Category: General Motors

Introduction

General Motors (GM) is one of the multinational organizations in the automobile manufacturing industry that has already achieved success and recognition across the globe. Before the organizational change, GM spent billions of dollars to maintain its research strategies and promote organizational development in various directions (Khan & Hashim, 2014). Its main goals included the support of loyal customers, training of employees, and the adoption of new methods of production.

Discussion

The decision to implement organizational change is associated with the analysis of several critical factors that force the GM’s leadership to consider transformations. According to Khan and Hashim (2014), the organizational environment, the chosen context, new governmental policies, legislation, technological advancement, and global economic conditions are the main forces that bring change in GM. It is also necessary to admit the impact of new trade policies, the importance of creating new products, and the delivery of customer value and satisfaction.

Change management is a complex process that requires specific steps and approaches to ensure positive effects are observed. In GM’s case, managers focus on cost-cutting to make its products available and maintain the profit level and cultural change to speed up decision-making (Khan & Hashim, 2014). On the one hand, such problems as a lack of employee involvement, low satisfaction levels, and inconsistency with trade unions occurred. On the other hand, the company is now able to concentrate on its sales and inform its employees about the current vision, accountability, and responsibility.

Conclusion

In addition to internal changes and requirements, GM should also ensure its competitiveness at the global level. It is not enough to increase its sales volume and improve the workforce. Global competition implies additional requirements and recommendations, including public perception improvement and fuel efficiency (Khan & Hashim, 2014). The change in working conditions and sales management has already made it possible to eliminate some weaknesses of the company. However, it is obligatory to continue formulating new statements and goals to gain a competitive advantage in the car manufacturing marketplace.

Reference

Khan, M. A., & Hashim, M. (2014). Organizational change: Case study of General Motors. In ASEE 2014 Zone I Conference. University of Bridgeport.

The morale and the organizational culture of a business can have a great impact on its outcomes, employee motivation and expenses. The example of GM’s accident caused by an authoritarian model provided in the texts is a rather valid example of the matter. It explains the correlation between workplace culture, the accident, external and internal factors and why the aforementioned model was abolished. The following essay will review how it will affect my perception of myself and what aspects I may add.

As mentioned earlier, the strict hierarchy and authoritarian model implemented by General Motors lead to multiple issues within the company. The failures are why it is highly recommended for them to change their methods and focus on the more employee-friendly environments that exist within their competitors’ workplaces (Unknown author, n. d.). This detailed example demonstrates how my performance can be affected by the model promoted by the company I may work with in the future. Moreover, it demonstrates how the authoritarian culture may negatively affect such aspects as employee motivation and the overall success of a business. This information is crucial for me both as a future employee, and, possibly, may have a large effect on me as a higher ranking figure.

As a result, I intend to be more mindful of other people’s opinions and be more open to other perspectives. It is important for employees within a business to be able to express their perspective on the organizational culture of a company and how it may affect the overall success of the business. Moreover, I plan to be more diplomatic and democratic, as this would present me as a thoughtful and empathetic professional. For example, I will listen to my future employees and their opinions, accentuating the importance of their participation in the matter. As an employee, I intend to be more active; as the acquired information has shown me how valuable all workers are in a business. In conclusion, this information will demonstrate the effect certain models have on organizational culture and the business in general. I intend to be more active as an employee and more mindful of other people’s opinions as a future boss.

Reference

Unknown author (n. d.) 7-2 Final Project Organizational Analysis

Summary

The consequences of the strike are often disturbing: people do not understand how to work afterward. In General Motors, there are significant concerns about imbalanced teamwork. These are new contracts, lower wages, the decline of staff, and improper medical insurance. Moreover, some past events collapsed the working atmosphere in General Motors (GM), for example, multiple struggles of the 2000s, the ignition key incident, recalls of many cars, and multimillion debt. The issues should be solved on many levels: operational, technological, leadership, employee engagement, morale, and many others. Application of organizational psychology theories is also helpful: Maslow’s hierarchy, Theories X and Y, McKinsey’s 7S, and other approaches. It is necessary to maintain a safe workplace for employees, imply high motivation and productivity, and develop strategies that will allow workers to feel comfortable within their workplace.

Background

General Motors (GM) is a huge multinational corporation that designs, produces, and distributes cars and vehicle details worldwide. The company was one of the most successful vehicle manufacturers and owned significant stakes in foreign brands. However, General Motors faced difficulties in 2007, leading to bankruptcy in 2009; the company’s CEO had to appeal for financial support. In 2009, GM had to announce their bankrupts; indeed, the company had to accept a considerable debt. The company decides to deal with this problem by excluding multiple models of their vehicles, closing factories, and firing many employees. Despite being the leader in the international market of cars, GM still has an enormous doubts.

United Automobile Workers (UAW), a labor union, agreed to support GM’s employees by increasing their wages and giving them certain benefits. However, workers still suffered from lowered salaries with the flow of time. The lack of a workforce was apparent: GM lost their employees, despite workers accepting structural changes. Moreover, the incident of 2014 subjected GM to more complicated struggles. The strike connected with the dismissal of employees’ medical insurance and lowered wages due to staff reduction happened. These main issues collapsed the company and led to the instability.

Business Strategy Development

It is crucial to determine which problems arose during employees’ strikes and seek practical solutions. On the operational level, which means supervising employees and being first-line managers, it can be effective to calm people down and listen to them. Moreover, it is crucial to understand that a similar idea unites people that go to strike: their behavior, thoughts, and values often split and create a united intelligence. This phenomenon usually refers to the collective unconscious, and it is essential to appeal to the group as a whole (Fordham, 2018). There is a necessity to calm people down and listen to their terms and requirements. A compassionate, kind, and emphatic leader will keep people calm (Hakanen and Pessi, 2018). Accessibility, empathy, and responsiveness are critical features of operational-level managers.

The technological level uses technical knowledge and solves related issues, and different decisions might affect the company’s workers. It can be an excellent solution to provide workers with a fixed salary, which the government and company’s policies establish minimum. Therefore, wages cannot be less than a set minimum. Concerns about the new contract changing the company’s policy can be clear, and employees’ reactions are negatively predictable. The agreement should be reviewed to satisfy the needs of CEOs, managers, and employees. The CEO of GM, Mary Barra, claims that closing plants are connected with automatization (Euronews, 2018). It might become a reason for firing 14,000 employees (Euronews, 2018). Indeed, it is possible to requalify many workers into IT specialists and technical support workers. It can save a vast part of the staff. It is vital to fix the supply chain and achieve it through proper planning and execution. It is necessary to think about possible supply chain scenarios, generate connections with reliable linking elements of the chain, and invent different solutions to provide quality management.

Abraham Maslow’s theory is a famous approach for measuring human needs. The theory of hierarchy needs first appeared in Maslow’s book Motivation and Personality, and this date is considered a foundation of the approach (Suyono and Mudjanarko, 2017). Overall, the policy deals with five concepts of human life. It includes physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization needs (Oved, 2017). The main idea of Maslow’s theory is that the person cannot reach the next step of the pyramid until he is done with the previous. Maslow’s theory applies to the situation with the General Motors strike, and it is essential to look at why: employees seek to have financial stability, and their motivation is clear. Moreover, employees’ desire for money and safety is proven by the company’s absence of proper medical and economic conditions. Therefore, it is crucial to create the pyramid of GM employees’ needs:

It is also essential to motivate people and maintain collective employee morale. According to Theories X and Y, people are encouraged to work when their needs and expectations are satisfied. X assumes little motivation and responsibility avoidance, while Y is inspired to work without direct reward. Therefore, it is essential to lead GM employees in the Y direction, as workers are encouraged to work for the long run when their expectations are fulfilled (Tahir and Iraqi, 2018). Several issues that can raise motivation in employees and improve the overall atmosphere are monthly financial bonuses, discounts for vehicles, and extra bonuses.

