Ford

Ford strategy

Writing a Business Case Analysis

Successful strategy brings success behind it. What is the successful strategy? How we can

gain it? The primary goal of a strategy is to establish a position of competitive advantage for

the firm. It means making money in business requires establishing and sustaining competitive

advantages. And customer requirements and nature of competition determined the key

success factors within a market(1).The reason American car companies failed in sale is

unsuccessful strategy and not to have competitive advantages.80

Synopsis of the Case

One main factor in competitive advantage is responsiveness to change. It has two key

capabilities . The first is the ability to anticipate changes . Nokia's ability to maintain market

leadership in wireless handset owes much to its anticipations of the shift in demand from

advanced to emerging economies. The second is speed. The first requirements for quick

response capability is information. As conventional economic and market forecasting has

become less effective ,so companies rely increasingly on early warning system through direct

relationships with customers, suppliers and even competitors (2).

During 2000-2004 General Motor's return on assets was 14 %. Till recession GM was in the first place for the number of sale. Ford sold a lot of cars till recession too. In and after recession despite the government gave a lot of bailout they could not sell a lot of cars. During 2004-2007 General Motor's return on assets was 5.2%.

"A firm can achieve a higher rate of profit over a rival in one of two ways: either it can

supply an identical product at a lower cost, or it can supply a product or service that is

differentiated in such a way that the customer willing to pay a price premium that exceeds the

additional cost of the differentiation."(3).In a car market Japan and German car companies

used these ways to achieve a higher rate of...