Case Brief General Motors 2012

Case Brief on General Motors as of September 1, 2012

General motors (GM) used to be one of the most successful automakers in the United States with a majority market share of 48.3% back in the 1960’s (R.L. Polk & Co). Unfortunately for them, as time passed, International car manufacturers such as Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, and Volkswagen have been able penetrate the U.S. market with the introduction of cars with superior design and technological advances to those offered by GM. This makes it seem as if GM has always been a step behind, be it design, quality, MPG, or practicality. This brought me to question how a once very successful company could continue to lose market share over time. This issue is GM’s largest concern, because if they cannot put a stop to their declining market share, eventually they will reach a point where their resources will no longer be able to support their attempt to recover (Woodhill, 2012). In the long-run, it looks as if other international car makers are going to swallow GM whole.

Top reasons for decline in domestic market share:

* Poor management and high turnover of top executives’ positions. Chief of Marketing position is currently unfilled (Rosevear, 2012).

* New Models still behind those of International automakers. Ex: After the redesign of the Chevy Malibu, it still consumes more fuel per gallon than redesigned models by other car makers in this D-Segment of mid-size vehicles (Woodhill, 2012).

* Still not placing enough emphasis on tops selling car markets: such as the D-Segment of Midsize cars, more specifically Hybrids with high MPG such as Toyota Prius (motorintelligence.com, 2012). They are producing too many different models within each of their brands.

Alternative Action:

* Find top executives to fill positions that are vital to the success of increasing their sales and in turn, market share. A good place to look would be Ford as they are currently the “shining example” of how to “turn around...