...MGNT 4110 Leadership in Organization Leader Analysis Paper: Henry Ford As stated many times, leadership is a process towards achieving a goal. That process requires people who are interacting in the effects of influence. Leadership also requires one primary factor, which is the leader who is doing most of the influencing. The people that a leader influences are considered followers. Many question the view of leadership and how people can interpret if a leader is effective or the proper candidate for the environment or organization he/she is leading. Not all leadership is positive. This paper focuses on Henry Ford and his approach as a leader. Henry Ford can be considered the brilliant and innovative individual who founded the Ford Motors Company that we know today. Ford Motors Company is an automobile manufacturing company founded June 16, 1903. Henry Ford’s idea was to create a reliable source of transportation that fit the needs of the consumer but could also be built in the most effective and efficiently manner. Ford conceptualized a way to mass produce automobiles through his creation of the assembly line. Henry Ford grew up in the Dearborn, Michigan area on a prosperous family farm in the early nineteenth century. He became an apprentice machinist at sixteen. Henry did not completely turn his back on the family farm and provided periodical assistance while he worked with steam engines and on farm machine repair. His talent for engineering and machinery lead him to...
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...Business Analysis Ford Motor Company Business Analysis Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company is on a strong financial footing. This is determined by reviewing Ford’s financial statements and when those statements are compared against other industry leaders. Ford has shown revenue and profit increases over the last three years and increased its available cash flow during that time as well. Those are three markers that show how Ford has solidified its financial standing from its week position of three years ago. Ford’s revenue in 2011 was 136,264 billion dollars with 20,213 billion as profit. (Corporate.ford.com/doc/2011 pg 86) General Motor’s revenue was higher for 2011 with 150,276 billion but only reported 9,190 billion in profits. (gm.com/content/dam/gmcom/COMPANY pg 75) Chrysler Group’s revenue for 2011 was 55 billion and profits of 183,000 million. (chryslergroupllc.com/Investor, pg2) Ford was not the top revenue producer in 2011 but had far stronger profits when compared to the other members of the big three US automakers. Ford also had the strongest cash flow of the three with billion. Ford’s cash flow was up 2.35 billion from 2010. ( Corporate.ford.com/doc/2011pg 88) Reviewing Ford’s financial numbers it can be determined that Ford is trending up in all the vital categories determining financial health. The balance sheet is showing that sales are up and operating costs are being controlled well since the net profit is continuing to rise as well. GM had...
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...achievement from a company, a country or at the very least a non – financial institute to achieve strategic success. Ford Motor Company has in recent times lost its market share to emerging Asian companies such as Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and Nissan. As a new landscape of economic might surfaces, new car stereotypes are emerging. Finding a place in these segments is proving difficult for Ford Motors and hence need to change its strategies. Hyper-competition combined with tough economic times has pushed Ford to the edge of insolvency. This paper examines the issues that plague the company while using published models to make analysis on how and why the problems occur to better understand their potential impact on the company’s sustainable competitive advantage. Recommendations will seek to give strategic solutions to address the issues identified earlier. This research isn’t structured upon models to identify, analyze and solve issues but rather looks at the core of the problems within Ford Motors and provides models to analyze and solve the issues. TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents INTRODUCTION 1 SECTION 1: STRATEGIC ISSUES AT FORD 2 Underlying Issues at Ford Motor 2 1. Financial 3 2. Competition 4 SECTION 2: STRATEGIC MODELS AND FRAMEWORK SUITABLE FOR ISSUES IDENTIFIED 6 2.1. Competitor Analysis 6 2.1.1 Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis 7 2.1.2 SWOT ANALYSIS 11 2.2 Financial...
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...exciting assignment but I wanted to show some of my more formal writing.) When Ford began development of the Pinto in 1968, the company hoped that the car’s smaller size and price tag would help it compete with Japanese and German competition, who were mounting their takeover of the subcompact auto market. Ford president Lee Iacocca wanted the Pinto to be less than 2,000 pounds and less than $2,000 so it could stand out when released into a division of automobiles Ford did not have much experience in. In order to get the Pinto released as soon as possible, the design and manufacturing process was cut from three and a half years down to two. While testing the Pinto, it became apparent that due to the gas tank in the car was at great risk for fire hazard when struck from the rear, even at low speeds. The necessary improvements to make the Pinto safer were not complex or costly; they simply needed a barrier between the gas tank and the bumper of the car, which meant an added $5 to $8 to produce each car. To prevent the gas tank leaking during rollovers, another $11 would have to be spent on production. Ford was presented with a dilemma: to release the Pinto as scheduled and risk the safety of those who purchased it or spend more time designing the car, thereby seceding more of the subcompact auto market to the competition. After a cost-benefit analysis of the safety improvements and the potential death toll, Ford decided to release the model without the safety improvements. Their estimation...
