Category: General Motors

Introduction

During 2008-2009, General Motors and Toyota have experienced sales decline and increase caused by economic crisis and unstable market conditions. Thus, in spite of these problems both companies were able to develop effective marketing strategies and increase sales volume around the world. In GM, and Toyota, multi-domestic production is carried out by import-substitution companies. Even if the auto market is limited to the home country, GM and Toyota adapt products to local needs of international markets. The success of GM is caused by effective marketing strategy aimed to expend its business in Asian and African countries. “GM is looking to China’s booming auto market to drive global sales growth as demand in North America and other developed markets slump” (McDonald 2008). Global production involves the production of trucks for the global market by production-centre subsidiaries, and production of passenger cars for the world market. In both cases the car manufacturing technology is transferred from the home country, but as production-centre subsidiaries tend to be large some research activity is carried out there.

Discussion

Similar to GM, Toyota has opened research laboratories in the US, where there is a large supply of university graduates in engineering and auto industry. A two-way transfer of human resources and professional engineers takes place between the host and home countries. In the case of multi-domestic enterprises, Toyota’s managers tend to be from the host country because products and services have to be adapted to local needs. For global products like trucks and passenger cars, a high degree of integration is necessary as knowledge is transferred from the home country, so the key posts are filled by home-country employees. When the scale of these companies is large, some managers may be sent to work at the head office in the home country. This structure of business helps Toyota to meet local needs, sustain sales and generate income (“GM Reports”2009).

The difference between GM and Toyota in the ratio of foreign direct investment is very large, even among manufacturing companies. The export ratio of the high FDI is much larger than that of the other groups, indicating that high technology products from international companies like Toyota and GM are highly competitive in the world market. GM’s foreign production increases the export of components and the saturation and diffusion of the company brand: the fact of this high export ratio demonstrates that the FDI does not reduce employment in the home country. The ratio of research and development expenditure over sales for GM is much larger than for the other automakers as technology-intensive products are most appropriate for foreign production. In contrast to GM, “Toyota, has been able to weather the downturn better because of its strong car line-up, but plans to cut its global sales target for 2008” (Gupta 2008).

The ratio of sales promotion expenditure over sales for the high international companies is much lower than for the other groups – the ratio of head office personnel over workers is lower for the international companies, demonstrating scale effects. For GM, the sales growth rate (unconsolidated) is higher than that of the other groups. Foreign production contributed most to the growth of sales. In GM, successful multinational management involves the shift of the core competencies and practices of the parent company to its Japanese firms do not seek profits at once after an investment. This willingness to wait sometimes causes success with foreign partners in Asian countries. Also, “Sales in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East rose 17.7 percent, while sales in its Asia-Pacific region grew 14.6 percent, GM said. Sales rose 2.5 percent in Europe” (McDonald 2008).

In Toyotas, the success and sales growth is a result of successful HR management and market analysis. In Toyota, the top management team at subsidiaries is a mixture of Japanese expatriates and local managers, irrespective of whether the subsidiary is a joint venture or a wholly owned company. The board of directors is composed of Japanese full-time employees, part-time directors from Tokyo and local part-time managers. The management committee (or a group of departmental heads), responsible to the board, is the actual decision-making team. In Toyota, group decision-making is a very common practice at international subsidiaries and is a direct move of standard Japanese corporate decision-making. In the case of GM, controlling power may sometimes depend on the percentage of shares held, but even when ownership is less than 50 % the US side has controlling power if it provides the main resources or technology. Thus controlling power in GM depends on the number of resources one of the partners provides, not on majority ownership. If there is a serious conflict of interests this power to control is significant.

Toyota’s and GM’s involves the application of company- and location-specific benefits to increase sales and profit by diversifying the location of trucks and passenger car production. Considers that if a subsidiary company is not making a profit but contributes to an increase in consolidated profit, this local manufacturing facility can still be counted a success. This usually happens when the transfer price from the home country to the host country is high. Usually, marketing success is measured by the profit level of the subsidiary. “Total sales for the month were 156,380, and GM sold 15,000 more cars, 11,000 more trucks and 3,000 more crossovers than it did during February“ (Williams 2009). Overseas manufactures of GM and Toyota is best suited to mass produced products. The products and production facilities of Toyota are designed in the home country and the latter are exported to the host countries. This allows not only economies of scale but also simple control of the production process on the global scale (Gupta 2008).

