Ford and Firestone

Case Analysis (D-4)

While looking at the Ford/Firestone case a lot of things jump out at you. As you read many different things go through your head about how you would fix the situation and make it better. By doing this we also need to throw many other things into consideration. We always might think our ideas are the best, but we have to be careful in our generalizations about how to fix things.

The nature of the automobile industry is that of great size and strength. Ford is one of four or five big shares of the market in automobiles. With the new trend going towards foreign cars Ford has seen progress slip, but still considers itself among one of the top dogs in the business. The marketing goal of Ford is simple, market to everyone! Although this is true Ford tends to make certain cars available for marketing to different segments. Whether it is the Explorer as discussed in this case, or the escort for a starting driver on a tight budget. This organization is a very successful one dating back to the early 1900s when started by Henry Ford. As stated in the case this is when Ford and Firestone first became partners. As we can see in the case this relationship of almost 100 years has went sour and needs to be fixed. If the relationship is totally lost I feel I have a specific plan of action to help get them on their way to success again.

Although I felt that Ford took the biggest action in actually recalling all of the Firestone tires I feel the blame is on them. Many things jump out to me while I am reading the case about these two businesses. When designing the Ford Explorer the main focus was to make it safer than the Bronco II and the Ranger. By tweaking some of the properties in the Explorer there was no evidence that there was any risk in them until later down the road. The big fault that has a lot to do with ethics and societal responsibility is the type of tires they chose to put on the Explorer. The original plan to put the...