Ford Motor Company overview and business operations

Ford Company

Initially established on American land, Ford Motor Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's third largest vehicles seller in the world. The brand was born in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, being founded by Henry Ford and incorporated in 1903. "Henry Ford was 69 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company, which would go on to become one of the largest and most profitable companies in the third world, as well as being one of the few to survive the Great Depression. The largest family-controlled company in the world, the Ford Motor Company has been in continuous family control for over 10 years."

Nowadays, Ford label has been put on numerous brands, such as Lincoln and Mercury of the U.S., Jaguar, and Land Rover of the UK, and Volvo of Sweden. Ford also owns a one-third controlling interest in Mazda. Ford also recently purchased the Rover name - which is no longer in use - intending to prohibit other brands to use the Land Rover name.

Following its historical path, Ford Company's mission statement is presented as a family goal, to which fulfillment all the members should have a contribution. Thus, the main aim of the Ford family is to anticipate consumer need and offer those qualitative products and services that would improve the consumers' lives. Therefore, Ford Company seems to deal with its position as the third cars provider in the world in a very serious manner.

The members of the board are Chief Mike Goulet, Sir John Bond]], Richard Manoogian, Stephen Butler, Ellen Marram, Kimberly Casiano, Alan Mulally -President and CEO-, Edsel Ford II, Homer Neal, William Clay Ford, Jr., Jorma Ollila, Irvine Hockaday, Jr., John L. Thornton and William Clay Ford -Director Emeritus-. Moreover, among the most important corporate officers there are Lewis Booth -Executive Vice President, Chairman and Ford of Europe-, Mark Fields -Executive Vice President, President-, Donat Leclair -Executive Vice President and CFO and Mark a. Schulz -Executive Vice President, President of International Operations-.

On the course of its long existence, Ford Company has encountered many problems; among the most important ones it has been considered to be the one with its former distributor in the Middle East, which have occurred at the end of the 20th century. Even though, the issue was solved in 2001 -after two years of going to Court - and Ford started to work with other two local distributors.

The company's future plans seem to be quite optimistic; it intends to launch some new cars model: "Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan Hybrid version in 2008. There are also plans for a Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX Hybrid. The Edge and MKX are Ford's new crossover SUVs to come out for the 2007 model year." Moreover, the staff management's intention is to come out with some models which would decrease air pollution in order to be in accordance with the new tendencies of environment protection.

2. Today, Ford Motor Company manufactures automobiles under several names including Lincoln and Mercury in the United States. In 1989, Ford has acquired Aston Martin -which has been sold again in 2007 -. Totally, the brands controlled by Ford Motor Company are: Daimler, Edsel, Ford, Jaguar, Lanchester, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mazda, Mercury, Merkur, Rover brand name only and Volvo. Some of the brands entered under the Ford name long time ago, such as Edsel, in 1958, and Merkur in 1960. On the other hand, other brands have been achieved more recently, as in the case of Astor Martin, whose brand is owned by Ford since 1989.

Many of above-mentioned car types are designated o be luxurious, such as Lincoln, Mazda or Jaguar, but in the same time Ford has produced many car editions which were destined to the public use and others, in addition, to utilities, as all the buses and trucks which appeared under the Ford name.

Despite Aston Martin - which has been sold in 2007 - all the other car models proved to register a respectable success, but reaching ths stage has not proven to be easy at all for the company, since other models had to be produced for Europe, Japan and Australia, as the inhabitants of these places did not accept the models the Americans had used.

Ford Company has collaborated with many firms, but the most important three alliances have proven to be Percepta - a partnership with Tele Tech -, UPS Supply Chain Solutions and NewView -formerly e-Steel -. Still, the company's mission has many times proven to be difficult, especially because it has to face 22 competitors, the most important ones being DaimlerChrysler, General Motors and Toyota.Even though, the management staff has chosen to maintain the company's position on the market by designing 'smarter and more efficient models" of cars, which would be safer as well. In what the prices are concerned, many models, especially the luxury ones, can be considered quite expensive, but, on the other hand, the company provides its clients with the possibility to apply for credits, a marketing strategy which offered Ford Group the chance to register 49.39% of the market sales. Cutting prices would represent a future promotion plan though, next to the aim of producing car models with a reduced possibility to pollute the air.

3. In what the financial situation of the company is concerned, it must be reminded that in the late 1990s, Ford sold large numbers of vehicles; the situation changed at the beginning of the 21st century, when sales have declined, most profits coming from financing consumer automomobile loans through Ford Motor Credit Company. Moreover, the company has reported a "net loss of $12.7 billion during 2006, and has estimated that it will not return to profitability until 2009." Moreover, it seems that the gross profit has decreased from $35,796.0 in 2004 to only 11,254.0 in 2006.In a situation as such, it cannot be argued that Ford is still a profitable company.