At Toyota, international marketing orientation helps employees to understand the meaning of working for the company, as Toyota would have them see it, and increases their identification with the job and the brand. In order to produce high-quality cars, Toyota’s production equipment and modern automated machines are installed in overseas plants (Williams 2008). In all Toyota’s subsidiaries, office workers and their heads of department share an open-plan office, therefore improving communication between colleagues. It is crucial for successful working relations that no differentiation exists between white-collar and blue-collar workers – all wear the same uniform, including the director of the plant and the president of the local plant. It is important to note that Toyota’s subsidiaries try to protect jobs and do not readily lay off employees. For this reason there are many job seekers for vacant positions, sometimes more than a hundred for one job. Similar to Toyota, GM recognizes that it is hard to establish sophisticated research laboratories or design departments in developing countries, and where the level of schooling is not high it is not as easy to introduce employee participation methods such as quality circles or suggestion systems. Even within the same country there can be differences in the degree of transplantation (although in developing countries these differences tend to be small because successful methods of management have to be applied at all subsidiaries) (“FAW-Toyota sales surge” 2008).

For both Toyota and GM, international activities increase in scale and the degree of local procurement rises, expansion work is carried out to adapt products to local specifications. Another common feature of success is that GM’s managers try to work only with other American companies and never with local partners. In the USA, managers meet colleagues and subordinates after work for a meal or a drink, but in overseas countries they tend not to do this. In the third world countries they often live in large houses in secure districts that are remote from the homes of their host-nation friends. “Last year’s figure was 51 percent. Asian automakers had 44.6 percent of the market, while European brands had 7.8 percent” (Ramsey and Ohnsman 2009). Both Gm and Toyota make their corporate creed clear to all people employed of their foreign affiliates and main phrases are posted on the walls. Market analysis and customer’s analyses are the main tools which help to remain competitive and increase sales during the economic crisis (Isidore 2008).

Conclusion

In sum, the examples of GM and Toyota depict that effective and efficient marketing strategies can help companies to level difficult market processes and increase sales during the economic crisis. The core of effective management is a balance between local and national production facilities and marketing needs. Technological change is rapid and GM and Toyota’s technical managers, rotated every two years, are important agents in the transfer of new production methods to the affiliates. Though, it must be recognized that research activities need high-caliber professionals and considerable resources. Irrespective of the economy, it can be argued that marketing strategies have been successful because of a complex web of related methods of production and the existence of many u skilled workers. Also, such organizational processes as organizational control and market analysis, which reflect the degree of managerial domination, tend to control most affiliates. Both companies become successful by refining their technology and improving the quality of mass products, with the result that many competitors are driven from the market.

Works Cited

GM Reports 156,380 Deliveries in March. 2009. Web.

Gupta, P. GM trails Toyota in 2008 global sales race. Reuters. Web.

FAW-Toyota sales surge 129% in 2008. Web.

Isidore, Ch. Toyota catches GM in global sales.CNN Money. Web.

McDonald, J. GM Sales in China Rose 6% in 2008. Web.

Ramsey, M., Ohnsman, A. U.S. December Auto Sales Dive 36%, Drag Industry to 16-Year Low. Web.

Williams, CH. GM sales fell 45% in March from 2008, but rose 23% from February. Web.

Global value chain in GM presupposed initially the proper and updated use of software, hardware and networking standards (Laudon & Laudon, 2009). The need to standardize a global computing platform was necessary for GM in making relationships from country to country possible and reliable. The enormous size of the company and inability to connect all constituent parts of the automobile production was one of the main reasons for failure in competition with main rivals. That is why GM had great losses in 2007 (Laudon & Laudon). Moreover, the company did not catch the tendency of the time to innovate the information systems. It is concerned with the subsidiaries of GM worldwide and the relationships with the parent company headquartered in the US.

The relationship between GM’s business model and information systems is straightforward due to the wide use of IT within the contemporary companies. Here the invention of Internet also contributed into the development and growth of world’s major company. GM needs to control and elaborate its subsidiaries by means of networking and information systems, in particular. The irrational expenditures for the information systems pointed out waste costs for IT. Since Ralph Szygenda was appointed as CEO of the company he kept a strict eye on the financial resources spent for information systems and reduced the number of different information systems from 7000 to 2500 (Laudon & Laudon, 2009).