Moreover, one organizational psychology approach to work is the self-leadership theory. It states that people use several strategies to motivate themselves to do tasks. It includes thinking methods and self-rewards, with the help of which employees can raise their awareness and focus on work (Maykrantz and Houghton, 2018). Strategies of the self-leadership approach strive to increase inner motivation by changing the attitude to the task in a positive direction (Neck et al., 2019). It might be helpful to arrange business training to inspire GM workers; it will also help understand their values, preferences, and desires at the workplace to improve relations between managers and employees. In addition, leadership positioning and relations with employees might be enhanced by lowering power distance, as workers want to be heard, and smaller spaces can fix the problem.

Strike avoidance is a complex issue; however, it might be possible to conduct. Employees require being heard and listened to their complaints during and after the strike. The struggle requires understanding the basics of human psychology, and it is necessary not to mute employees to prevent a huge problem. Interaction, communication, and feedback might help the leaders and employees to hear each other. It is possible to gather reviews and complaints with the help of online or offline surveys twice a year to avoid serious problems. Surveys can become good indicators of changes and dynamics of the company’s success. Middle managers can serve as mediators between employees and leaders of GM – it might help avoid misunderstanding, and every member will interact to solve the issue.

Moreover, determining employees’ terms and leaders’ goals is essential. For example, it will be helpful to identify precise facts that do not satisfy the staff—in addition to avoiding pressure from both sides to understand the problems to be addressed. It is possible to evaluate tradeoffs concerning workers’ salaries according to the established wage standards and the GM’s policy. Furthermore, it is helpful to implement strategies of organizational psychology. For instance, the path-goal theory is an excellent framework to motivate employees with the help of compassionate leadership. It is essential to maintain friendly and trustful relations within all layers of the staff to improve the workplace atmosphere.

The business solution for GM will be the following: identifying the company’s mission and values, development of corporate culture and maintenance of good relations in the company, and developing unique working skills. Making smart investments and implementing innovations are also ways to achieve the goal.

Moreover, McKinsey 7S is a working framework for determining the precise goals and objectives of the company. After implementing and combining these approaches, every member of the staff is involved, the interaction between people will improve, and every worker will understand the company’s direction. The framework for General Motors will be the following:

From both personal and professional perspectives, organizational psychology knowledge, undergoing psychological business training, and intercultural communication experience would help me investigate, assess, and improve the situation in GM. I might be an appropriate candidate to solve issues of the company due to the unique combination of business and psychological approaches. According to some studies, combining professional and theoretical knowledge is one of the best ways to make significant improvements (Hakanen and Pessi, 2018). For instance, a similar business strategy leads the Lego company to success, so I rely on constant development (Sommer, 2019). Moreover, I think that my compassion, empathy, purposefulness, and care skills might attract the GM to choose me as a consultant.

Reference List

Euronews. (2018). General Motors to close plants and cut jobs to cope with ailing market. Web.

Fordham, M. (2018). Analytical Psychology. Great Britain: Taylor & Francis.

Hakanen, J. J., and Pessi, A. B. (2018). ‘Practicing compassionate leadership and building spirals of inspiration in business and in public sector’, Practicing Servant Leadership, pp. 119–140. Web.

Maykrantz, S. A., & Houghton, J. D. (2018). ‘Self-leadership and stress among college students: examining the moderating role of coping skills’, Journal of American College Health, 68(1), pp. 89–96. Web.

Neck, C. P., Manz, C. C., and Houghton, J. D. (2019). Self-Leadership. New York: SAGE Publications.

Oved, O. (2017). ‘Rethinking the place of love needs in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’, Society, 54(6), pp. 537–538. Web.

Sommer, A. F. (2019). ‘Agile transformation at LEGO Group’, Research-Technology Management, 62(5), pp. 20–29. Web.

Suyono, J., and Mudjanarko, S. W. (2017). ‘Motivation engineering to employee by employees Abraham Maslow theory’, Journal of Education, Teaching and Learning, 2(1), pp. 86-92. Web.

Tahir, H. K., and Iraqi, M. K. (2018). ‘Employee performance and retention: a comparative analysis of theory X, Y and Maslow’s theory’,Journal of Management Sciences, 5(1), pp. 100–110. Web.

Executive Summary

Organizations are usually involved with many activities depending on the type of business they are involved with or rather the products and services they trade in. Holden General Motors is a well-known company in the motor industry. It is an automaker in Australia and has a long history and various changes have been experienced since it was started.

The main aim of this report is to give a critical evaluation of the Holden General Motors. Various aspects associated with this company will be brought out for instance the historical background, the management system, the social and ethical issues surrounding the company, the impact brought about by environmental aspect as well as its sustainability and future prospects.

Introduction

There are various issues that surround an organization. Most of them are however related to management functions for instance planning, organization, staffing, coordination as well as controlling. Management is therefore a critical element in an organization and it greatly determines the success or failure level that an organization attains at any given time. For this reason, it should be upheld to the best standards possible. Holden General Motors is an automaker with its headquarters in Australia, Victoria.

The company has undergone a lot of changes, some of them bringing positive outcomes while others have got negative impacts to the company and the society at large. This piece of paper will give an in depth discussion of Holden General Motors including all the aspects that surrounds it from the time it originated as a manufacturer of saddles, to its venture into the automotives, its current state as well as the future prospects and what could be done to improve the situation.

Holden General Motors’ management

Before we get into the current management of Holden General Motors, it is advisable that we have a look at the historical background of the company and the path it has taken from the time it was started to present. Overall, it is evident that management practices in the company have played a great role in placing the company in the position it is now.

Background Information of Holden General Motors

Holden General Motors was neither formed in one day nor has it had a smooth path throughout. Holden General Motors was founded as a saddle making company in 1856 by James Alexander Holden after he moved from England to South Australia. Later, in the 20^th century, it ventured into the field of automotive. Initially (1931), it operated as a subsidiary of the general motors (GM) based in the United States of America. It was later that the company was named General Motors-Holden’s Limited after taking over by GM. In 1998, it was known as Holden Ltd. The current name, Holden General Motors was adopted in 2005 (Bebbington 1998).

It was in the year 1885 that Henry Fredrick Frost joined J.A Holden & Company as a junior partner. This led to change of company name where it was now named as J.A. Holden & Frost limited.

In 1905, another partner by the name Edward Holden, James grandson, joined the company. He brought in the idea of automobiles into the company. It was from this time that the company entered into different partnerships aimed at strengthening it.

In 1908, Holden and Frost managed to start a business that dealt with minor automobiles repairs from where it was able to pick into a bigger firm (Darwin 2002). In 1913, the company was in a position to produce complete sidecar bodies that could be used for motorcycles. Fitting of bodies into different kinds of carriages was also tried out in an effort to expand the firm in the automobile industry. In 1917, the company was able to start full-scale production of vehicle body shells following the wartime trade restriction in the country.

