Aligning Operational Needs with Business Strategies

Running Head: DISCUSSION 1

Discussion

Damascus Johnson

 Name of company

Good year Tire and Rubber Company

 Industry

Consumer Discretionary Products/Tire Manufacturing Company

 A brief history of the company

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company were founded by Frank Seiberling in 1898 in Ohio.

The company is mainly a manufacturing firm producing tires for a wide variety of automobiles

including race cars, SUVs, motorcycles, light trucks, commercial trucks, and automobiles.

Furthermore, the firm also produces tries for heavy machineries like earthmoving machines and

farm equipment. In the early years, the firm also produced tires for small vehicles like bicycles but

it halted the operation in 1976. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company started in the United States

DISCUSSION 2

but today it is a multinational firm that operates in a number of international countries including

Japan, Germany, and France. The expansion process was gradual and steady. The company got its

name from the inventor of the rubber: Chares Goodyear. When the firm introduced its product,

they quickly gained public attraction because they are a low maintenance product not needing

much maintenance and they can also be easily detachable. Goodyear is one of the most successful

brands in American history which after one century and two decades later is still considered among

the market leaders and over the years have expanded its product line while staying put with its

original product (GoodYear, 2021).

 At least 3 milestones from the company’s history

1. In 1963, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company became the first company to produce one billion

tires. The company achieved this milestone in six decades. All these tires were not sold to

American consumers despite the American origin of the company. In these six decades, the

company moved abroad and developed a number of partnerships with international players

like Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, a German firm. The partnership continued even during the Nazi

regime and World War II.

2. In 1975, sales of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company reached $5 billion. The company went

from a multinational firm to a multibillionaire firm pretty quickly. Although it took the

company some good 7 years to reach the goal of $3 billion the difference between $3 billion to

$5 billion was achieved in less than 5 years.

3. In 2018, the company was ranked on the Fortune 500 list as it was ranked at the 187 th position.

It continues to be part of the Fortune 500 list in terms of its revenue for 24 years consecutively.

 resources for research

DISCUSSION 3

The company information can be accessed primarily through the company website, the website

of Bloomberg, and the security and exchange commission of the United States. Furthermore, a

number of journal articles have been researched and gathered for purpose of research.

 unique business opportunity

The tire manufacturing industry has become very saturated over the years and despite the

century-old experience of quality products, Goodyear Tire has to face a lot of competition. In

such a condition, the company needs to utilize the new advertising tools and platforms like

social media advertising and digital platforms to propagate the products and their high quality

along with decade long creditability of the brand. Customizing the advertising to reach out to

customers can be converted into a competitive advantage for the firm (Bloomberg, 2021).

 the function of management for creating competitive advantage

To employ effective advertising for creating a competitive advantage, the main responsibility will

lie on the marketing department. Their main goal will be to find out the gaps in the advertising

strategies of the competitors and create an attention-grabbing strategy to reach out to customers.

The marketing department will have to work closely with the rest of the departments especially the

finance department and production department but mainly the responsibility will lie on the

marketing department to create a cutting edge campaign which reaches out to all the potential

customers and bring them on board for the products of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.

DISCUSSION 4

References

Bloomberg. (2021, January 31). Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Retrieved from Bloomberg:

https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/GT:US

GoodYear. (2021, February ). History of Goodyear Tire & Rubber company. Retrieved from Good

year: https://www.goodyear.com/en-US/company