Information systems were helpful for the GM’s global business model due to the effective provision of knowledge and collaboration management. Cooperation with such giants in software industry as IBM, HP, Oracle intended the company to implement information technologies throughout the world “body” of GM, in order to have feedbacks from every within 35 different countries. “GM now has the infrastructure to keep its 160 global plants running smoothly,” so that to maintain correctly designed software and processes at every plant, in particular (Laudon & Laudon, 2009, p. 581). Also the company promoted four command centers on three continents, the US, Latin America, Europe, in order to stay in touch with any factory and to have the production process faster than previously (Laudon & Laudon, 2009). This became possible after the years of IT implementation and high and concerned rates of financial support for the IT budget. Now the company has greatly evaluated and developed connection with all parts of its production process worldwide. Also it is necessary to point out that the policy having provided by Szygenda saved for the company $1 billion per annum (Laudon & Laudon, 2009).

The perpetual upgrades of information systems will be successful for the company’s representation in the world arena due to the ability of the company to keep up with the times. Moreover, the trends of the company concerning its good work in upgrading IT technologies and concerns about the significance of information systems within the employees in comparison with closest rivals such as Toyota will then make possible for the company not to lag behind in the information milieu. It is so because of the time of post-industrial society with its relation to the information importance as the main and valuable product of today. On the other hand, GM should not forget about such spheres of the managerial approach as Customer Related Management, security services, and collaboration and knowledge management. In this respect, there are high oppo0rtunities for GM to keep a high brand within rivals in future.

References

Laudon, K. C., and Laudon J. P. (2009) Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm. Ed. 11 New Jersey: Pearson Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River.

Preamble

Product idea refers to finding information that is unique about the products that customers want but is not yet availed in the market. A realistic product idea may provide a lucrative business opportunity for an enterprise. It’s important that firms increasingly become innovative and research cautious.

My research is about a motor company GENERAL MOTORS LTD a company that specializes in manufacturing and building bodies for small cars as well as busses. My proposal for product ideas is as follows:

• A bus that changes wheels automatically.
• A bus that links the mass of passengers with the standard fare.
• A bus that detects any weaponry equipment.

These are very viable product ideas that if this company puts into use, then it will be able to survive both in the long and short run.

A bus that changes wheels automatically

In the modern world, there is no such idea, and consumers have been looking for a company where they can be able to get such vehicles. If GM goes ahead to implement this idea, it will be a big milestone in setting the s standard in the industry. This will increase customer satisfaction as well as choice.

A bus that automatically links the mass of a passenger to the standard fare

This will be a big boost not only to the firm itself but also to the stakeholders in the bus industry. It will eliminate cases of fraud as in third-world countries. Again it will significantly reduce the operational costs as there will be no need to employ a conductor. The bus will only have a driver.

A bus that detects weapons

Security has become a major global concern. In countries like Palestine, Iraqi, and Israel which are conflict-oriented, public transport should be guaranteed adequate security. If passengers are assured of their safety, then they will always be locked to a particular transport company and hence a boost. The manufacturing company will record booming sales both domestic and international.

Product development stages

There are four main development stages in a product.

Introduction

At this stage of the product, customers are still very few, and hence low sales volume may be recorded. Competition may also be insignificant, and the firms will be in most cases demonstrating or trying the products to clients.

Growth

During this stage, customers are becoming aware, and therefore the firm might begin realizing some profits, minimizing operational costs. Competition might be intensive, though not conspicuous.

Maturation

At this stage, costs begin to drop significantly while profits rising, sales begin to grow, competition starts to be eminent, prices tend to drop as a result of competitive offerings.

Saturation

This is actually the final stage is characterized by diminishing profitability, the decline in revenues, relative operational costs, and fierce competition. At this stage, a firm must be very careful as the product cycle may come to an end. Product decline should not be taken as a loss as it may provide managers with an opportunity to learn about the market forces and later adjust accordingly. This is why the final stage is important. (Hisrich, et al., 2008)

Alternatives to us of electronic commerce

Once a business desires to go online it should be able to opt for a business model that best suit their core business objectives. There are quite a number of business models that a business can use. They include:

• Electronic malls
• Electronic procurement
• Electronic shops
• Value chain service providers and etc.

All these business models can be used in place of electronic commerce. The GM CO can adopt any of the above models in commercializing the development stages. (Malone, 1998)

Conclusion

Product creativity should be a culture in every organization, especially in a very competitive environment. Products define the position the firm in the industry and can be used as an identity. Employing highly qualified staff with technical competencies is a pre-requisite for creativity.

List of References

Hisrich, R., Peters, M., & Shepherd, D. (2008). Entrepreneurship with business planwriter CD (7th ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.

Malone.T, Weill.P (1998) Changes in Business Models. Web.

