...Essay for Make the Rules or your Rivals Will November 22, 2011 "Make the Rules or your Rivals Will"! It is the name of the game and a strategy to win at your opponent. Wow, what a powerful statement in today's business world! Upon reading the book by Richard Shell, the title alone captures the pure essence of how businesses have utilized the legal system to their advantage since the early 1800's. Businesses are formed on a daily basis and can range from a mom and pop sole proprietorship, a big corporate giant to the masses, or a huge conglomerate government business to maintain the laws of the land. Law and business are interrelated and one cannot survive without the other and the glue that binds them together is legal strategy. The legal environment in which businesses operate is becoming more complex and companies must understand the basics of business law if they want to avoid legal entanglements. Situations that present potential legal problems arise everyday in most businesses and owners need to be aware and posture themselves to handle these issues effectively and quickly. There would be pure chaos in today's capitalistic society if there was not a standard way of doing business because business needs are always evolving from decade to decade. Back in the 1800's there were not any class action lawsuits, litigation explosions, securities regulations or antitrust laws. The business arena needs a way to change the rules as it relates to the business...
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...Cisco Systems, a technology firm with more than 60,000 employees worldwide, has emphasized ethics in interesting ways. Until a few years ago, Cisco did ethics training and enforcement like many other firms by using organization-required sessions and procedures. However, Cisco now uses a constantly available ethics program through its firm communications, Internet, and even television programs similar to American Idol. To conduct its ethics awareness, Cisco enables employees worldwide to view the Ethics Idol via television on its intranet. Cartoon individuals present different ethical situations and then have “judges” give decisions. Employees vote on the best answer to each situation. More than 10,000Cisco employees participate voluntarily in these network analyses. Many employees look at the Ethics Idol after work rather than during business hours. After the employees vote, Cisco’s ethics office professionals then give the best answer linked to Cisco company standards and compliance requirements. Using these creative and entertaining means has enhanced awareness of ethical issues throughout the fi rm. A new ethics document has been updated regularly, and more than 90% of Cisco employees have become certified in reviewing the code of the fi rm. Merging ethics issues, technology, and regular interactive training has led to ethical understanding and behavior by Cisco employees. Other firms have similar programs, but Cisco’s efforts are a model of ethical training and engagement...
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...Leadership Tips From Ford CEO Alan Mulally By Ted Reed April 3, 2012 6:58 AM DETROIT (TheStreet) -- Let's just call it "Alan being Alan." Ford's F ebullient CEO, Alan Mulally, is a master of the warm-hearted gesture, of taking a little extra time to make people feel important, enthusiastic and ready to follow him anywhere. At Ford, which he joined in 2006, that course has involved a journey from an economically distressed company, habitually losing money, with debt rated seven levels below investment grade and every asset mortgaged, to emergence in 2011 as a profitable, glowing symbol of the revival of American manufacturing. | Ford CEO, Alan Mulally | In the case of Oakland A's baseball player and potential Hall of Famer Manny Ramirez, the widely used phrase "Manny being Manny" refers to a legion of incidents manifesting relentless obliviousness to his surroundings. In the case of Oakland, Calif., native and celebrity CEO Mulally, the phrase "Alan being Alan" connotes a string of anecdotes in which he engages with people, not only those who are members of the world's wealthy leadership class, but also with everybody else he encounters as he glides through life, answering questions with a smile and a "you betcha." Many of those he encounters come away with stories. Rebecca Lindland, director of research at HIS Global Insight, said that several years ago in a conversation with Mulally, she mentioned that her mother was pleased that Ford was bringing cars with...
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...Leadership Analysis of Henry Ford Brief Historical Sketch Who knew that a young farm boy that loved tinkering with pocket watches and simple farm equipment would lead a manufacturing revolution. Henry Ford did. Even from an early age Ford understood that he wanted to change the world. His dream was to design and build a “horseless carriage,” a dream that he accomplish in 1908 (Ford, 2008). However, not even Ford could have predicted the magnitude at which both his invention and his business strategies would have on the world. Henry Ford was born in the small town of Dearborn, Michigan on July 30, 1863. The town was better known as the Greenfield Township. Ford’s parents were both European immigrants. His father, William Ford, emigrated from Ireland and his mother, Mary Ford, though born in the United States had strong ties to Belgium. (Henry Ford, 2012) The Fords were a successful farming family and never had to worry about money. While Henry Ford knew at an early age that taking over the family farm would have been a safe and advantageous decision, his ambition kept him focused on other possibilities. (Ford, H 2008) Ford’s teenage years were instrumental in helping him develop is dream and his career. There were two important memories that Ford could recall that sparked his interest in motor vehicles and engineering. Around the age of twelve, the Ford’s were traveling to Detroit with family when they passed a “road engine” delivering farm machinery (Ford, H 2008). This was...