Later in 1919, James Alexander Holden set up a new company by the name Holden’s Motor Body Builders Ltd (HMBB). This company was mainly involved with making of car bodies. There was a rapid growth in this company and by 1923 it was producing a total of 12,000 units in a year. However, there was a great depression around 1930 leading to a decline in the production level. Despite the challenges, the company later rose and was able to expand everywhere (Davis 1991).

Current Management

Due to changes that have been experienced in the motor industry and the contemporary economic world, there have been considerable changes that have been seen in regard to the management of the Holden General Motors.

There was a decline in the company’s progress in the 2000s and in 2003, Holden General Motors was not in a position to secure the first position in terms of sales in Australia and the position was taken by Toyota. This had a negative impact on the company especially with respect to profits (Miller, Vandome, and McBrewster. 2009).

In 2007, Holden General Motors faired better but later declined in 2008 and 2009. However, in 2010, the company was able to achieve a profit of A $112 million. This clearly shows that the Holden General Motors has undergone many ups and down, which are attributed to various, factors most of which are related to management. Much about the company will be discussed in the following discussion sections (General Motors Corporation and Princeton Institute for Historic Research 1983).

Organization Chart/ Structure

An organization chart is a crucial tool in any given form of business enterprise irrespective of size. This is because it allows for better planning and implementation of different functions as every aspect is placed in an appropriate level. It also makes it easier to draw a relationship among different elements that are associated with a given organization. In order to gather a deeper understanding of the various units that make up Holden General Motors, here is the organization chart.

List of Top Managers at Holden General Motors and Their Titles

Being a big company that operates in different parts of the world, Holden General Motors has a large pool of human resources in different levels, each being involved with various activities aimed at putting the company at a competitive advantage. This has been achieved through fostering of efficiency, effectiveness, and economy in all the practices and activities involved in the company. As of today, the following individuals form the management body and they are associated with the success level that is achieved in the company.

Daniel F. Akerson: the Holden General Motors chair and Chief Executive Officer

Stephen J. Girsky: the company’s vice chairperson, corporate strategy, business development, supply chain, global purchasing, and global product planning.

Thomas G. Stephens: Holden General Motors vice chairman, global chief technology officer (CTO).

Jaime Ardila: Holden General Motors vice president and president of South America.

Timothy E. Lee: Holden General Motors vice president and president on international operations.

Nick. D. Reilly: Holden General Motors vice president and president, Europe.

Mark L. Reuss: Holden General Motors Vice President and President, North America

Mary. T. Barra. Holden General Motors Senior Vice President, Global Product Development

Michael P. Millikin: Holden General Motors Senior Vice President and General Counsel

Daniel Ammann: Holden General Motors Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Cynthia J. Brinkley: Holden General Motors Vice President, Global Human Resources

Selim Bingoi: Holden General Motors Vice President, Global Communications

Nick S. Cyprus: Holden General Motors Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer and Controller

James A. Davlin: Holden General Motors Vice President Finance and Treasurer

Joel Ewanick: Holden General Motors Vice President and Global Chief Marketing Officer

Robert E. Ferguson: Holden General Motors Vice President, Global Public Policy

Terry S. Kline: Holden General Motors Vice President, Information Technology and Chief Information Officer

Anne T. Larin: Holden General Motors Corporate Secretary

Victoria McInnis: Holden General Motors Chief Tax Officer

Brian D. Thelen: Holden General Motors General Auditor and Chief Risk Officer.

The above named list shows the Holden General Motors corporate officers as per the General Motors website (2011).

In Holden General Motors, human resources are treated with a lot of concern bearing in mind that they are responsible for the manipulation of all other factors in the organization for instance the assets. Aspects such as motivation, rewards, and provision of incentive are emphasized to ensure that the employees are encouraged to even do better (Cohen and Royssel 2005).

Social and Ethical Responsibilities

Holden General Motors’ Social and Ethical Responsibilities

Corporate social responsibility is an essential aspect in the business world. It is an obligation for a business organization to pursue long-term goals that are good for the society. It can also be termed as the continuing commitment by business firms to behave in an ethical manner and contribute to economic development while at the same time enhancing the quality of life of the employees and their families. The business firm should also enhance the lives of the local community and the entire society around which it operates (Kotler, 2005).

Corporate social responsibility should not be taken as an extra activity but rather as a priority and a factor that helps greatly in achievement of high levels of a business’ profit through enhancing productivity. In regard to corporate social responsibility, Holden General Motors has been in the fore front.

It has tried to help the communities with which it is involved through provision of various activities, most of them being development-related. It is a company that have been recognized among those that take corporate social responsibility as a major function that it ought to fulfil as opposed to other organizations that consider it to be a burden or rather an extra task.

For this reason, Holden General Motors has received some awards in connection to corporate social responsibility. For instance, the General Motors in China received two corporate social responsibility awards during the corporate social responsibility in 2005. This is just an example and various branches of the Holden General Motors have been known for their efforts in perpetrating corporate social responsibility activities and processes (General Motors 2009).

Holden General Motors works under the principle that its actions play a significant role in shaping its reputation and hence the need to engage in activities that are aimed at helping communities they come across. Corporate social responsibility in Holden General Motors can also be seen in its diversity of operations.

The company has extended its activities wide (operates in six continents; 192 countries) in an effort to reach as many people as possible. In doing this, Holden General Motors aims at establishing a business culture that fosters responsibility, maximum inclusion, understanding as well as mutual respects. All these are aspects related to corporate social responsibility.

Holden General Motors has also engaged in educational programs as a sign of corporate social responsibility. The company perceives education to be essential in raising responsible citizens particularly in regard to technological development. It has therefore embarked on different educational initiates in an attempt to equip students in different parts of the world with relevant skills and knowledge that could be of help at present times as well as in the future (General motors 2011).

Holden General Motors recognizes the need to conserve the environment for sustainability. In carrying out its activities, the company makes sure that it does not affect the environment in a negative manner for instance causing degradation of any kind. To be specific, Holden General Motors operates its activities in a way that fosters environmental conservation and preservation so as not to be a negative contributor to the general society.

Renewable and recyclable materials have been preferred in operating the factories and offices of the Holden General Motors (Hawkins 2006). Pollution is another factor that has been put at a minimum in Holden General Motors’ operations. A good example is the manufacturing of tucks and cars that are environmental friendly, that is, they consume less fuel and produce relatively fewer greenhouse gases.

This is a positive action that ensures sustainability of the environment that in turn allows the community to benefit from their environment for a long period. In 2008 for example, Holden General Motors joined forces with the World Environment Center (WEC) in launching a program that was aimed at assisting the company along with suppliers to improve their performance in regard to maintaining the environment (World Environment Center 2008).

Through the General Motors foundations (GMF) founded in 1976, Holden General Motors has been able to stretch its practices that are aimed at giving back to the society. The foundation provides support to organizations and programs that are aimed at improving the quality of life among members of different communities.

The GMF assists in activities in different sectors for instance health and human services, community development, education as well as environment and energy among others. This has greatly improved the way of life of individuals. Holden General Motors has also been involved in disaster relief. This is through financial support to disaster management organizations such as the American Red Cross.

This is a crucial aspect that has helped communities who are faced with emergencies for instance floods and fires. Safety is also another concept that is emphasized in Holden General Motors. It commences on the driver where he or she is safeguarded from any form of danger. This has been achieved through control systems that avoid any form of accidents by helping the driver to maintain control even when it would seem impossible (Werther and Chandler 2010).