Mergers and Acquisitions

The global recession that peaked in the year 2008 had a great effect to the entire economies world over. Multinational companies were forced to close down, while others adapted various strategies that allowed them to minimize their operation cost to enable them survive the recession. In the United States, multinational manufacturing companies like General Motors and Chrysler were declared bankrupt on the eve of the recession. The government had to come up with drastic measures like the bail out plan to save these companies from imminent collapse. This essay will illuminate the aspects of mergers and acquisitions prompted by business failures due to the 2008 economic.

Circumstances surrounding General Motors Bankruptcy

The manager of GM failed to file for bankruptcy early enough despite having witnessed souring labor costs, excess dealers, and the debts that the company had incurred as early as the year 2005. The manager argued that filing for bankruptcy would impact negatively on the buyers, the workers and the shareholders. The management seemed to be ill-prepared for the desperate moments in the economy. The September eleventh attack of the US by the terrorists added to the woes of GM by driving its incentives to the ground. This was occasioned by the response of GM to the victims when they offered zero percent financing on loans for a period of five years. This prompted financial implications associated with cash-back deals and low-rate financing.

The business failure that GM has undergone can be traced back to those days when they recalled the EV1 car model from the market. GM lost the market niche they had occupied in electric car manufacturing that was later occupied by Toyotas hybrid Prius. GM did err when they decided to sell their 51 percent holding in GMAC to Cerberus due the financial crunch it was going through. The failure of GM are partly due to their failure to heed Jerome York’s advice to develop a clean sheet of paper approach to business and the essence of time in the profitability of a business venture. Years after GM had acquired a 20 percent shareholding of FIAT an Italian auto company, the CEO of the company died. GM was never interested in buying FIAT and therefore unwittingly decided to pay FIAT to get out of the deal. This mistake has haunted GM to date. Other cause of GM failure is attributed to overreacting to the track boom.

Circumstances surrounding Chryslers Bankruptcy

Chrysler has over the years engaged in cost cutting decisions that seem to impact negatively on the cars. The huge amounts of money that were paid as consulting fee to Mercedes engineers and massive royalties paid by Chrysler on items they were supposedly forced to purchase, forced Chrysler to bankruptcy. Some of the causes to business failure are attributed to the management of the Chrysler misleading Daimler-Benz.

The GM bankruptcy forced the government to come up with bail out plan. Many people were opposed to the bail out plan as it was perceived that it will increase the taxes. The government reacted to this fear by engaging in domestic borrowing rather than increasing taxes. This is because increasing the taxes would have overburdened the tax payers. With the continued deteriorating performance of the company despite the all the effort given to it, the government being the leading shareholder in GM could have considered selling the company to the private companies. Total close down of GM would deny the government a lot of money in terms of revenue thereby rendering the government dysfunctional. GM and Chrysler being America’s largest auto industries, employ many people who work as engineers, sales people, marketers, and many others. When the company closes its doors, this would mean massive job losses occasioned by downsizing and job cuts.

Without a government bail out plan, the effects could have been devastating. Suppliers, dealers, design shops, and advertising agencies could have been greatly hit. This could have pushed the unemployment rate a notch higher. Failure of GM would mean scarcity of the spare parts of the vehicles. People from up country would have to move to the townships to purchase the spare parts. In case GM totally failed, its creditors were bound to suffer because the company owes a whopping 31 billion dollars in long-term debt and 34 million dollars in cash. Individual share holders may have lost a lot of money if the government did not come up with the bail out plan. Major shareholders can also possibly liaise with the management to fix the venture without bankruptcy. GM bankruptcy would have subjected the pensioners to untold suffering. The company is said to be paying out a total of 90 billion dollars in pension to its retired workers. The auto companies failures would mean that the warranty of any product you bought will be covered for by the government, the value of the cars are likely to fall due to un availability of the spare parts, the car dealers are also likely to close down their businesses.

List of References

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructurings 4th Edition. Web.

Ross Perot was intrigued with the proposition of becoming the CEO of General Motors. The only condition he was not satisfied with was that EDS was to become a small part of GM, which meant that he could lose control over his own company. Another point he was concerned with, was that when EDS was a separate company, the employees were awarded shares of the stock if the company performed well, which served as an incentive for better performance of each employee.

However, in the case of EDS’s becoming a small part of GM, awarding the employees with shares could not be a stimulant anymore. Ross Perot showed his worth as a talented leader and fighter for the rights of his employees; he never agreed to sacrifice their interests even for the welfare of the company he owned and insisted on compensating the employees irrespective of the more serious problems the merging of GM and EDS involved.