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...Cultural Diversity of Ford Motor Company Employees The rise of multinational companies and increased global diversification by even small companies has resulted in people of diverse backgrounds and cultures working together in the same office or for the same organization. Conflict in such situations is predictable, but understanding the diversity issues can help companies implement programs designed to keep conflict at a minimum and to take full advantage of the many benefits which such diversity brings to an organization. Key to understanding how diversity is managed in multinational organizations is understanding the concept of corporate culture (which defines organizations), diversity programs and their use to minimize conflict among employees, and the unique problems that employees working overseas encounter. One of the biggest companies that have worked a lot on diversity is Ford Motor Organization. Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's second largest automaker, selling vehicles in 200 markets and with approximately 345,000 employees on six continents. Ford also is a family with a heritage of strong and clear values. One of the most essential of Ford values is their commitment to diversity and inclusion. For Ford, diversity is a means to an end. It is one of the ways the company is seeking to drive a transformation to a team-based workplace. To have meaningful relationships with customers (and other stakeholders) it is essential...
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...Ford Motor Company – Case Study Jason Austin Denine Rood Jeanne Sands Like apple pie and a summer baseball game, Ford Motor Company has come to symbolize America, the land of opportunity. This America is a place where a person with scarcely any means can take little more than an idea and transform it into one of the most successful companies in the world. This is the story of Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company. Consider the following quote from the Ford Web site. Ford Motor Company entered the business world on June 16, 1903, when Henry Ford and 11 business associates signed the company's articles of incorporation. With $28,000 in cash, the pioneering industrialists gave birth to what was to become one of the world's largest corporations. Few companies are as closely identified with the history and development of industry and society throughout the 20th century as Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford and his business partners where true entrepreneurs. Today, when we think about Ford, we think about innovation. From Henry Ford’s revolutionary idea of the assembly line to the new vehicles that Ford introduces every day, innovation has always been a cornerstone of Ford’s business. One little known fact is that Ford embraced QFD (Quality Function Deployment) , a Japanese quality methodology, into their product design process significantly earlier than most companies in the United States. This embracing of new ideology has led Ford to offer products...
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...Contents 1.0 Introduction 2 2.0 Ford Company Background 4 3.0 Toyota Company Background 5 4.0 Scientific Management 6 5.0 Scientific Management in Ford Motor Company 7 6.0 Contingency Theory 10 7.0 Contingency Theory in Toyota 12 8.0 How Scientific Management impacts Ford’s Workers 14 9.0 How Contingency Theory Impacts Toyota’s Workers 16 10.0 Definition of Organizational Culture and Structure 18 11.0 Ford Organizational Culture 19 12.0 Ford Organizational Structure 20 13.0 Toyota Organizational Culture 21 14.0 Toyota Organizational Structure 23 15.0 Motivational Theories 24 16.0 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Ford 25 17.0 Impacts of Hierarchy of Needs Theory 29 18.0 Goal-setting Theory in Toyota 30 19.0 Impacts Goal-setting Theory 32 20.0 Conclusion 33 21.0 References 34 1.0 Introduction One of the most important human activities is managing . Ever since people began forming groups to accomplish aims they could not achieve as individuals . Managing has been essential to ensure the coordination of individuals efforts . As society has come to rely increasingly on group effort as many organized groups have been grown larger , the task of managers have been rising in importance . The term management drives from latin word “Manu agere” which means to lead by hand . Lead by hand means , giving directions . It also implies that the leading person first goes where he or she wants to send the followers (Shied, 2010) . According to Drucker (1974) management...