Holden General Motors Company Code of Business Conduct and Ethics

Ethics is a crucial element not only at an individual’s level but at also when it comes to undertaking business activities. Ethics has been deemed to contribute greatly towards shaping a company’s reputation. It as well makes business organizations conducive and great places to work with due to efficiency that comes along with it.

Over the recent past, there has been a tendency to list ethical companies (in order) an aspect that has changed companies in terms of reputation. Research has shown that business organizations that secure a position in the list usually go an extra mile in ensuring that procedures and practices are carried out in an ethical manner that does not in any way affect any party negatively (Burlock 2011).

Some of the issues that are generally covered in business organizations’ code of ethics include reporting and dealing with any aspect of conflict of interest, compliance with state and government rules and regulations, being in a position to speak up whenever anything wrong in an organization is identified in an attempt to make its rectification easier among other issues.

The Holden General Motors code of ethics have greatly helped in streamlining the practices involved in the company through provision of a guideline that ought to be followed. The code of ethics at Holden General Motors covers a variety of issues for instance conflict of interest for directors and corporate officers. It also covers improper individual benefits that could be derived from stocks for a member of an employee’s relations and any other dealings involving third parties and may affect the company in one way or the other.

Employees, including the senior ones, are not allowed either to receive gifts in the name of the company or use the company’s assets to achieve personal benefits. Openness is also an issue that is encouraged in Holden General Motors where the employees are encouraged to speak up any issue that affects their work environment negatively. This helps in making necessary adjustments (Singer 2008).

At Holden General Motors, a code of ethics that applies to every employee including the directors and corporate officers has been established to govern all practices. The code of ethics has been outlined in the text, “Winning with Integrity.” (GM 2011).

Some of the issues stipulated here include personal integrity. The code dictates that it is essential for every individual to take personal responsibility for his or her actions in an effort to uphold integrity. Every individual is expected to comply with the legal obligations and policies stipulated in the Holden General Motors’ code of conduct. Integrity in the workplace is also understood through fair treatment and respect irrespective of individual differences.

This could be seen through provision of equal employment opportunities based on qualification without any form of discrimination and maintenance of health and safety for all employees. In regard to conflicts of interest, all employees at Holden General Motors are obliged to act exclusively in the best interests of the company and be loyal. They are for instance expected to avoid any venture that in one way or the other impact negatively on Holden General Motors (Jawahir 2007).

Concisely, Holden General Motors strives to uphold personal and institutional integrity in its operations in an effort to compete and win through integrity. Although the issue of winning with integrity has been deemed to be faced with considerable challenges it has been successfully implemented in the company.

All in all, the code of ethics at Holden General Motors requires that an individual follow them, raise potential instances of misconduct to the responsible bodies, provide feedback on problem issues and give suggestions on how some issues could be improved, maintenance of the highest possible ethical standards in one’s undertakings and more so, being keen to listen to the concerns raised by the clients, the workmates, suppliers as well as dealers and consequently ensuring that the information is treated appropriately for satisfaction of the company and the majority.

There is also the issue of accuracy of the company’s information and use of its property. In regard to this, employees are expected to protect and safeguard the company’s assets and utilize them in the best way possible.

This could be achieved through using of the company’s assets for its business only and following the stipulated rules and regulations in regard to their usage. The company’s information, records, and communications ought to be handled with integrity where any unnecessary alterations should be avoided. This is because misleading information could result in poor decision making which could in turn affect the company negatively.

To allow for reinforcement of the code of ethics in the company, those individuals who in one way or the other violate the requirements stipulated in the code of ethics are subject to disciplinary action, for instance civil and criminal penalties where there are instances of violation of the law or termination of employment by the company’s management body (General Motors Management Corp 1930).

Sustainability

Sustainability is an incredibly important concept that allows an organization to not only excel at present time but also in future. Sustainability in a business organization such as Holden General Motors could be looked at in the angle of 3ps, which include the planet or physical environment and the people, where the aspect of social responsibility comes in.

This entails treating all the individuals involved with the business organization in an appropriate manner to allow for satisfaction for instance the employees, the suppliers and more so the customers.

The other P stands for profit. Although organizations should not only focus on attaining maximum profits, it is evident that profits play a great role in allowing for development and success of an organization, which is in itself a sustainability aspect and should therefore be looked at. All in all, the profits should be generated in an ethical manner rather than indulging in activities that violate the code of ethics (Dunphy 2000; Munier 2006).

In regard to the physical environment, Holden General Motors is committed to actions aimed at restoring and preserving the environment (General Motors 2009 b).

It for instance reduces wastes and pollutants, conserve resources and recycle materials in every phase of the product life cycle. Another aspect entails participating in educational and awareness programs to enlighten the public on the importance of conserving the environment. This is a positive sustainability move (Dobransky 2011).

With respect to people, Holden General Motors has been considered as one of the companies that fosters individual satisfaction through proper handling of the customers, the suppliers, the employees, and any other stakeholders. This has greatly enhanced its reputation and many investors feel encouraged to do business with it (Drucker 1999).

Profit in the Holden General Motors has also been an issue of concern. To allow for sustainability of the organization, the company’s code of ethics has clearly prohibited attainment of any form of benefits through unfair or corrupt means but instead engaging in activities that are genuine.

To generate profits, Holden General Motors has been engaged in various developmental projects and programs for instance opening of new branches. Overall, it is clear that Holden General Motors has tried as much as possible to foster sustainability especially with respect to the physical environment (Boone and Kurtz 2011; Chakravarthy and Lorange 2008).

External Environment Impact

Being an international company that operates beyond borders, Holden General Motors is faced with considerable external environment impact from the countries and branches it operates with as well as from the general public and competitors who may in one way or the other have some interests in the company.

Some of the factors that could have some external environment impact on Holden General Motors include customers, competition, shareholders, regional differences that could encompass cultural and political differences (Daft and Marcic 2010).

Customers

Customers involved in Holden General Motors are varied some of them being private individual buyers while others are major companies. The diversity of customers has enabled the company to perform well in its operations. The different kinds of customers are not without some influence on the success level or failure. This can be seen in their changes in preferences where they may turn back to other companies.

Competition

Just like any other business organization, Holden General Motors faces competition from different angles especially from other firms in the automobile industry (Pahl and Ritcher 2009). Among the competitors, include Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co. Ltd, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Co. Renault, Fiat S. P.A and Volkswagen AG. To deal with this issue, the company has tried to reinforce its strengths and maximize its opportunities while at the same time dealing with its weakness and threats (Chen and Yao 2006).

Shareholders, Investors and Governments

It is clear that under normal circumstances, the shareholders, investors as well as the different governments involved in the operations of Holden General Motors ought to have some form of influence in regard to the operations of the company. The shareholders for example would wish to see that their interests are considered fully.

For the investors, they have to be assured that their contribution is in safe hands free from any kind of losses. Different regional governments may have some influence on the company in terms of policies exerted on the business activities. This will necessitate that Holden General Motors takes into account all these issues and ensure that every party is appropriately represented.

Regional differences

Due to the fact that Holden General Motors operates across borders, it ought to face some differences in regard to cultural and political aspects as presented by people in different regions. For this reason, the company ought to come up with appropriate strategies to deal with these differences in a manner that will not affect either party negatively to an extent of having a negative impact on the business (Michealson 2003).