After being assigned the position of CEO of GM in 1981, Roger Smith started introducing changes into the company. His aim was to increase the efficiency of the company by modernizing it and making it less bureaucratic. The modernization plans included the acquisition of EDS; Smith liked Perot as the leader and was sure that he could make the company more productive. Ross Perot agreed to sell Electronic Data Systems for this allowed him to possess a part of General Motors, though a relatively small one. After being integrated into GM, EDS obtained a class E stock, which meant that the company owned a part of GM; it was also important that, in the case of voting, the worth of the stock equaled 1/5 of the total GM shares.

This ensured the independence of EDS and made Ross Perot able to still compensate his employees, which was his intention. Perot also benefited financially from selling the company; the sale brought him $1 billion, which is $44 for a share (he owned 45% of 58 million shares of EDS).However, the merging of the companies was aggravated by corporate cultural differences between them. GM’s employees objected the merging and resented the fact that nobody asked their opinion as to this issue.

They refused to work for EDS which was bought by their company, a much larger and more prosperous one; they did not want to work under EDS philosophy with the latter functioning under a separate name. Moreover, EDS employees got used to a military style of management and GM’s staff felt as if they were attacked. As a result, the relations between the workers of these two companies became strained and the environment in general was hostile.

Apart from the problems connected with corporate cultural differences, there was another troublesome issue. Roger Smith was aimed at introducing certain changes into the overall performance of the two merged companies. EDS tended to conduct business using fixed-price contracts which allowed the company saving money. GM, in its turn, used cost plus contracts and did not wish to change this policy.

Despite the contract concluded by these two companies (which stipulated that EDS was allowed using fixed-price contracts) at the time of merging, GM managers still insisted on their way of conducting business. One more problem was compensation to EDS workers, the issue Perot was so much preoccupied with. Smith disapproved the system of giving bonuses to EDS employees for he considered them excessive. This issue aroused numerous disputes between two executives with Perot’s completely losing his trust in Smith, and the latter flowing into furious rage because of the failure to introduce his changes.

Furthermore, acquisition of Hughes Aircraft became another stumbling block in the cooperation of Smith and Perot. It is possible to agree with Ross Perot that the acquisition of Hughes Aircraft by General Motors was unnecessary. This could lead to redirection of their business as such and involve high expenses without returning them in future. It was risky to put the whole business under a threat hoping that Hughes Aircraft could make the business more effective.

Defending the rights of his employees, Perot had numerous disputes with the General Motor’s Board of Directors. The best way to resolve these disputes was for the Board to agree to the terms put forward by Perot. Perot acted in the interests of employees, rather than his own; he agreed to sell EDS under condition that he would be allowed to compensate his employees. Otherwise, the only way out was to buy Perot out.

If I were a member of General Motor’s Board of Directors, I would not agree to buy him out because he was valuable as a leader of the company, even with his employee-oriented policies; though, if I were a shareowner of General Motors, I would agree to do it since his stock was significant for voting in the company. Judging from exhibit to, the composition of the GM Board of Directors is really impressive; all the members of the Board are respected and experienced people able to fulfill their role. However, unlike Ross Perot, they primary aim is the welfare of the company, rather than its employees, which affects the decisions they make.

In conclusion, it is worth adding that, despite all the problems which Ross Perot encountered while being a CEO of General Motors, he always remained true to his principles. He resigned from this post not because it was hard for him to handle these problems but because he did not want to abandon his position.

Introduction

In any business enterprise, innovation has to bring on board aspects of an organization’s vision, its strategies, inherent tactics, how it allocates its resources, how delegation is done, and from where the business outsources. There are well over 15 types of innovations. Indeed, these classifications have been made depending on businesses, processes, products, and markets. Innovation in an organization can completely change the way people perceive their world as it radically changes many aspects of human life. Innovation as a process involves transforming ideas into products that are valuable to the customers. Innovation, as a result, involves coming up with a valuable product that was not initially available that satisfies the needs of users that were not previously catered for.

Strategy refers to where the business intends to go. This integrates its goals and objectives. Of great importance here is how the business wants to achieve these goals and objectives. These are generally called the methods or the systems of methods. Examples of business strategies include the marketing strategy, the communication strategy, and the trade-show strategy. The business strategies can also be organized as initiatives.

Some types of business strategies can also be categorized as innovations. These include business models, financial models, and alliances. This essay will interrogate the impacts of innovation on the strategy, process, and products of General Motors, Microsoft Corporation, and Hewlett Packard.

