoo, Buick, “Opel, Vauxhall and Saab (Europe), Saturn, Hummer, Pontiac, Wuling and Holden are among the major brands that Company is offering to its clients. In Europe, GM has been offering Saab in Sweden, whereas it offers Opel and Vauxhall brands in France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and others.

It must be highlighted that GM planned to sell its European Operations because of huge losses it incurred due to uncertain business conditions but then rejected the offers of some buyers or corporations which were interested in purchasing General Motors majority stake. (Company’s report, 2009) I will first discuss this issue in detail in this paper using relevant frameworks such as PEST, Porter’s five forces, Core Competences and Financial Analysis for external and internal analysis respectively.

I will then present SWOT analysis, Product-market expansion grid or Ansoff matrix and finally an analysis of key stakeholders of General Motors. The paper will be supported with relevant references, tables and charts. As I mentioned in the above section that General Motors offers Opel and Vauxhall as the major brands in Europe. Although the GM constantly developed, assembled and marketed new vehicles yet it was unable to earn respectable profits from its European operations due to uncertain economic climate that I will elaborate later.

The end result was that GM announced its bankruptcy because of unbearable costs and also decided to either close or sell off its Opel/Vauxhall units to avoid further losses. It must not be forgotten that Gm Europe remain involved in restructuring in past to control mounting losses. The decision to sell off European Operations was