Analysis Recommendation

Having carried out research on Holden General Motors especially in regard to management, it is clear that the company has achieved much particularly in terms of expansion. All in all, here are some recommendation most of which focusing on sustainability (Crumm 2010). To achieve success, Holden General Motors should choose a minimum number of relevant standards that cover every aspect of car production activity.

It should educate the human resource on the chosen standards and look for implementation strategies, carry out systematic measurement to evaluate progress in order to carry out appropriate adjustments, use regular and short notice internal and external audit to complement measurement; and finally have a set of goals and metrics as per accepted third party or industry-wide practices (Dreher et al 2009).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is evident that much is associated with a business organization apart from mere buying and selling of products and services. Management is for instance an aspect that is very crucial in enhancing success of a business enterprise and therefore, it ought to be taken seriously.

It is also clear that the business world is characterized by a rapidly changing environment that necessitates being alert since failure to go by the changes renders a business organization less competitive, an issue that lowers its level of profits. It is for this reason that the concept of management of change has become of essence. Holden General Motors has experienced a considerable management change in an effort to makes its practices successful.

One way has been the revision of activities associated with corporate social responsibility as well as the code of ethics especially with respect to upholding integrity in all practices and activities. Change management that has taken place at Holden General Motors from time to time has been of great benefit to the company and it is attributed to the benefits enjoyed currently. However, it has not been a smooth move but a process that entails risk taking.

Reference List

Bebbington, T. 1998. 50 Years of Holden. Hornsby, New South Wales, Clockwork Media.

Boone, E. L. and Kurtz L. D. 2011. Contemporary Marketing. 15the ed. UK, Cengage Learning.

Burlock, M. 2011. Top Ten Ethical Companies. Web.

Chakravarthy, B., and Lorange, P. 2008. Profit or growth?: why you don’t have to choose. UK: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Chen, J., and Yao, S. 2006. Globalization, competition and growth in China. London, Routledge.

Cohen, S. and Royssel J. 2005. Strategic Supply Chain Management: The Five Disciplines for Top Performance. New York, McGraw-Hill Professional.

Crumm, A. T. 2010. What Is Good for General Motors?: Solving America’s Industrial Conundrum. London, Algora Publishing.

Daft, L. R and Marcic D. 2010. Understanding Management. 7^th Ed. New York, Cengage Learning.

Darwin, N., 2002. 100 Years of GM in Australia. Ballarat, Victoria, Hand Publishing.

Dobransky, M. 2011. Inside GM’s Sustainability Initiatives. Web.

Davis, R. W. M. 1991. General Motors: A Photographic History. New York, Arcadia Publishing.

Dreher, J. et al. 2009. General Motors Metrics for Sustainable Manufacturing. 15.992 – Strategies For Sustainable Business Sustainability Metrics For General Motors. Web.

Drucker, F. P. 1999. Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. UK, Taylor, & Francis.

Dunphy, C. D. 2000. Sustainability: The Corporate Challenge of the 21st Century. UK, Allen & Unwin.

GM, 2011. Winning With Integrity: Our Values and Guidelines for Employee Conduct. Web.

General Motors Corporation and Princeton Institute for Historic Research. 1983. General Motors: the first 75 years of transportation products. New York, General Motors Photographic.

General Motors. 2009. Corporate Responsibility Report. Detroit, MI, GM Communications.

General Motors. 2009 b. General Motors Redefining Environmental Sustainability of its Plants. Detroit, GM Communications.

General motors. 2011. About GM: Corporate Responsibility. Web.

General Motors Management Corp. 1930. General Motors Management Corporation plan: approved by the Board of Directors of General Motors Corporation at their meeting on February 6, 1930. UK, Springer.

Hawkins, E. D. 2006. Corporate Social Responsibility: Balancing Tomorrow’s Sustainability and Today’s Profitability. UK, Palgrave Macmillan.

Jawahir, I. S., 2007. Sustainable Manufacturing Processes: New Challenges for Developing Predictive Models and Optimization Techniques. First International Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing (pp. 1-19). Montreal, Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Centre.

Kotler, P. 2005. Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause. New Jersey, John Wiley and Sons.

Michealson, C. J. 2003. Restructuring for growth. New York, McGraw-Hill Professional.

Miller, P. F., Vandome, F. A. and McBrewster. 2009. General Motors: History of General Motors, Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, List of GM Engines, 2007 General Motors Strike, Plug-in Hybrid, Chevrolet Volt. New York, Alphascript Publishing.

Munier, N. 2006. Introduction to Sustainability: Road to a Better Future. NJ, Springer.

Pahl, N. and Ritcher, A. 2009. SWOT Analysis – Idea, Methodology, and a Practical Approach. UK, GRIN Verlag.

Singer, A. 2008. As GM Struggles, Its Ethics and Compliance Office Motors on. Web.

Werther, B. W. and Chandler, D. J. 2010. Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Stakeholders in a Global Environment.2^nd ed. London, SAGE

World Environment Center. 2008. GM Holden to ‘Green’ its Supply Chain. Web.

Introduction

The aim of this paper is to analyze the mission statements of Toyota Corporation and General Motors, compare the quality of each mission statement, discuss whether the mission statements could define the firms and help make strategic decisions, evaluate whether there is any need for improvement, and analyze the vision statements of the two companies.

Mission Statements of the Two Companies

Mission Statement of Toyota Corporation

Although Toyota Corporation is one of the most successful vehicle producers in the world, the mission statement of this company seems to be quite straightforward than many other multinational corporations; to specify, according to Toyota Corporation (2012), the mission of Toyota is to attract and reach consumers with high- valued products and services and the most pleasing ownership-experience in America.

Mission Statement of GM

It is essential to note that GM possesses an extensive and intricate mission statement, and General Motors (2012) stated that its mission is an outline of the business’s key feature with basic business description and core values; particularly, the mission states that General Motor is a multinational-corporation involved in socially responsible operations globally.

Additionally, General Motor has also focused on organizing a mission statement that would reflect the principles and ethical factors of the business; as a result, a part of its statement also suggests that it is devoted to offer vehicles of such quality that consumers will obtain better-value, workers and associates will share success, and shareholder will get sustained and greater-return.

Comparisons on the Quality of Each Mission Statement

It is notable that the mission statement of Toyota Motor is quite simple and it is a brief glance of what Toyota thinks about conducting a customer- oriented business. It helps a reader to catch the key idea behind its operations quite quickly and provides a plain, but crucial business outlook very efficiently.

On the other hand, the mission statement of General Motor is quite comprehensive and elaborate and it is a succinct illustration of GM’s central characteristics, fundamental corporate issues and central standards and policies. It is important to suggest that GM has tried to design a mission statement that would help a customer to identify and learn about the company very clearly and broadly.

Mission Statements in Defining the Firms and Making Strategic Decisions

It is clear from the mission statements of the two companies that GM has better defined its business and its approach towards running the operations based on the mission. In making its strategic decisions while operating, GM emphasizes and ensures that it is socially responsible internationally, aligned with its principles and ethics, and devoted for ensuring better quality and higher consumer value, as suggested by the mission statement.

Conversely, in case of Toyota Corporation, lack of elaboration in the mission statement means that it has some deficits in defining such a large business; however, its highly customer- oriented operations indicate that it follows its mission of attracting and reaching consumers with high-valued products in strategic decision-making.