Impacts of Innovation on General Motors Strategy, Process, and Product

General Motors enjoys a very big client base that makes it extremely difficult for new entrants into the industry to break. General Motors has embarked on initiatives that have enabled them to rake profit in extremely difficult situations. They have embarked on the provision of safety and security services by installing in-built vehicle electronics. This has been arrived at to enhance their base business. They have undertaken to engage in vehicle styling and engineering, coming up with a model that is more profitable in the truck market, investing in high margin add on and vehicle accessories, merchandising, extensive advertising, and initiation of incentive programs to enhance dealer traffic, and drive up sales volume.

This strategy in the year 2001 paid off and GM’s competitors desperately started coming up with other initiatives to much its moves. However, it is worth noting that diversification of the business base is not enough. The ability of GM engineers to embrace technological advances has changed focus to the driver’s needs. Digital mapping, satellite navigation, and mobile telephony have enhanced this. With these, drivers are now capable of getting access to vital information, support, and entertainment. This has been achieved by GM’s resolve to come up with a device called OnStar that has a cellular phone, GPS receiver, control panel, and a modem (Slywotzky and Wise, 2003 p.17). This has guaranteed the safety and security of the owners of these cars as well as made traveling more convenient and fun as the device enables car users to locate the nearest fuelling station and car repair facilities.

Impacts of innovation on Hewlett Packard’s Strategy, Process, and Products

Because of challenges that are associated with innovation and growth management of corporate organizations has to contend with issues related to paradox. Hewlett Packard has solved these problems by coming up with products and technologies that change the landscape of existing industries. Through this emerging markets have sprung up. HP has embraced the use of disruptive innovation to break with its past and come up with new technologies and processes to enhance the value that its customers get from its products. They have integrated the use of radical innovations that transforms the entire market. This has been witnessed by the introduction into the market of Hewlett Packard’s Ink Jet that completely replaced Dot-matrix printing. This catapulted the company into a leadership position.

HP uses several business strategies and these include Radical cannibalism that involves a company’s successful product with a new technology or process to enhance customer value. This has enabled HP to only grow but also increase its market share; Competitive displacement involves displacement of HP’s competitors’ products and technologies (Hamel and Prahalad, 1994). This has helped in doing away with the existing traditional competition. Through this strategy, HP has continued to provide its customers with surprising, creative, and effective mechanisms for enhancing value. This has been witnessed in their PhotoSmart line of products which encompasses digital camera, scanner, printer, and image editing services. Other strategies include market invention and industry genesis.

Impacts of innovation on Microsoft Strategy, Process, and Products

Microsoft has used enterprise resource planning strategy to steer industry-specific innovations tailor-made for its customers. To extend its core capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics AX, it has come up with four industry solutions. The solutions are meant to offer flexible business solutions relevant to ever-evolving business needs. These solutions include availing a manufacturing solution that tightly integrates business processes in discrete and process manufacturing; professional service solution with a single system that manages products and resources as well as executing financial transactions; retail solutions that provide an end-to-end retail solution (Redmond, 2009). Acquisition of such technology has enabled Microsoft Corporation to provide core industry functionalities.

Reference List

Hamel, G. and Prahalad, C.K. (2003). Competing for the Future. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Redmond, W. (2009). Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009: Take Your Business into the Future. Web.

Slywotzky, A. and Wise, R. (2003). Demand innovation: GM’s OnStar case. Strategy and Leadership, 31(4), 17-22.

The General Motors Corporation (GM) prides itself on its reputation in being an international company with many branches spread all over the world. However, the admission of this fact has put the company in a challenging situation with regard to ethical and compliance codes of conduct. The diversity of its workforce subject to the country’s rights and ethics puts the company under a higher task on ethical codes. With this regard, this paper makes an extensive literal review of the company’s privacy ethical criteria to sexuality, while deeply considering utilitarian and deontological theories.

Sexuality is a key element in any organization. Today sexuality accounts for failure and success in both international and local companies. General Motors Corporation has made its effort to business ethics and compliance to sexuality. Although according to the utilitarian approach, less emphasis is given to it since it may mean little to any good or bad. On the other hand, the satisfaction in working together, with a different gender is immense and of immense worth to building a dynamic team.

Notwithstanding, the company has adopted a policy that gives equal opportunities to both males and females and allowed one to data (although not included) a colleague. However, it is less likely that the employees dating may be allowed to work in the same company, not to mention of the same department. This is all for the benefit of the company.

