Describe Ford Motor Companys competitive strategy and mount

Describe Ford Motor Company\'s competitive strategy and mount an argument in favor of or against Porter\'s assertion as it relates to your project firm. Does your critical thinking about the Ford\'s competitive advantage bring to mind concerns, or opportunities for how the firm could exploit its competitive advantage? Do you have actionable insights about exploiting strengths of Ford or insights about how the firm should defend against its weaknesses?

Solution

Solution :

Porter\'s model consists of 5 major components that impact on the competitive dynamics of a specific industry and they are :

In addition , Porter\'s model recognizes the importance of barriers to entry and bariers to exit for a given industry . The fundamental approach rests on the notion of power in the relationships - where that power lies at a given point , and how that power can and does shift over a given period of time . The shifts in power mirrors the strengths of the players and the forces that are buffeting it at any given time . Conducting industry analysis is a continuous activity because the competitive dynamics change over time as power shifts between and among the five forces and affects the relationships . As a consequence , a successful industry , with few substitutes , a low likelihood of new entrants , and power over either customers or suppliers can be transformed in a short period of time .

The automobile industry provides a classic example of Porter\'s analysis .Ford motor company introduced the concept of mass production . This yielded the firm , Ford motor company , an impressive strategic advantage in the market place . Ford was able to produce cars quickly and at a sufficiently low price to capture the largest share of the market . However Porter\'s five forces did impact the strategic advantage enjoyed by Ford motor company because General Motors and other car manufacturers copied mass production techniques . Further General motors developed the idea of different models to appeal to different segments of the market place . GM was able to outmaneuver Ford\'s competitive advantage by appealing to the ultimate customer with their variety in the selection of models and cars . Thus GM quickly improved market share at Fords expense . The example discussed above does raise concerns how Ford could not exploit its competitive advantage and eventually allowed GM to outgrow Fords market share of the passenger car segment .

The actionable insights that can be suggested about exploiting strengths of Ford includes the following