Need For Improvement

For reaching customers of all ages, it is necessary for General Motor to improve its mission statement in terms of simplifying and shortening it so that it can save customers’ time value; however, the key idea of the statement could remain the same. On the other hand, Toyota should try to extend the description about the company to some extent and allow people to know about it a bit more elaborately.

Vision Statements of the Two Companies

Vision Statement of GM

The vision statement of General Motor is very straightforward – according to General Motors (2012), its vision statement states that the company is focused in only one global-vision, which is to design, construct, and trade the best automobiles available in the earth; the following figure shows an illustration of its core visions:

Figure 1: Core visions of GM

Source: General Motors (2012)

Vision Statement of Toyota Corporation

Toyota Corporation (2012) suggested that the vision statement of the business is to be the most victorious and esteemed automobile business in America; however, the corporation’s visions include a major focus on CSR and environmental issues; however, the following figure shows its visions regarding social responsibility-

Figure 2: Visions of Toyota

Source: Toyota Corporation (2012)

Whether the Companies are Heading in the Same Direction

As the strong players in the global automobile industry, both companies possess some common goals, which are expressed through their mission and vision statements; however, when it comes to operational management, it appears they are heading towards diverging directions.

SWOT Analysis of GM

Strengths

GM has business operation in 157 countries and it has strong position in North America, for example, WSJ reported that GM is in the highest position considering the number of car sales in the US market because GM sold 232,538 cars in 2010/11 while Toyota sold 159,540 cars in this zone. However, the subsequent diagram compares more details-

Figure 3: Comparison of GM and Toyota

Source: WSJ (2011)

This company still has a significant market share in the global car industry and it has above 209,000 competent employees to operate the business in adverse economic condition.

Weaknesses

The market share of GM has decreased dramatically from 1990 to 2004 and it lost a significant percentage of the US market share, for instance, its market share fell about 35.50% to 18.80% in this zone; therefore, the performance of GM in Stock market is not satisfactory and the following diagram demonstrates the position of this company in Stock market-

Figure 4: – Basic chart of GM

Source: Yahoo Finance (2012)

Most of the car manufacturing companies change the model of the car regularly, but GM is not focus on this matter even if it has not change its strategy to introduce new products like environmental friendly products.

Opportunities

Joint venture with local companies or large multinational companies can bring fruitful result for GM, for example, to increase profit margin and market share in global market, it has opportunity to develop hybrid technology and introduce new vehicle styles and models for the target customers using this strategy.

The purchasing power of the people is one of the most important factors to decide about the car model; therefore, GM has scope to change its position and increase financial performance by introducing low cost products to operate business in highly populated zone like India and China.

Threats

Intense competition among the market players of car industry is one of the main threats for GM because competitors like Toyota, Honda, Ford and Nissan rapidly captured large market share in the global car market; however, the next diagram compares the position of GM with other direct competitors –

Figure 5: Direct Competitor Comparison

Source: Yahoo Finance (2012)

High operating costs due to volatility of the price of raw materials, decrease the demand of GM cars for high consumption rate of fuel, increase legal litigation costs and adverse recessionary impact create serious problem to operate business in this market.

The Way GM Responds to the Issue of Social Responsibility

From the very beginning of operation, GM has concentrated on the issue of corporate social responsibility and taken many initiatives for the product development and protect the environment, for example, it introduced first diversity program in 1968, and it adopted Sullivan Principles in 1997. However, the prime intention of this company was to reduce carbon emission, provide road safety, increase values, and increase profits upholding CSR policy; as a result, the management of GM has selected many projects those many focused on risk mitigation, development of social awareness, and protection of public health (General Motors, 2011).

Kinds of Activities

GM has promoted the use of E85 ethanol, reduced water used by 35%, introduced new brands like E85 FlexFuel and LaCrosse with eAssist, contributed about $68 million to charitable purpose (General Motors, 2011).

Whether GM’s Activities are Appropriate or Not

GM has also taken a number of specific initiatives, for instance, it introduced largest brand “Chevrolet” and invested $40 million in various carbon offsetting projects, which demonstrate that it has corporate social responsibility since this company is committed to ensure the best quality products in terms of green technology, safety and health issue.

Godelnik (2011) reported that carbon offsetting projects was bad investment for this company considering the position of the shareholders and economic position of this company, but this report supports the activities of the GM as profit maximization should not only one motto of the company.

Reference List

General Motors (2011). Annual Report 2011 of General Motors Company). Web.

General Motors (2012). Investors: Corporate Strategy. Web.

Godelnik, R. (2011). The Case of GM’s CSR Initiative: Why Good Intentions Are Not Enough. Web.

Toyota Corporation (2012). CSR Policy. Web.

Toyota Corporation (2012). What are Toyota’s Mission and Vision Statements? Web.

WSJ. (2011). Sales and Share of Total Market by Manufacturer. Wall Street Journal. Web.

Yahoo Finance (2012). Direct Competitor Comparison of General Motors Company (GM). Web.

Yahoo Finance (2012). Basic Charts of General Motors Company (GM). Web.

Outsourcing is perhaps one of the most common terms in the HR organs of the companies of the twenty-first century. In its basic sense, outsourcing HR means employing the services of an external agency in the recruitment and selection of candidates on behalf of the internal HR department of an organization.

Perhaps a global example is SEEK, an Australian based company that advertises, recruits and places staff on behalf of other companies. Even though General motors does not directly through its top management issue out human resource outsourcing contracts, its human resource department is keen to deploy this strategy to cut on the costs of the department.

One would ask why large companies such as General Motors would contemplate outsourcing its human resource duties, yet it can afford to run such a department. According to Patriot HR (2004), this is why small organizations do the same: “cut on costs, increase productivity, and provide a higher level of service to employees” (Para. 1).

Concurrently, IBM Global Process Services (2011) “Automate and streamline HR processes and put transactions employees’ fingertips” (Para. 3). Outsourcing may happen both to local companies and even in overseas. For instance, as Patriot HR sheds light, in 2004, “An HRO was handling benefits administration for 1.2 million General Motors employees, retirees, and dependents.

General Motors Europe also outsourced human resources functions for personnel in 10 different countries” (2004, Para 1). By outsourcing staff recruitment responsibilities, HR department has many opportunities to focus more on other core strategic activities.

People have voiced quite a lot of unscrupulous news across the world about outsourcing. Take for instance the scenario in which “Texas has put IBM on notice where Indiana has sued IBM, which in turn has sued Indiana” (Global services 2011, Para.1). In the core of all these stalemates is the perception of outsourcing contracts going haywire.

However, on the other hand, General Motors perhaps has a different story to tell about its human resource outsourcing all together. People Strong, a HR Company based in India, Seven Step, and ACS are perhaps some of the companies that offer recruitment services to General Motors.

Talent Management (2012) informs that “Seven Step, a provider of outsourced recruitment services, announced that General Motors (GM) has chosen it as GM’s exclusive recruitment services partner to manage all salaried recruiting and hiring activities in its North American operations”(Para 1).

On the other hand, according to HRO Today in 2009, ACS, “a premier provider of business process and information technology solutions, announced the commencement of services under a new human resources servicing contract with General Motors Corporation (GM) as the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer” (2009, Para 1).

Under the terms of contract, ACS was to take up non-core HR chores, which was one of the strategies that GM adopted in an attempt to remain competitive by taking advantage of the ACS immense HR capabilities.

Additionally, HRO Today reckons that the terms of contract permitted ACS to “provide comprehensive HR services for GM’s European entities in 10 countries, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom” (2009, Para 3).