According to deontological theory, it is ethical to date anybody regardless of the company one is working. On a closer look at the ethical perspective, with regard to privacy ethics at work, it falls that this is, natural moral, law that one may be reluctant to resist. However, the same theory advances that it is intuition from common sense and one ought to show responsibility towards sexuality. Again, the privacy or rather a freedom is given to each one of him or she should be enough to let satisfied working in the area. As such, General Motors has made an extensive effort in ensuring compliance with the company codes of conduct that may justify punishing or avoiding some employees as far as such motives are meant to produce a maximization of consequences or results in the production.

Furthermore, the company has made decentralized compliance on ethical codes of conduct that have a multicultural aspect. Sexuality and sexual harassment at workplaces have been significant at General Motors Corporation, as it does not just touch on the privacy of the sexuality but the integrity. The numerous numbers of cultures that constitute the company employees have an ethical aspect on the cultural norm, which puts the company at task to observe sexuality with considerable concern on ethics.

Sexual harassment is considered as a violation of the law, in the same line, General Motors gives zero tolerance on the same regardless of the country. In this view, the company has set up retaliatory workplaces where one can work comfortably without disruptions. Many times, the majority of individuals are fearful to speak up for fear of the security of their jobs or loss of reputation. The company has set an effective reporting mechanism where one can access the communication mechanisms and justify their moral stands.

Forced Paradigm Shift

The radical surgery of the managerial structure led to the replacement of the old management by new managers.

General Motors, due to the global crisis, was forced to cut down costs by reducing its employees and its extravagant benefit packages reviewed down.

The company change of strategy from producing fuel guzzlers to efficient vehicles which are demanded globally due to the poor economic state and the need to cut down costs has changed the company’s face (Holstein, 2009).

Reduced management levels have largely reduced bureaucracy and eased decision making.

Reduced Number of Management Levels

The restructuring of the company rigid hierarchical structure has introduced a new crop of market sensitive CEOs who address the changes in the market for the advantage of the new company (Anonymous, 2009).

Bureaucracy in decision making has largely been addressed by the reduced levels. Decisions are arrived at faster than before, keeping the company in the right managerial track.

Management practices include a thorough documentation process for monitoring and review purposes. This makes it easy for line managers to pin point origins of quality faults and to correct them in time and ensure that the firm keeps abreast with customer expectations.

Continual Innovation

The company has invested in the production of unique vehicles which are cost effective and competitors are unable to imitate.

The new management decisions are sensitive to market research, development and product differentiation which will continually give the firm a competitive edge over its competitors in the long run (Treece & Yamaguchi, 2002).

Cost Consciousness

The cutting down of employee benefit packages has largely reduced the costs of the firm.

Market driven production has led to production of only the products the consumer is willing and able to buy. This has reduced unnecessary production.

Trimming down the employee numbers is another strategy which has cut down the new company costs.

Extended level of processes in the new company requires a more strict observance of quality at the initial process of product processing to avoid the cost attributed to loss of quality (Treece & Yamaguchi, 2002).

References

Anonymous (2009). Geopolitical diary: The significance of GM’s bankruptcy. Stratfor Geopolitical Diary, p2-2.

Holstein, W. J. (2009). Who’s to blame for GM’s bankruptcy?Business Week Online, p2-2.

Treece, J. B., & Yamaguchi, Y. (2002). Toyota, Honda set profit records. Automotive News, 77/6010, p8-8.

Some 16 high-ranking employees of General Motors (GM) were sent to NUMMI to learn lessons about Toyota’s success and why it was making more durable and affordable cars. The aim of this was to apply the lessons to GM plants across the country. Upon their return, they discovered that GM plants were embedded in a corrosive culture that was resistant to change.

To begin with, GM was not interested in the partnership mainly because of its pride and defensiveness. The GM workers were paid well even without putting in hard work (NUMMI, 2015). Thus, they liked the way things were in their plants and resisted any change that would alter the status quo.

At Toyota, there was a team-based approach while GM mostly valued hierarchical structures that put a few people at the apex of management. These managers wielded more powers, which they were unwilling to cede in place of Toyota’s horizontal integration. In addition, the teamwork approach pursued by Toyota was seen as an unfair and negative formula that would lead to victimizing underperformers at GM (NUMMI, 2015). Moreover, the stringent departmentalization at the GM ensured that ownership and interconnection between departments were lacking.

The Toyota system was seen by the GM managers as an unnecessary disruption of its operations. Despite the adoption of massive automation at NUMMI, GM particularly failed to manage its workforce effectively. The company’s executives put too much emphasis on labor costs at the expense of other expenses such as defective parts, overhead, and inventory. In addition, GM still had a combative relationship with its suppliers despite the partnership. It applied aggressive bargaining approaches to get the best deals from its suppliers rather than working in collaboration with them in a manner that both parties maximize their benefits. These factors combined deny it an opportunity to learn from Toyota’s best practices.