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...Ford Motor Company Analysis Introduction Ford Motor Company was originally founded by Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan on June 16, 1903. Ford Motor Company has a very glamorous history. Since it was found in the early 1900’s, Ford positioned them as the reformer of the car manufacturing industry. Their mission was clearly stated in words, “began a manufacturing revolution with its mass production assembly lines”. And they rendered the corporate strategies matching with their goal in later years. “They introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. Henry Ford's methods came to be known around the world as Fordism by 1914”. (“The Ford Story”) http://www.thefordstory.com/ the combination of attractive product design with the efficiency in manufacturing brought them not just profits, but popularity and reputation. Some of their famous classic designs like Model T, 500hp GT, Mustangs, Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), Taurus and the best-selling F-series truck are still sold well. But Ford has been on the downhill since the beginning of the 21st century. Because of the crush of the bad economy and flawed management strategies, Ford suffered a lot and the previous ranking is now after Toyota and General Motor. It’s quite a burden to the CEO, Alan Mulally, who was elected as the new CEO in 2006 after Bill Ford stepped down...
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...SWOT Analysis Ford John Smith MGT/521 January 9, 2012 Daniela Schultz, MBA SWOT Analysis Ford Located in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, Ford Motor Company is an American automaker and the world's fifth largest based on worldwide vehicle sales. The company was incorporated on June 16, 1903 and founded by 40 years old Henry Ford. Among the few companies to survive the Great Depression, the company would also become one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world. Additionally, the company is the largest family-controlled company in the world, for over 100 years the Ford Motor Company has been in continuous family control. In 1899, Henry Ford founded the Detroit Automobile Company. The company failed, and in 1901 was reorganized as the Henry Ford Company. In 1902 Ford had a falling out with his financial backers, and left the company with the rights to his name and 900 dollars. Henry M. Leland was brought in to manage the operation and their name changed from The Henry Ford Company to Cadillac, and went on to be a successful manufacturer of automobiles. Henry Ford is known to have adapted practices that were not popular in those days. Their famous “Model T” and the unique innovation of interchangeable parts in moving assembly lines that make it possible to assemble cars at low cost and high reliability are what the Car Maker is known for. The company established an impressive financial track record almost throughout the 20th Century except for...
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...Ford Motor Company not only survived the financial crisis of 2008/2009, which had pushed General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy, but also emerged as a robustly competitive member of the world’s leading auto producers. However, Ford’s ability to sustain its strong financial performance depends critically on the state of the world’s automobile industry (Grant). Synopsis of the Case: The automobile industry soared in early 1920’s and became primary industry which drove US economy during that time and Ford had built the largest factory in the world which corroborates the growth and state of auto industry and since then it is having huge impact on US economy. Relevant Factual Information about the Problem The downfall of auto industry in 2008/2009 suffered losses to such an extent that General Motors and Chrysler, two of the Big Three players, filed for bankruptcies. Financial crisis was not the only reason, high supply and less demand was one of the prominent reason for the financial crisis. This decline in industry revenues and profits in 2008 promised a major industry restructuring. (Grant) Explanation of Relevant Concepts. A SWOT analysis on the Ford gives more insight and effective solution to sustain the financial performance and have an edge over competition. Strengths: Ford has strong position in US market and it is the second largest auto-maker in US. It was described as the “most important industrial company in the history of the United States” by Forbes...
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...Case Study: Ford Motor Company’s VEP Question 1 Go ahead with the Value Enhancement Plan The feature of having both cash and new share options makes the VEP have its strengths and makes an excellence choice for Ford Motor Company. The cash option solves the problem of Ford having massive amounts of extra cash. Since Ford has no profitable activities for the extensive amounts of cash, returning the excess cash to shareholders allows them to make profitable investments. Different from a cash dividend, the returned cash will be taxed as capital gain and therefore achieves tax efficiency for the shareholders. When looking at the company’s point of view, they are able to lower the dividend payment because there will be an increase in number of shares. This would result in the dividend amount per share to most likely decrease and the total amount allocated to a dividend payment to stay constant. This will make dividends for the new Ford shares to go down because share price falls. Those who elect the $20 cash payout will maintain ownership of the same amount of shares they previously owned, therefore, the total dividend payment then becomes reduced. As a result of the cash payout, the number of new shares outstanding will reduce, this increases the earnings per share and, because of the increased rarity of shares, the overall demand for Ford's shares will increase. With higher demand in shares, comes a higher share price in the future. The stock option satisfies the shareholders...
