Ford Mustang
Financials

As a company, Ford has improved its sales in the past two years, after struggling during the recession. Ford's revenues in the last fiscal year (2011) were $136 billion, compared with $116 billion in FY2009 and $168 billion in FY2007. The company's profits have also fluctuated over that time period. FY2011 saw a profit of $20.2 billion, compared with $2.7 billion in FY2009 and a loss of $2.8 billion in FY2007. Thus, even though the company as a whole has seen its sales decline, cost controls and better pricing have allowed Ford to earn more profit from its sales.

The Mustang sold just over 70,000 units in 2011, giving the company a 29% market share. This was second to the Camaro, which sold over 88,000 units for a 37% share. The only other serious competitor was the Dodge Challenger with a 16% share (TopSpeed.com, 2012). Overall, Ford has around a….

Ford believes that the four cornerstones of competitive advantage are efficiency, quality, innovation and customer responsiveness. Ideally, the company would be able to execute on all of these at once, something that is a challenge for even the best firms. However, if that is how Ford wants to compete, then the pursuit of these advantages must be tied into the company's strategy, and for these to be a genuine competitive advantage Ford must exceed the capabilities of its competitors in these facets of the business. This paper will analyze these facets in respect of Ford's culture and how well it executes these vis-a-vis its competitors.
Ford's Strategy

Unlike its major domestic competitors, Ford turned down a government bailout on the assumption that it would be better able to execute its vision for the future without the influence of government ownership. This was met with optimism in some quarters when aspects of the….

However sales have dropped due in part to the financial crisis. Ford and GM therefore must be aware that consumers may be demand electric cars but may be unwilling to pay large sums of money for them. Below is an explanation why.
Brief overview of the Financial Crisis and its implications on Ford and GM

To begin, in order to understand many of the initiatives both Ford and GM took in regards to their restructuring, I believe it prudent to understand the underlying causes of such action. s many individuals realize, a massive wave of mortgage defaults was partially responsible for the collapse of Ford and GM as a whole. However the implications of these actions on Ford and GM are often overlooked. The financial crisis resulted from a mixture of both bad judgment and unethical decision making. Frank Vogel, cofounder of Transparency International, a nonprofit organization charged with ranking nations….

Ford Case
Strategic Case Study: Ford Motors

Company Overview

Ford Motors is one of the oldest and largest auto manufacturers in the world, and despite being enormously hard-hit by the economic downturn of the recent past the company has returned to profitability and has been successful in redefining its strategy and realigning its resources to achieve its strategic ends (Ford, 2012; Hoover, 2012; euters, 2012). With internationally-based sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, and sales operations, the company is also quite large in terms of geographic spread, which comes with advantages and disadvantages (Ford, 2012; euters, 2012). The following pages present a brief overview of the company's current strategy in the light of the recent near-collapse of the company and its climb to profitability, and also gives a summary of a strategy the company could possibly pursue to further solidify its position and increase profitability.

Existing Objectives and Strategies

Many companies underwent serious changes in both their perspectives….

Ford Mustang
Marketing Research

I spoke to five male car owners in their 20s. Three of them had purchased a vehicle in the past two years, the other two had their cars for longer. None of them had purchased a Mustang, but one had a Camaro. The four that owned other types of cars indicated that they did not want a pony car for a number of different reasons, from gas prices to the fact that such cars did not suit their personalities. The other one chose the Camaro because it was the one that "felt right" and was unable to elaborate on that. The respondents, when asked to describe the brand's personality used terms like "fast," "muscle," and "cruising up and down the block." The consumers responded unanimously to the proposition that if the Mustang brand was attached to a different product, it would not make sense. The Mustang is very….

Ford Mustang
The strength of the Mustang brand is that it is immediately recognizable, and iconic. Anybody anywhere near the target audience will immediately recognize the brand and know what traits the vehicle will have. hile this might also stand as a weakness because the brand has distinct connotations, those connotations are not negative for those who are in the target audience. The power of the car, combined with its value, is a common feature of modern Mustang advertisements (YouTube, 2010).