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...the Ford Motor Company Archives, With Reflections on Archival Documentation of Ford of Europe's History Elizabeth W. Adkins, Certified Archivist Director, Global Information Management Ford Motor Company Introduction: The Ford Motor Company Archives and the Story of the Company The history of the Ford Motor Company Archives is intertwined with the efforts to tell the story of the company. Both of these initiatives – the creation of the Archives and the telling of the Ford Motor Company story – began with the approach of the fiftieth anniversary. Company executives and the Ford family realized the importance of Henry Ford and his company in the development and progress of the twentieth century. They accepted the obligation to gather and organize the company's historical legacy to ensure that the broader story could be told. As a result, the first fifty years of the company (including its early international expansion) are fairly well documented and accessible to the public in research materials and in books. The historical record of the next fifty years, including the company's modernization and further international development under Henry Ford II, is less complete. By the early 1960s, for various reasons, the Ford Archives began to experience the "down side" of the up and down cycle that characterizes the history of American corporate archives. Most of the Ford archival holdings were donated to a nonprofit educational institution, Henry Ford Museum...
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...Alex Vanarthos 11/26/2014 America's Most Successful Family Businesses Family businesses make up an incredible 34% of the S&P 500 Index, meaning over 170 of our nation's 500 largest companies are family owned (Caspar, Christian). To some, this figure is extremely surprising, as it shatters the commonly held misconception that family firms are simply "mom and pop shops." Although it is clear that family businesses are capable of incredible widespread success, exactly why this is the case is far less obvious. One way to gain some valuable insight into how and why so many effective family businesses exist is to closely examine the three in our nation that have had the most success: Cargill, Ford Motors, and Wal-Mart. In many ways, these businesses could not be more different; for instance, they operate in separate industries, and the levels and types of family involvement in the firms vary. Extensive analysis of these three corporations did, however, reveal that while no family, business, or family business is perfect, each company's achievements are directly attributable to its commitment to the common vision and identity instilled in the firm by the family. Cargill Cargill is a private corporation that works with "farmers, customers, governments and communities" to provide "food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world ("Cargill:...
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...Ford Ford Motor Company is a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Michigan, manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 164,000 employees and about 70 plants worldwide, the company’s automotive brands include Ford and Lincoln. (North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asian Pacific, and the Middle East) The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. Ford is also focused on accelerating the development of new products that customers want and value. From fun-to-drive, fuel-efficient cars all the way to versatile, capable utility vehicles and tough, durable trucks that work harder and last longer, Ford offers a full line of high-quality products with global appeal. The price of a new Ford vehicle is all over the place, with the lowest base model price is about $13,500, the Ford Focus, and the most expensive base model price is about $95,000, Ford GT. Those prices are without any discounts, grants, or taxes. They also do not include any special features; the price is set on the base model. Ford was founded in June 16, 1903 by Henry Ford. Their mission statement is “to deliver great products, create a strong business and make the world a better place.” For has been around for 109 years, they have stuck to their mission statement and they have stuck to their core values, which are as followed; Integrity- “We conduct our business with fairness, honesty and transparency so that we can at all times stand...
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...Ford Case Study Natausha Blakley Dr. Jayna Newell Principles of Management February 12, 2011 The case creates four options to choose from. Discuss at least three criteria the company should use to decide which of the four listed options is best and the reasons why each criterion should be used. 1. In my first opinion the company should close down old plants to realign production as well as sales. If the company continues to loose billions of dollars year after year adjustments need to be made somewhere, so the concentration should be put in the plants that are successful and slow production in the lagging plants or just simply close down. Second I would choose to reduce the SUV and truck lines because of the high gas prices throughout the country simply because the smaller cars would be more gas efficient, more cost efficient, and a lot of money being lost through the lack of being able to sell the expensive SUV’s which also doubles in cost to fill up and drive on a daily basis. Most Americans are buying the smaller cars because of the recession or the public opinion that we are in a recession. Third, would be to go ahead and sell the premium automobile group to somebody that would be able to make use and profit off of the lack of sales year after year. Cars like Jaguar and especially Aston Martins which are one of the most expensive cars in the world, don’t really sell on a large scale in the US except for the wealthy percentage of the population, so selling...
