Business Strategy (Ford)
Competitive Strategy Ford adopted their latest business strategy in 2007. They call it their One Ford Plan. The One Ford plan is an expansion of their four-point business plan for achieving success globally. The four-point business plan first consists of aggressively restructuring to operate profitably at the current demand and changing model mix, and then to accelerate development of new products their customers want and value. The last two points include financing their plan and improving their balance sheet and finally to work together effectively as one team. Being a global company, it is important for Ford to be able to predict the percent of international sales from their total sales. In 2000, 72% of Ford’s total sales came from the U.S. and the other 28% came from Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa. They have predicted in 2020 that only 43 % of their sales will come from the U.S. with 25% from Europe and 32% from the Asia Pacific and Asia. They are not predicting this on the assumption that sales in the U.S. are going to decrease they just believe that the sale in the Asia Pacific and Africa are just going to increase dramatically. Since Ford is a major multinational company, their activities have far reached environmental, social and economic impacts. The first part of their value chain analysis is Product Planning and Design. This is where they decide what products that are going to make, what technology they will develop and implement and finally how and where they are going to make these products. In 2013, Ford spent $6.4 billion dollars on engineering, research and development. This resulted in Ford receiving 718 U.S. utility patents for new technology and processes. The next part of the value chain is Raw Material Extraction. This step is important because it creates value for raw material suppliers and local communities