This move immensely satisfies Alexander Cheri, the GM European vice president. In support of the move, HRO Today records him commending that “We are extremely impressed by the level and range of services we will be receiving as part of this agreement with ACS” (2009, Para 8). In this end, it is somewhat evident that GM not only deploys HR outsourcing in the US, but also in every other place where it has established its global presence.

With the HR outsourcing, General Motors leaps from the three-T: talent, technology and transformation, model (Stone 2003, p.14: Vosburgh 2003, p.19) of HR management in perhaps all its operational centers across the globe. Other corporations can also profile such excellence on the strategies already put in place by GM in the yet not so old global methodology of cost reduction: HR outsourcing.

References

Global Services., 2011. IT Outsourcing: market dynamics. Web.

HRO Today., 2009. ACS Announces New Human Resources Servicing Contract with General Motors for European Operations. Web.

IBM Global Process Services., 2011. Human Resource Outsourcing. Web.

Patriot HR. 2004. Who is outsourcing. Web.

Stone, A. 2003. The Intranet Boom. Philadelphia Business Journal, 3(2), pp.17-18.

Talent Management., 2012. GM makes seven step excusive recruiting partner. Web.

Vosburgh, R., 2003. The state of the human resources profession in 2003: An interview with Dave Ulrich. Human resource planning, 26(1), pp.18-22.

Introduction

General Motors is an automotive company based in United States with its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan city. The company is the world’s largest automaker. The company operates in 157 countries worldwide and it employs around 210,000 workers across the globe (Berger, 2001). It manufactures vehicles in 31 different countries across the globe. General motors on star subsidiary provide vehicle safety, security and information services (Lawrence, 2008).

The company was started in 1908, in Michigan as a holding company for Buick. Charles Stewart was General motors co founder whose carriage company was merged in Buick. During the year 1909, the company obtained two companies namely; Reliance truck and rapid vehicle motor companies of Owosso and Pontiac Michigan respectfully. General motors was ranked the best in the world in terms of sales among all motor companies during the second half of twentieth century (Bell, 1965).

However, the company sales declined in the year 2010 when it was ranked second globally. General motors sell its vehicles to motor vehicle dealers as well as to fleet customers (Graeme, 2004). Fleet customers include commercial fleet customers, automotive leasing companies and governments. The major markets of General motors include the United States, china, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Canada and Italy (Alfred, 2004).

The company provides automotive financing services through its subsidiary. General motors financial company purchases automobile finance contracts for new and used vehicles purchased customers primarily from franchised and select independent dealerships. The company operates under United States department of the treasury. General Motors Company is positioned as one of the ‘green’ companies as it tends to reduce environmental pollution.

The company supports the use of renewable energy (Beverly, 2002). Environmentally, the company has laid down strategies as well as proving a reliable website to reach the public. All the waste materials resulting from the company’s production processes is recycled. General Motors Company has worked on alternative technology vehicles and has developed ethanol flexible fuel vehicles in the motor industry.

The company initiated use of turbochargers and v6 engines. It initiated the production of an all-electric automobile. It produced the first car with zero emissions marketed in America in over thirty years. In 2010, General motors company introduced Chevrolet volt, an electric vehicle that uses generators powered by gasoline (Maynard, 2003).

Competitors

General motor company competes with other firms in automobile manufacturing, transportation equipment manufacturing, automobile parts manufacturing, financial services, lending and auto lending. This is because of general motors global presence and diversity of products. The biggest threat of general motors company in terms of competition is from foreign companies (Maynard, 2003).

Foreign automobile companies such as Toyota, Honda, and Nissan dominate small, medium to a large car market due to their flexibility and cheaper prices. Cars such as the highly successful Toyota prius are a significant challenge for General Motors own Saturn hybrids. Foreign companies account for more than half of the United States automobile market (Alfred 1994).

The automobile firms compete on both pricing and non-pricing issues. The pricing competition reduces profits by increasing price cost margins while non-pricing competition drives up fixed cost and marginal cost. The high rivalry in the automobile industry is due to lack of differentiation opportunities (More, 2009).

All automobile companies produce cars, trucks or SUVs. Significant market share variations, has been witnessed in the recent days, this is another indication of rivalry that is a remarkably strong threat to profits. Below is the analysis of General Motors Company and its competitors in the automobile industry (Alfred, 2004).

General motors and competitors comparison

Automotive companies Ranked By Sales

Top Automotive Manufacturers

Communication activities

General motors company uses various communication techniques to inform potential customers about their products and services. The company provides resources that broadcast its corporate achievement and advancements across the globe. Communications plays a vital role to both internal and external audiences, and it gives a voice to general motors’ people, products, activities, positions, and company information. Communication in general motors company consists of four main areas (Bell, 2003).

Product communications involve product publicity strategy in support of engineering, sales, marketing, advanced technology, motor sports, and auto shows. Corporate communications in general motors involve general motors news media relations; community and philanthropic relations; diversity initiatives; and financial, labor and purchasing communications.

Another form of communication adopted in general Motors Company is the internal, financial and executive communications (Church, 2003). This involves different employee groups, management of financial issues and media relations support to senior executives. The fourth form of communications is operations communications.

It involves all the logistics, such as producing press kits, coordinating program events, and communication supplier research, maintaining general motors websites and implementing the use of emerging technologies. People who have worked in the news media, auto companies and public relations agencies enhance communication growth in general motors.

General motors enhance communication through giving employees opportunities in media relations, product communications and internal communications (Post, 2003). It uses online social media like blogs, Wikipedia, podcasts, video and other technologies. These emerging media provide dynamic new communications lines for the motor vehicle industry (Davidson, 2000).

General Motors Company is involved in social media activities through authorized corporate channels. In this case, only employees authorized by the company can address the public on these media on behalf of the company.

Some employees in this company may wish to be involved in social media on a personal basis and communicate their individual opinions regarding general motors or its products.

After returning from bankruptcy, general motors developed a multi-city road show and online road show to help the management in communicating the company’s ongoing return to profitability. It conducted executive media interviews after it resumed trading in the stock exchange (Vincent, 2004). This helped in reaching key audiences and ensured accurate message delivery.

The Company collaborated with NYSE EuroNext in conducting opening bell ceremonies. This involved conducting a parade for general motors vehicles outside NYSE. It conducted online activities to pass information about its IPO. It conducted internal communications to educate employees about the offering and improve confidence in the new company.

The company held a peculiar employee celebration at its headquarters in Detroit, involving local entertainment and executive remarks. It conducted direct communications with dealers and suppliers’.The Company launched a new website at gm.com, mysocrates. General motors put posters on all factories to advertise its products.

Sometimes car dealers are given posters to display on their windows. General motors company uses the above communications strategies to advertise its products in order to increase sales. The adverts were faced with various criticisms. For instance, the company advertised that Chevrolet Volt is an electric vehicle. This was discovered to be a false statement as the gasoline engine of the vehicle kicks in during a hard acceleration (Farber, 2001).

The company made the advert in order to show that its products are environmental friendly, but this was a form of green wash. Ralph Nader, a consumer advocate, criticized general motor products especially the Chevrolet on vehicle safety issues. The company was taken to court for attempting manipulation with Ralph and Robert Kennedy present at the trial. The company was accused of corruption, mismanagement and total irresponsibility at the top management.