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...| The Automotive Industry | Ford AutomotiveOctober 3, 2012 | | | | | INTRO: BARRIERS TO ENTRY: Since the company we chose to analyze is Ford, the industry is limited to the North American automobile industry. Barriers to entry are defined as characteristics of the industry itself that prevent rivals from getting in as well as set standards for the competitors in that industry. The automotive industry has grown exponentially and it is currently one of the most competitive industries. One of the major players in barriers to entry is brand strength. Over the years brands have been developing and customer loyalty to one particular brand is very strong. This makes it difficult for a company to enter the industry and expect to be a significant competitor. Customers are loyal to one particular brand and that diminishes the customer base for new entrants. Unless the company already has the internal structure of a big automotive manufacturing company then it is very difficult for them to enter this particular industry. Not only are start-up costs very high, but there are significant costs in the design and manufacturing of cars. Product differentiation is also another major factor, since many companies have had to rely on their unique products to attract more customers as well as expand their customer base. Other factors to barriers to entry include government regulations. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency has set standards of emissions...
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...plant goes back as far as agricultural history goes. It has uses such as a food source, as a material for clothes, and even as a religious herb. For years the US government banned cannabis, but in 2013, nineteen states have decriminalized the cultivation of the plant. It is important that one knows the reasoning behind the illegalization of cannabis. According to Pete Guither, Cannabis was made illegal in the 1930's due to anti-Mexican feelings, personal greed, yellow journalism, and corrupt politics. Today, in the new millennium, the Anti-Cannabis movement is mostly caused by propaganda left over from the early to late 1930's. Our countries leaders simply don't know better. They have effectively been brainwashed by the very organization they are a part of. The history of the prohibition of cannabis undoubtedly shows this. To understand why Cannabis should be legalized, one must understand why it was made illegal In the first place. We call the beginning of the 20th century ‘the gilded age’ because of the sense of false economic security. Sure, the numbers looked good on paper, but morality was at an all time low at the time. In the inside, corporations were cheaper then a $2 carnival game. Henry J Anslinger was not an uncommon person for the 1930's. He was racist, hated Mexicans, and wanted to use the government for his own benefit. He was a pro-Nazi, and had skills in rhetoric, propaganda, and yellow journalism. Anslinger had ties with two large influences in Cannabis...
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...marketing research paper is about the Ford Motor Company and its newest vehicle, the Ford Fiesta, a very small and fuel-efficient car. This paper will be covering the history of the Ford Motor Company. The paper later informs about the changes, which had to be made in the last ten years. Changes not just to save the company, but also to make a step into a more successful future. A key for that is producing smaller cars as the Ford Fiesta. People have always loved cars, ever since the first automobile was produced. It was Carl Benz from Mannheim (Germany) who received on January 29, 1886 the patent for the first automobile. The first automobile in the United States is associated with the name Ford at the beginning of the 20th century. More than a hundred years later cars exist all over the world. If sedans, coupes, convertibles, sports cars, vans, minivans or trucks/ sport utility vehicles (suv’)- all kinds of different cars are available nowadays. A very important factor to drive a car is the gasoline. The gasoline prices were always very low in the United States, compared to other countries, especially compared to European countries (see table no. 1). According to a study in 2008 the US had the 45th cheapest gas prices out of 155 countries surveyed. As of end of March 2008, U.S. gas prices averaged $3.45 a gallon, compared to over $8 a gallon across much of Europe. The government fought for lower gas prices.[1] The reason why you find lower gas prices in the US...
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...Marketing Plan Group Assignment (Phase Three) 10% MRK 200 XX [pic] Ford Motor Company Hybrid Ford Escape Group Memebers: Yasmine Kustec Ramon Pinto Bowang Zhou Zang Yue Brett O'connell Yoon Joon Table of Content Cover Page Table of Content 1 The Executive Summary 2 Company Backgrounder 3 Company Mission Statement 3 ➢ Vision 4 ➢ Values 4 Situational Analysis ➢ Internal Environment 5 ➢ Competition Environment 6 ➢ Economic Environment 6 ➢ Cultural/ Social Environment 7 ➢ Government Environment 8 ➢ Technology Environment 9 Company Objectives 9 Target Segment(s) Profile 11 Market Strategies 13 ➢ Figure 1.1 21 Resources 25 Marketing Plan Group Assignment The Executive Summary Ford Motors, through the past five years or so, have been experiencing difficulties with their significantly present decline market share. Being a dominate player in the auto business for over a century, Ford Motors have been reluctant to keep up with current trends and evolving competitors from growing economies. Considering the company’s external and internal opportunities, and directing their resources towards a more skillfully R& D (research and development)...
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