FORD MOTOR COMPANY

Apply: Signature Assignment: Modified SWOT Analysis

Successful businesses regularly analyze their processes to ensure they’re operating as efficiently as possible and maintaining their competitive advantages. Although you can assess a company in many ways, a common technique is the SWOT analysis. In this assignment, you will practice using a SWOT analysis to better understand the factors involved in making business decisions that promote sustainable competitive advantage.

Select and research a company from the 2019 Fortune 500 list that demonstrates a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace (FORD MOTOR COMPANY)

Evaluate the selected company’s sustainable competitive advantage using the SWOT analysis technique.

Write a 700- to 1,050-word modified SWOT analysis that includes the following:
o An introduction with a detailed description of the company
o A SWOT analysis diagram that includes strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
o An evaluation of how specific internal factors (strengths and/or weaknesses) support and/or promote a competitive advantage; examples may include:
o Financial, physical, or human resources
o Access to natural resources, trademarks, patents, or copyrights
o Current processes (employee programs or software systems)
o An evaluation of how specific external factors (opportunities and/or threats) support and/or promote a competitive advantage; examples may include:
o Market trends (new products or technology advancements)
o Economic trends (local and/or global)
o Demographics
o Regulations (political, environmental, or economic)
o Conclusion with an evaluation of how the company has retained its competitive advantage

Include APA-formatted in-text citations and a reference page with at least 2 sources.

Submit your assignment.

ANSWER

Ford Motor Company

Introduction

The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker founded in 1903, with its main headquarters in Dearborn. Henry Ford transformed the automobile, the role of transportation, and working life. Since 1903, Henry Ford has put the world on wheels with a long custom of progress. The culture of Ford is anchored in shared ideals, beliefs, and actions for the common interest. As a company, Ford believes that a culture of belonging for every employee is the key to success. This paper will focus on Ford’s sustainable competitive advantage through a SWOT analysis technique. Organizations rely on the SWOT analysis to gain a perspective of the major components of the internal and external factors affecting the company’s performance.

SWOT Analysis

Internal Factors

Ford’s financial health has remained a major contributor to its continued success (Enkhbayar, 2018). Considerably, its financial strengths result from its ability to generate profits and cost reductions necessary for a business to sustain growth and retain sufficient cash flows to adequately pay its bills and investors. The human resource management at Ford has focused on building a group of talented people on board which boosts growth and competitiveness (Langerud and Jordan, 2020). Culture and people have remained a major focus at Ford Motors since they believe that human capital has been the most significant asset for their business.

Ford uses trademarks, copyrights, and patents to its advantage since they indicate the source of the product or service. For instance, the trademark helps in asset protection and prevents the exploitation of the brand (Link, 2018). In addition, the patents have offered a longer-lived competitive advantage since they improve the productivity of Ford and increase their product differentiation. As a result, Ford has filed more patents than any other automaker for their inventions.

Ford Motors has CAD software that is by the designers to achieve all the quality build objectives. The software ensures superior quality and checks for novel designs from the staff engineers and global suppliers. In addition, the software considers the real-world module and assembly disparity and offers an accurate representation of deviated actual world manufactured geometry (Hirz, Rossbacher, and Gulanová, 2017). Therefore, the software enables the manufacturing team to analyze what will be produced for effective product performance and accurate representations of the vehicle as it leaves the plant door. Ford has also focused on Artificial intelligence and machine learning utilized by engineers to adopt new technologies.

External Factors

The market trends have given rise to disruptive technology, including autonomous driving, diverse mobility, connectivity, and electrification. The technology advancement will significantly boost the diversity towards on-demand mobility services boosting the automotive revenue pool (Goda, 2018). The shared mobility solutions are expected to increase the demand for upgrading privately used cars. Autonomous technology and connectivity will facilitate the growth of global car sales. Despite the decline in private car use due to car-sharing mobility services, the decline will be offset by a rise in the sales of shared car vehicles that need to be replaced due to increased utilization that will lead to tear and wear.

Economic growth and development in both local and global markets have led to more wealth, allowing more driving. The speed of increase in car ownership in developing markets has been driven by market demand. This has been closely associated with the consumer level of wealth and their intention to purchase. For instance, the demand for private cars has strongly been influenced by economic growth.

The demographic shift in car ownership has led to an increased demand for cars (Goda, 2018). The millennials have dominated car ownership and buying new cars due to their affection for cars. Millennials between the age of 20-30 have become active consumers increase the consumption growth of private cars. The increased financial ability among the millennials has boosted the growth of the automotive market and profound changes to the sale of private cars. One common trend is the growing number of consumers that are preferring to start the purchase process online. Most of these consumers consult social media, which has increased dealership websites online.

Government regulations have influenced the way cars look, safety features, design, and overall performance. Every country has its own regulations, which have a significant impact on the automotive business. This is because the regulation requirements increase the production cost and limit the sale of certain cars. For instance, lawmakers in most countries have focused on fuel efficiency as a major priority (Traub-Merz, 2017). As a result, Ford Motors has featured vehicles with the best fuel economy more than other manufactures in the global market. Ford has focused on its supply chain strategy to act upon these strategies more efficiently and quicker in the face of regulations.

Conclusion

Ford has relied on cost leadership strategy, information systems, product differentiation approach, and supply chain management to enhance its business operations. In addition, they have focused on building their brand image through research and development to make their current portfolio more attractive to clients and bring in a more attractive model to the highly competitive market. Ford has also enjoyed a strong financial position and global popularity through its product range which serves the needs of diverse consumers.

References

Enkhbayar, A. (2018). Ford Motor Company’s Financial Analysis.

Goda, S. (2018, September). Trends and Challenges of the New Mobility Society. In International Forum on Advanced Microsystems for Automotive Applications (pp. 175-182). Springer, Cham.

Hirz, M., Rossbacher, P., & Gulanová, J. (2017). Future trends in CAD–from the perspective of the automotive industry. Computer-Aided Design and Applications, 14(6), 734-741.

Langerud, D. H., & Jordan, P. J. (2020). Leadership and change at Ford Motor Company. In Case of Studies in Work, Employment and Human Resource Management. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Link, S. (2018). The Charismatic Corporation: Finance, Administration, and Shop Floor Management under Henry Ford. Business History Review, 92(1), 85-115.

Traub-Merz, R. (2017). The automotive sector in emerging economies: Industrial policies, market dynamics, and trade unions.

Wittmann, J. (2017). Electrification and digitalization as disruptive trends: new perspectives for the automotive industry?. In Phantom Ex Machina (pp. 137-159). Springer, Cham.