One of the weaknesses of Mustang marketing, or publicity, is that the brand often must live up to its history. As noted in this clip from the British TV show Top Gear, Mustangs today are often measured against Mustangs of the past (Top Gear, 2009). This clip also reveals a couple of other weaknesses in the marketing of the Mustang. The price component is noted by the reviewers as a downfall,….

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….

Ford vs. GM
The author of this report is asked to compare two companies from the same industry. For the purposes of this report, those two companies shall be Ford and General Motors. A one page treatise will be offered for each company giving the history and performance of the two firms over time. Three years of financial data will be offered for each company including financial ratio data. Finally, a verdict will be offered as to which company (if not both or neither) are worth owning at this time.

General Motors

General Motors has been around in some form since 1908 when it was founded in Flint, Michigan. General Motors was the global leader in sales for nearly eight decades until 2007 when it ceded that throne to Toyota. Not long after that, General Motors filed chapter 11 bankruptcy with heavy government involvement and guidance. The involvement was heavy because the United….

Ford in Russia
Ford and GM entered the Russian market seeking growth. Both companies have seen their market share erode over the course of the past decades as competition in the domestic market has increased significantly in that time. The Russian market is characterized by a relatively large size and a relative scarcity of strong players. For a time, Russia was the fastest-growing auto market in Europe, in part due to that country's economic resurgence following the turbulence of the 1990s (Kramer, 2007).

Ford entered Russia in 2002 with a wholly-owned production line outside of St. Petersburg. The company chose that time to enter for two key reasons. The first is that it gained first mover advantages. A number of European and Japanese auto companies such as Peugeot, Citroen, Suzuki and Volvo followed Ford into the Russian market (Kramer, 2007). The other reason why Ford chose this time to enter is that….

This is a process which combines both sound organizational theory and the democratic corporate governance to help a company like Ford enact all its moving parts in the face of the current crisis.
3) Explain how any additional information you propose could be of benefit to the decision making process of the organization.

Decision-making is impacted by a wide variance of concerns and conditions, many of which will be relegated in consideration behind some more dominant areas of concern such as accounting conditions or market sales. However, it is not always possible for the immediate leadership team to consider all relevant aspects of a decision given the many responsibilities and roles implied by management or administrative authority. Therefore, it will often fall upon members of the organization at other levels to add important peripheral concerns to the conversation surrounding a decision. For instance, in making decisions regarding borrowing in the face….

There is little indication in Ford's financial statements that things are going to improve any time soon. The company actually hailed the 14.2% market share in North America as "the lowest market share decline in the past ten years" (Ford Motor Company, 2009).
Ford's financial position is nothing short of awful. The company's condition has deteriorated steadily over the past five years, and its performance relative to industry peers is generally poor.

Appendix a

Ford Motor Company

Financial Ratios

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

Industry

Analysis

Liquidity Ratios

Current Ratio

1.67

1.7

1.51

1.8

1.75

1.1

Good

Quick Ratio

1.56

1.59

1.41

1.68

1.63

0.8

Good

Efficiency Ratios

Inventory Turn

15.87

15.16

15.73

14.93

13.42

7.6

Good

Receivables Turn

1.47

1.47

1.4

1.54

1.49

8.1

Poor

Avg Collection Period

Fixed Asset Turn

5.12

4.76

4.43

4.34

3.97

Total Asset Turn

0.67

0.62

0.57

0.66

0.58

0.8

Bad

Leverage Ratios

Total Debt Ratio

1.08

0.98

1.01

0.95

0.94

LT Debt Ratio

0.71

0.6

0.61

0.44

0.44

LTD to Total Capitalization

1.12

0.96

1.02

0.9

0.88

Debt to Equity

n/a

48.62

n/a

19.05

15.95

1.46

Poor

LTD to Equity

n/a

29.95

n/a

8.93

7.42

47.3

Poor

Coverage Ratios

Times Interest Earned

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

Cash Coverage Ratio

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

Profitability Ratios

Gross Margin

6.4

11

1.5

13.2

16.3

16

Bad

Operating Margin

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

1.7

3.03

Poor

Net Margin

n/a

n/a

n/a

0.9

1.7

1.77

Poor

ROA

n/a

n/a

n/a

0.5

1

1.39

Poor

ROE

n/a

n/a

n/a

10.7

17.4

5.24

Poor

Return on Common Equity

n/a

n/a

n/a

10.7

17.4

orks Cited:

MSN Moneycentral. (2009). Accessed April 8, 2009 from http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=f&getquote=Get+Quote

No author. (2009). Henry Ford's $5-a-Day Revolution. Ford Motor Company. Retrieved April 8, 2009 from http://www.ford.com/about-ford/heritage/milestones/5dollaraday/677-5-dollar-a-day

No author. (2009). Ford Executive: Automaker doesn't need Bailout. NPR. Retrieved April….

This should allow Ford to innovate and make pricing decisions that are not directly replicated. Firms in monopolistic competition often behave like monopolies in the short run, something that Ford will need to do to improve its bottom line. Eventually any tactic Ford adopts will be mirrored by its competitors, but the increased competition allows for Ford to implement strategy and not receive a direct and immediate response from its competitors.
4. Outline a rough competitor analysis. Directly competing against Ford is a large number of companies both domestic and international. Firms such as General Motors and Chrysler are direct competitors with similar cost structures, although their bankruptcies last year may change the nature of competition from these two firms. Foreign competitors include Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi and others. The Japanese firms tend to be more differentiated than Ford but retaining cost structures still in the mass market….

Ford Motor
Introduction of the company - Ford

Ford Motor Business began in 1903 by Henry Ford and it has constantly remained within family group possession ever since that period. The business created and applied assembly line manufacturing from the launch of the Model T. In the year 1909, and created planes and automobiles for U.S. Allies in The Second World War. Ford has worked globally since 1904, in the event it opened a division in Canada to acquire entry to Commonwealth marketplaces. With regard to the initial half in the Twenty-first century, Ford continued to be the prominent automobile manufacturer in the marketplace it had successfully developed. In 1956, Toyota released its initial automobile in the United States of America, and started acquiring marketplace share. In hindsight this became the turning point within the U.S. marketplace, and since the Twenty-first century came to an end Ford experienced declining marketplace share coupled….

Financial Objectives
Throughout the few recent years, the Ford Company has ended fiscal years with negative profits. Despite this however, they remain strong and able to finance their operations without endangering organizational stability. Nonetheless, the past profits are not able to sustain long periods of time of losses. In this order of ideas then, the financial objectives of the managerial team at Ford can be summarized as follows:

"Finance our plan and improve our balance sheet" (Ford Motor Company 2008 Annual eport)

Increase sales to generate more revenues

Increase investments with the aim of generating sustainable revenues, not only in terms of actual revenues, but also in terms of prestige and position within the market

6. Target Markets

As it has been mentioned before, modifications have occurred in the way Ford segments its customer base. Once appealing to wealthy individuals who wanted to make a socio-economic statement, the marketing team at the modern Ford is….

FOD
Case Study Discussion & Executive Summary Objectives Identify ethical problems faced managers. Apply steps ethical moral decision-making address management issues. Use ethical perspectives make management decisions.

Ford Pinto case study discussion & executive summary

Managers must continually balance their own, personal sense of ethics with the need to render a company profitable. In the case of Ford, the pressure to create an affordable car resulted in the company making unethical decisions that hurt customers and also hurt Ford's reputation and bottom line. While setting certain benchmarks of quality and cost are vitally important, Ford's stubborn refusal to install a basic safety control device in the Pinto is an example of how a failure of diverse sources of information and unwillingness to deviate from the chosen path of an organization can result in folly.

Ethical and moral decision-making must be integrated into the managerial decision-making process. Just as Ford set benchmarks for the Pinto's….

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