Closing case: Planning for the Chevy Volt
1. What does the Chevy Volt case tell you about the nature of strategic decision making at a large complex organization like GM?
From the case we can see that strategic decision making at a large complex organization like GM has to be decided by several divisions before they can execute so it takes time and may affect at time the company launch new project to the market it may be changed. Moreover the large organization concerned about their past failure to keep improve the quality of product so they would spend more time and may miss the opportunity for some market situation.

2. Why trends in the external environment favored the pursuit of the Chevy Volt project?
Base on the information there are 3 factors effect this project. First is oil price which GM foresees that its price will increase sharply due to demand of developed nations like China and India. Second, global warming concerned so the trend of using oil fuel will be reduced to less carbon monoxide which cause greenhouse effect.

3. What impediments to pursuing this project do you think existed with GM?
For GM already invested in huge amount on fuel cells so they need to come up with final product which related with this innovative. This can also agree by decision makers in company since they don’t want to suddenly switch gears but focus on lithium ion batteries instead. However the failure in the past obstructs the project by slow down the process to make sure every steps go smooth without any problems again.

4. The plan for the Chevy Volt seems to be based partly on the assumption that oil prices would remain high, and yet in late 2008, oil prices collapsed in the wake of a sharp global economic slowdown.
a. What does this tell you about the nature of strategic plans?
It can be inferred that strategic plan won’t be applied in every situation, for example strategic plan A may suitable to be used in booming economic situation but you need to change to strategic plan B or C or D once the market is not go along with what we forecast at the beginning.
b. What do falling oil prices mean for the potential success of the Chevy Volt?
When the oil prices is low that mean the potential success of the Chevy Volt is low as well because once the oil prices still low then the consumer has no enough motivation switching to new thing. This maybe success with some persons who like new experience of driving but of course this portion still very small.
c. Do you think oil prices will remain low?
It’s hard to say that when the oil prices will remain lows or when it will dramatically increase since this is based on the producer country like Saudi Arabia and OPEC members. However we can foresee that the oil prices will not remain low in long term for this resource is used without replacement so we have to find new oil resource all the time, in addition the cost of investment in searching new oil resource is at high prices so this will be included in the selling prices to the users definitely.

5. What will it take for the Chevy Volt to be successful car? In light of you analysis, how risky do you think this venture is for GM? What are the costs of failure? What are the costs of not pursuing the project?
Based on statistics from the researchers, the usage of oil in transportation is almost 50% out of the global oil consumption 4,200 million metric tons in 2014 so it may takes time for Chevy Volt to be successful car because switching from what most of consumers experience is not that easy for basically consumer purchase new car with lithium ion batteries, of course, it still new in marker so how he can find the technician to maintain this kind of machine when facing problem or even find solution of running out of power while driving on the road.
It is risky for GM to execute the project when they know the cost of failure is high when comparing to oil consumption above, the consumer may not choose to purchase this product or not even to try so GM definitely in trouble and become loss in this SUVs division. However it still worth to risk because everyone knows what will be coming, we all know that one day we will run out of oil resource certainly but we don’t know when.
Because the world changes every day, the cost of not pursuing the project even much higher if the situation we said come early than the expectation so GM better keep the project and try to continue the project as long as they can for the benefits in future. As we can see in IT business the former giant phone company “Nokia” It was already died and out of the market because they are unable to catch up with new coming technology in time.