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...Questionable cost-benefit analysis by Ford In 1968, Lee Iacocca, president of Ford Motor Co., faced fear of losing market share in subcompact auto market by German Auto, Volkswagen. Although the automobile preproduction process usually takes three and a half years, Ford made it within two years from designing phase to releasing to the market. Market seemed to be impressed by Ford, but it did not go last that long. Pinto had a critical problem that its fuel tank cannot withstand any rear-impact over 20mph speed. The fuel tank would rupture and cause fire. Moreover, Ford’s directors and their engineers already realized this issue and the potential number of people would die from fires due to Pinto’s defective design. There were remedies for Ford that they can either give up some trunk space or increase cost by putting rubber bladder for protection. However, Ford chose neither of options, rather they analyzed the cost of settlements potentially be incurred by car accidents and decided to stick with the original design as a result of profit maximization in that way. Within seven years since Pinto had been released, over 500 deaths and indeterminate numbers of injuries were caused by Pinto crashes and majority of those killed had no other injuries, meaning they burned to death. How much worth one’s life be valued in terms of dollar amount? How much is enough to pay for victim’s pain and suffering? How can you predict the number of people will die or get injured through newly introduced...
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...ford Memorandum To: From: Date: [ 4/17/2013 ] Re: Mission statement analysis FORD Professor Power, As per your request and authorization or group has analyzed and critiqued the mission statement of the Ford Motor Company as constrained by the following criteria: Is the content appropriate, easy to understand, clearly written, memorable, able to be shared with stakeholders, acceptable to strategic decision makers, and provide a positive outlook for the future. The common theme conveyed by Fords mission statement is simply “One Ford.” This mission statement is composed of three tiers which consist of one team, one plan, and one goal. After analysis of Ford’s mission statement our group has come to the consensus that the current mission statement is simply too broad and vaguely defined for a company of Ford’s size and scope. We have identified several areas of concern with regard to the mission statements ability to meet the criteria previously laid. Our group feels the content is not appropriate and needs to more specific in terms of the product/market niche. The current statement can be described as a “cookie cutter” statement meaning that in can be applied to almost any company in any industry. The statement is clearly written however there are some terms included which we believe are too advanced for an average reader. For example Ford states that a component of the One Plan is to improve the balance sheet. This may be too financially focused and should not be...
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...[pic] Ford Motor Company By Mario Torres Dr. Lawrence Shao Finance 534 September 9, 2010 Table of Contents Executive Summary Company Overview A. Conduct research on the company’s operations and locations and summarize the company’s financial status for the past 3 years. 1. Operations, locations, markets, and lines of business. 1. Comparison of Ford’s financial statements for the past 3 years. Ratio Analysis A. Perform three year trend and ratio analysis for 2007, 2008, and 2009. Stock Price Analysis A. Research the company’s common stock price. 1. Research the S&P for the past five years. 2. Chart the price movement in the company’s common stock against the S&P movement. Conclusion Executive Summary Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler known as the “Big Three Automakers” faced some hard times and had to find a way to survive or possibly be forced into bankruptcy. General Motors and Chrysler accepted a loan package from the federal government while the Ford Motor Company decided to try and make it on its own. The loan package given to GM and Chrysler came with strict conditions that it cut its labor costs and reorganize its debt obligations. Skip to next paragraphFord, however, decided to try and improve its competitive position without the assistance that federal loans provided GM and Chrysler. In order to accomplish this, Ford had to reduce its own costs to stay on a level playing...