Reference

NUMMI (2015). Web.

When buying a truck, people consider aspects such as safety, convenience, and comfort. Different brands in the market have various features to enhance their marketability and achieve a competitive advantage. GMC Denali trucks are among the most sought-after vehicles in the market due to their efficiency and unique features (Terra Nova). It has a driver control system which offers an excellent experience for drivers and occupants. The brand performs well in the area of comfort and convenience. However, Chevy Silverado is another brand focused on quality, safety, and convenience to remain relevant in the market (Chevrolet 19). It has an average score in convenience since it majors on improving its suspension. The truck obtains an excellent crash rating on frontal crash, side crash, and rollover tests. Therefore, Chevy Silverado is better than GMC due to its higher safety score and reliability.

GMC Denali Sierra gets a high score when it comes to comfort and convenience. The truck is outfitted with helpful features such as driver control and direct injection technology (Terra Nova). GMC has integrated technology into its products through its unique features that distinguish it from its competitors. Driver control technology, available in all GMC trucks, brings reliability and a good experience for drivers. Hill Decent Control is effective when going down a steep grade without using the brake pedal (Terra Nova). A direct injection system is another GMC Denali truck feature that enables quick starts in cold weather and offers maximum efficiency combined with quick operation while delivering low emissions and steady power (Terra Nova). Therefore, GMC Denali trucks perform well in comfort and expediency areas.

Chevy Silverado received an average score in the area of convenience to enhance customer satisfaction. Custom features enhance the product’s appearance and comfort (Chevrolet 19). Chevy trucks have adaptive cruise control, which helps a driver keep a safe following distance and stay within the speed limit. It enables a driver to focus on other things while driving through traffic without being concerned about hitting other vehicles ahead. Furthermore, Chevy has specially tuned shocks, a suspension system, and chassis that enhance a smooth ride during an off-road adventure or rough driving conditions (Chevrolet 5). As a result, the truck relies on its spacious cabin, high-quality suspensions, and handling to offer a smooth and comfortable drive.

GMC Denali has a good crash test rating, which shows effectiveness in its performance. According to US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Crash Test Result, the truck had a three-star overall rating score (CarBuzz). The test was done on its frontal barrier crash, side crash, and rollover. The GMC truck obtained full marks for side crash rating and three stars in frontal barrier and rollover. This shows that the truck is safer when hit on the side than other sections. The driver and other occupants are probably safe when it is crushed from the side. On the other hand, the three-star rating score indicates that the vehicle’s occupants may suffer some injuries when a crash happens from the front or behind the truck. Therefore, the crash test rating indicates that GMC Denali is safe to some extent.

Chevy Silverado is much better when it comes to the NHTSA crash test rating. In 2022, the frontal crash, side crash, and rollover tests gave the Silverado four stars, giving it an excellent overall safety rating of four stars (Valley). The truck got five stars in the frontal driver-side crash test and the rollover resistance test, which measures how likely a single vehicle will roll over if the driver loses control. In side crash tests, the Silverado gets the highest possible rating of five stars for its overall side pole star rating (Valley). This rating is based on the front and rear seat side barrier and pole tests and the driver and rear passenger side barrier tests. As a result, Chevy trucks have effectively safety measures that ensure the occupants are safe in the event of a crash.

Chevy Silverado is considered the safest and most reliable brand in the market. The truck has safety features proven by NHTSA to protect vehicle occupants and load. The Silverado earned a four-star overall safety rating. In addition, it received five stars in the frontal crash test and the rollover resistance evaluation, which determines the likelihood of a single-vehicle rollover in a loss-of-control scenario. Chevy trucks are usually prepared for a hazard that might occur on the road to ensure that the occupants are safe. Although GMC Denali slightly outperforms Chevy trucks in comfort and convenience, most customers are more concerned about their safety when using a vehicle. With the dangers an individual is exposed to on the roads, there is a likelihood that most people are more likely to choose to be safe rather than convenient. In case of any crush, the occupants of Chevy are protected from getting serious injuries.

Works Cited

CarBuzz. “2022 GMC Yukon Safety and Reliability Ratings: Warranty, Crash Test Ratings, Safety Features.”Carbiz.com. Web.

Chevrolet. New 2022 Silverado 1500. 2022. Web.

Terra Nova. 5 reasons for Sierra’s reliability. 2022. Web.

Valley. 2022 Silverado Safety Rating. 2022. Web.