MGT 521 Week 6 Final Exam

MGT 521 Week 6 Final Exam

MGT/521

Write a paper of no more than 3,500 words reviewing the strategic

initiatives taken by the company relative to organizational and

operational adaptation to changing markets.

Explain the following in your paper:

How recent economic trends are influencing the business

Strategies the company has used or could use for adapting

to changing markets, such as an economic downturn or

recession

Tactics the company has implemented or could implement

to achieve their strategic goals

The role human resource management plays in helping the

company achieve its business goals

If you would be willing to invest in this company as a mutual

fund manager

Write a conclusion for your overall business analysis. Be sure to

support your conclusion with information you have gathered from

parts one and two of your business analysis.

Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

Week 6 Business Analysis Part III

Ford Motor Company was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated in 1903, the great depression and now the recession we are in the company has survived and found ways to become stronger. The company has rebounded in the past few years and right now the company is booming and generating a great profit which is pleasing for the company and its stakeholders. As numbers tell no lies, in 2008 Ford suffered its worst year in history with a $14.6 billion dollar loss (Starner, 2010), and by 2010 reported a $2.7 billion dollar gain. With a turn around like that one must assume Ford has figured out what they need to change to survive. A few ways that the company has turned around the business is by downsizing and changing company values, to introduce a new, “Battery Electric Vehicle(BEV)” ("Media.ford.com", 2011), and also they have incorporated robotics into their Quality Control(Robotic Trends Staff, 2011). Ford has a very strong human resource department and a woman by the name of Felicia Fields (Starner, 2010), has been a major player for the company. Ford is now as a company who is striving and achieving great success that once again has made them a top performer in the auto industry.

In 2008 the company hit rock bottom, with record losses and the companies stock falling to about a dollar, the company has had to regroup and focus. It has done just that and become a rock in the auto industry once again. In 2008 with such a hard financial year the company was forced to sell some of other car companies that they had stake in, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo and Ashton Martin were some of those names. Their CEO Alan Mulally had a vision and his vision was, “ONE Ford: ONE Team, ONE Plan, ONE Goal.” (Starner, 2010) The plan is a lot like it sounds, the company would regroup and become one, become more efficient and operate in a way that it had never done so before. The company then soon downsized and went from a company of 213,000 employees in 2008 and now it operates with around 176,000, which is a sizeable difference. Ford is now the number 2 U.S. auto seller and number 5 in the world, pretty impressive for a company that was near bailout funds in 2008. One thing Ford does pride itself on is that it did not accept bailout funds from the Government where as General Motors and Chrysler can not say the same thing.

The recession has also made the company downsize its vehicles, where the Excursion is no longer being produced and cars like the Fiesta have made a return and are more affordable and better on fuel economy. Also they have plans to start producing a, “Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), as a commercial van and sedan, which will help the Go Green act and provide and alternative to regular gasoline consuming vehicles. With the BEV’s coming out Ford plans to lower cost them and try to make them more affordable and better options, since other electric and hybrid cars has been on the expensive side so far. This is a game changer and could lead to BEV’s and hybrids becoming more mainstream and better for our environment. Another smart thing that has been brought to the company is the use of robotics in Quality Control. The use of robotics would be to get laser inspections to make sure the vehicles being built would have higher quality components and reduce wind noise. These small extras are luxury bonuses but people buying Ford’s have the piece of mind that Ford does it all for them. Ford wants to be the best and with all these new ideas and directions they are showing the world that this is their intentions. If other companies are not thinking the same way they should be worried because Ford wants to do everything the right way.

The company has downsized, and in doing that the money saved had to be enormous and made the losses of a few years ago shrink just by doing so. They also had a trim of salaried employees by 40%, which is tremendous since most salaries are on the high end. The managers were sent to training and re-engineered to develop a better way to let the employees that were being released have a better transition from the company and make sure everything was done with dignity. Things like this separate Ford, in a time where companies were downsizing and I am sure there were companies who treated people with no dignity of respect, Ford made sure they did and this is what demands respect. Ford has also announced they would sell their 5 corporate airplanes, which would save a lot of money in jet fuel, maintenance and some people see the planes as an unneeded necessity. As a company they are not making a moves these days that people question, they are just doing everything the right way and moving the company in the right direction.

When Alan Mulally came to the company in 2006, he came from Boeing where he had major success, he brought over the, “ONE Ford” vision and has made it a reality. He has brought the company back from some of its darkest days, and now has them in the position to have some of its largest earning years. He also knew what it took, and knew he had to start in Human Resources. He knew it would be his HR managers that would help him lead this charge and that is exactly what he has done. Felicia Fields, a third-generation employee has been great and everything a company could ask for. She was put in charge and knew there was some major overhauling to do, she had to issues to fix and she also had to incorporate, “ONE Ford”. She wanted for people who worked at Ford to love to work for Ford, and she felt that was something that had been lost. She instilled, “ONE HR” which restructured the way the company would work with one another. The staff would not be segregated, from entry level to the senior level everyone would be on the same page and have the same rules. New functional meetings and events were set up, the company would develop a new intranet for company information to be passed on before it went to the public (Starner, 2010), and these are just a few things that have changed. These are the managers that companies need to survive and keep their employees happy, Fields had a motto of, “ You can’t take care of clients in the business if you have not taken care of yourself first” (Starner, 2010), and to me that says it all. People forget about things like that when they are caught up in business and forget what they can do to others by neglect. Fields is a model manager and more companies should strive to find workers like her.

All in all, I would definitely invest in Ford, the company is on the upswing and seems to be doing everything the right way. They might have lost focused and the recession showed them that, but they have been lucky enough to remain intact and are now thriving as a company. ONE Ford is a model for success and they have the right people in the company to make it run properly. They know the economy still has not fully recovered but they are not just worried about themselves, they are working towards making there product affordable for people to buy. For a company to be in a $12+ billion dollar deficit and survive they know what it takes to do so, and what it takes to stay away from failure. If it was my decision to give the approval to invest in Ford, I would do so and with out thinking twice. Ford seems to have it right.

Citations

Robotic Trends Staff. (2011). Industry and Manufacturing. Retrieved from http://www.roboticstrends.com/industry_manufacturing/article/ford_incorporates_robotics_into_quality_control_and_plant_er

gonomics

Media.Ford.Com. (2011). Retrieved from http://blog.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=29505

Starner, T. (2010). Ford' Turn. Retrieved from http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=439666514