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...Case Analysis Report In August 2000, Ford Motor Company and Firestone Tire Company recalled 6.5 Million ATX and AT tires that had been installed on Ford’s Explorer model SUV. At the time, it appeared as though Ford and Firestone were doing the right thing. They had found out that the tread separated on Ford Explorers in states with intense heat, such as Florida and Texas. However, it later came to light that both Ford and Firestone had known about these problems earlier than 2000 and that Ford had even had a similar recall in 9 countries the previous year. Firestone however had disagreed with the recalls prior to 2000. Many of these countries were in the Middle East where temperatures are frequently in excess of 100° Fahrenheit. The Stakeholders There are numerous stakeholders in this case some, such as Ford and Firestone by not being forthright with the consumer had a lot to gain and others such as the consumers had a lot to lose. Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company is one of the largest stakeholders in this case. They had the most to gain from selling the Explorers and not publicizing the potential problems with Firestone tires. By issuing a recall, they would lose both money and customers if the public thought their SUVs were unsafe. My problem with Ford is that they knew that there was a problem with the Ford Explorer before it went into production. Ford engineers recognized that by using the larger P235 tire, there was a potential for more rollovers...
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...Ford Pinto: An Ethical Inferno Michael W. Daniels Excelsior College Introduction and Analysis “Pinto crashes caused the death and mutilation of 900 occupants after their cars burst into flames after rear-end collisions,” Robert Sherefkin explains in his article Lee Iacocca's Pinto: A fiery failure. The engineered design of the Ford Pintos resulted in the gas tank rupturing in low speed rear end collisions. The design flaw was recognized early in the Ford Pinto’s production. According to Dowie’s article Pinto Madness. Mother Jones, “Internal company documents in our possession show that Ford has crash-tested the Pinto at a top secret site more than 40 times and that every test made at over 25 mph without special structural alteration of the car has resulted in a ruptured fuel tank.” Dowie then explains how more than a quarter of those tests were performed prior to the initial release of the vehicle. It was estimated that just 11$ upgrade per vehicle would have remedied the problem (Dowie, 1977). On June 10, 1978, almost a decade after the first Pinto was built, Ford eventually agreed to recall the Pinto (Boyce, D, 2012). The decision was made after countless lawsuits over a span of eight years drained the Ford Motor Company of millions of dollars. The company’s President Lee Iacocca could have rectified the design flaw but deemed it too late in production to reconstruct the vehicle. His requirement of the car weighing less than 2000 pounds and cost of under...
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...Ford Motor Co Industry: Automobile (Auto Manufacturers – Major) Sector: Consumer Goods Products and Services: Ford Motor Company primarily develops, manufactures, distributes, and services vehicles and parts worldwide. Ford operates in two sectors: • The Automotive sector: Offers vehicles primarily under the Ford (www.ford.com) and Lincoln (www.lincoln.com) brand names. This sector markets cars, trucks, and parts through retail dealers in North America, and through distributors and dealers outside of North America. It also sells cars and trucks to dealers for sale to fleet customers, including daily rental car companies, commercial fleet customers, leasing companies, and governments. In addition, this sector provides retail customers with a range of after-sale vehicle services and products in the areas, such as maintenance and light repair, heavy repair, collision repair, vehicle accessories, and extended service contracts under the Ford Service, Lincoln Service, Ford Custom Accessories, Ford Extended Service Plan, and Motorcraft brand names. • The Financial Services sector: offers various automotive financing products to and through automotive dealers. It offers retail financing, which includes retail installment contracts for new and used vehicles; direct financing leases; wholesale financing products that comprise loans to dealers to finance the purchase of vehicle inventory; loans to dealers to finance working capital, purchase real estate dealership, and/or...
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...Assignment 2.1 Ford Analysis PSPR 6208 Strategic Marketing and Communications Fall 1 2013 1. Where would you put Ford in terms of competitive position? Why? By shifting their focus, developing a new marketing strategy and focusing on the Ford brand, Ford has dramatically enhanced their competitive position and turned things around for the company. In doing so, they strategically placed themselves back at the top in terms of competitive position. This was no small feat, especially considering the fact that they were in far worse shape than most car companies as recent as 2008 (Kotler & Armstrong pg 547). Ford with the assistance of new CEO Alan Mulally fought hard against bankruptcy and even harder to gain consumer trust in the company and the brand. This strategy has helped Ford to gain a competitive advantage, especially in terms of customer satisfaction. 2. Is Ford a market-centered company? How can it improve in this area? Considering the fact that Ford currently pays attention to both customers and competitors in designing the company’s marketing strategies, I would say they are definitely a market-centered company. This may not have always been the case, as is evident from reading the case study. At some point, Ford took its eye off the market, loosing focus, especially in regards to customer needs. I think that they were driven to shift their focus by several factors, top of mind being the dire economy. Moving forward, they will need to play...
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