Ford World Automobile Industry 2009
Which companies are likely to be most successful over the next five years?
The companies likely to experience the greatest market success in the coming years are those that find a way to simultaneously innovate and, in the case of the Detroit Big 3 especially, find intuitive ways to reduce their capacity. Something that the case study published in the text by Grant (2009) makes quite clear is the notion that the American automotive market's crisis was essentially predicated by a series of assumptions that haven't evolved in several decades and by an oversaturated marketplace.
The text reports that, in fact, in the face of the growing financial crisis, "by the time President Obama took office in January 2009, U.S. auto sales were half of those a year previously. This fall in demand was unprecedented in the industry's history." (Grant, p. 534) The article goes on to surmise that the government...
To this last point, Detroit continued to pump out cars at a rate tat the market could no longer bear, leading to the meltdown of 2009. As one evaluates the market share of GM and Chrysler in particular, their influence has waned dramatically from 1988 to 1996, a period in which the market share of Toyota and Honda have also risen dramatically. (Grant, p. 546)
Ford's market share has also declined significantly, though slightly less so than that of its counterparts among the Detroit Big 3. A natural impact of the opening of global borders to international trade, this…
