2 Discussion Board Replies

Discussion Board Forum 6

Institution

Amanda Williams

As part of its bankruptcy restructuring, General Motors (GM) launched an ad campaign that revealed glimmers of a streamlined GM: fewer brands (Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, GMC) and fewer models within each brand.

What research would you have done to determine which vehicle models GM should retain and which should it drop?

In 2007, during the Great Recession, General Motors lost 71 billion dollars between 2007 and 2008, which goes down in the books for one of the worst Corporate America loses (Goolsbee & Krueger, 2015). In the fall of 2008, the CEOs of the “Big Three” (Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors) stood before the US House and Senate to request $25 billion working capital “bridge loan” in order to make wage and supplier payments and to avoid bankruptcy and possible liquidation (Goolsbee & Krueger, 2015). In 2009, President Obama decided to rescue both Chrysler and General Motors.

With that being said, there were several demands made for the restructuring process which included: “reducing legacy costs (payments to bondholders and retirees), reducing their number of dealers, cutting capacity and weaker brands, and expanding a two-tiered structure where new hires were paid less than incumbents” (Goolsbee & Krueger, 2015). A big part of the restructuring process was to get rid of some of the brands and the amount of models in each brand. This will require research in order to make the decisions about which brands and models make the cut.

Variables would need to be identified and evaluated in order to decide which brands and models to cut and to keep. The population should be surveyed about which brands they are loyal to. Once the brands have been discovered, more research could be done to unveil which models the population prefers. Profits of each brand should also be considered. You could also say that quantitative data collection would look at sales of each model and brand over the last two years in order to help narrow down the results. Longitudinal study methods should have been stored in the General Motors database and can help with data collection as well (Cooper & Schindler, 2014). Qualitative data could examine safety, luxury, etc.

The GMC Envoy was a model that General Motors chose to stop making in 2009. According to survey’s completed by General Motors, the GMC Envoy ranked lower compared with other vehicles of the same type.

What would you have measured and with what type of measurement scale?

In order to gain data collection for General Motors I would recommend using a ordinal measurement scale or possibly a nominal scale. With an ordinal scale you would use key terms such as less than or greater than (Cooper & Schindler, 2014). When comparing different brands of General Motor vehicles one could say that more Trail Blazers were sold then Envoys but less than the Tahoe.

A nominal scale would allow numbers to be gathered and stacked against other numbers. For instance, if looking at sales, you could compare profits gained from the GMC compared to the Chevrolet. Each brand could be compared this way with actual numbers.

General Motors has had its fair share of rough times and has managed to make its way through the fire and come out on top. Phillippians 4:13 says “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (English Standard Version). I’m sure the folks at General Motors had to live by this passage everyday.

Refrences

Cooper, D.R. & Schindler, P.S. (2014). Business Research Methods (12th ed.) New York,

NY:McGraw-Hill.

Goolsbee, A., & Krueger, A. (2015). A Retrospective Look at Rescuing and Restructuring General