The company has been criticized because of using government fund to repay government loan in order to get more money. The company announced that it had repaid millions in dollars, in government loans, but many people have questioned how it exactly did that. The company made television advertisements indicating that the automaker repaid the United States and Canada loans five years ahead of Schedule. The Company has been accused of performing an accounting trick by paying back taxpayers with taxpayer money.

Conclusion

General Motors Company is one of the biggest companies in the world. It is one of market leader in the automobile industry. It is the world’s largest manufacturer of cars and trucks. It faces competition from other automobile manufacturers such as Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Ford Motor Company among others (Pelfrey, 2006).

The company faces many risks in its operations such as legal risk, currency risk, and interest rate risk among others. Currently the company is trying a risky strategy of bringing to market its small car, the cruze. General Motors has been trying to develop new models to improve the performance of the company as a whole (Roe, 2002).

There is a possibility of the company merging with another company, so the company should start acting rather than waiting to act. The company has been promoting the production of flexible fuel vehicles, which are friendly to the environment. This has helped the company to increase its sales revenue and improve its public image.

Today most consumers are purchasing “green” products and General Motors has been trying to manufacture these products. The company uses renewable energy to avoid environmental pollution. It has established guidelines towards protection of the environment and has an extensive website that informs the public.

The production waste released by the company is recycled or reused in the production process in order to reduce environmental pollution. The company is also undergoing corporate restructuring, in addition to the development of, the “green” products (Blumenstein, 2007). It has implemented a three-year restructuring strategy to improve its debt position.

The restructuring strategy includes the closure of several production plants, making significant job cuts, introducing new automobile lines and redesigning general motors overall marketing strategies. The marketing strategy is crucial for the company to remain competitive in the automobile industry (Krisher, 2007). The company is a leading contributor to charity in cash contributions and kind donations.

Recommendation

General motors need to implement the strategy of producing hybrid vehicles in order to increase its market share. The hybrid industry is increasing in sales and other competitors in the automobile industries are capitalizing on this industry. The company should concentrate on producing fuel-efficient vehicles this will enable consumers to realize that the company is responsible towards the environment.

The company should also reduce cars and trucks, which are not environmental friendly in order to reduce environmental pollution. It should also perform extensive research about its competitors in order to improve its operation. The company should also improve on its communication strategy in order to avoid future criticism. General motors should also cut non-profitable product lines to further development of hybrid production.

It should continue manufacturing new products by adopting advanced technologies in order for it to survive in the, competitive t automobile industry (Madsen, 2001). Finally, the top management of general motors need to be reviewed occasionally in order to avoid the company becoming bankrupt again.

References

Alfred, D., 1994. Giant enterprise:Ford,General Motors,and the automobile industry. New York: Harcourt.

Alfred, P., 2004. My years with General Motors. Garden City: Doubleday.

Bell, D., 2003. The coming of post-industrial society. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Bell, J., 1965. The American Automobile;a brief history. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Berger, M., 2001. The Automobile in American history and culture. Chicago: Greenwood Press.

Beverly, R., 2002. The standard catalogue of American car. Wisconsin: Krause Publications.

Blumenstein, R., 2007. GM to invest in green technology in China. Wall street journal, 33-35.

Church, R., 2003. The emergence of modern marketing. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

Davidson, H., 2000. American Business:How it worked. Michigan: Michigan University Press.

Farber, C., 2001. General Motors and its times. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Graeme, P., 2004. Re-Engineering the global automotive industry. Cabridge: Cabridge University Press.

Krisher, T., 2007. GM steps up work on hydrogen cars. Businees week , 39-40.

Lawrence, R., 2008. Billy Durant:Creator of General Motors. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Madsen, A., 2001. The deal maker:How William Durant made General Motors. Michigan: Michigan University Press.

Maynard, J., 2003. How the big three lost their grip on the american car market. New York: Doubleday.

More, R., 2009. How General Motors lost its focus. Ivey business Journal , 25-27.

Pelfrey, W., 2006. Billy,Alfred,and General Motors. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

post, T. B., 2003. Hard time in Europe for General Motors. Cabridge: Cabridge University Press.

Roe, D., 2002. The triumph of General Motors. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Vincent, P., 2004. Surviving transformation:Lessons from GM’s suprising turnaround. New York: Oxford University Press.

Introduction

We all know that for one to thrive in the business world, change is paramount. Management has to develop new initiatives and catch up with the rapid technological and socio-economic advancements in order to stay ahead of the competition.

There are various theories and models recommended to corporate managers on how they can handle organizational change. However, in implementing organizational change in practice, especially where a large-scale organization is involved, can be challenging and complex and if not handled properly, it can be disastrous to the whole organization.

This paper discusses practical implementation of organizational change in a large-scale business. General Motors Corporation will be analyzed by looking into the various changes it has undergone through and problems resolved as well as recommendations on new changes that could be carried out to enable it retain its competitive advantage in the industry. The GM adopted the overall structure organizational change model in implementing its changes.

Implementing organizational change

General Motors Corporation Organizational Changes

The GM recently changed its traditional organizational model from being decentralized to a more centralized and unified one. The traditional model was characterized by a hierarchical structure of management and leadership. Jobs are arranged into independent functional departments. “GM was divided into different independent automakers…each independent automaker was operated differently and competing with each other,” (Kenly85 2009).

The new model, however, does not have independent departments but rather consists of a team and individual employees all focusing on a common organizational goal. This model was adopted to respond to problems such as harmonization of workers. The staff required to develop a central set of skills by learning from each other’s designs of work as well as improve communication amongst themselves so as to work as a team rather than as autonomous individuals.

The management revised its management to respond to the declined demand for medium and high-priced cars which had been created by the depression. A new management staff was put in place at the five-car division with the operational committee being dissolved and the executive committee eliminated.

“In order to cut costs, the divisions had to share frames, chassis and other parts. This meant that productions and designing cars would entail cooperation and coordination among the four divisions,” (Spector, 2010). This resulted into reduced operation costs and streamlined management system.

Further, it was deemed necessary to reorganize the general office. The office was now empowered to oversee the operational and overall financial decisions. The top executive basically made all the major financial decisions in the organization. This is because financial decisions are very important to the future success of an entity through prospective policies and procedures.

This made it a requirement to include general executives with special knowledge in prospective policies in decision making concerning financial matters. Operational policies were therefore left to the administrative committee.

Later, the financial policy committee was created which was meant to authorize all financial decision matters. An operating committee was also formed and was mandated to oversee strategic planning and policies. The division managers no longer had legal authority. Its only role was to recommend policies for the operating policy committee to adopt. The president and chairman formed the CEO and had overall authority over the financial committee.

Division managers were later included in administrative committees but this did not relegate their power of having overall control over policy. Policy groups made up of general office men now formulated policies. The proposed policies were then handed over to the administration committee which were required to debate and ratify or modify the policies. The divisions only had power to revise or amend such policies.

Support systems were also formed to ensure organizational changes were effectively implemented. An Automotive Strategy Board together with a management committee were formed to keep the CEO updated on the happenings of the corporation. There were also monthly meetings whose attendance was compulsory globally.

The meetings were used by operation heads to monitor the progress of the organization so as to inform the CEO. It also ensured that the organization staff worked as a team towards the achievement of the organizational goal.

A Culture Transformation Team as well as an Operating Model Team were established. The Automotive Product Board and also Automotive Strategy Board were eliminated and replaced with one committee consisted of eight individuals. This was done to fasten the decision making process.

The committee reported to the CEO twice a week when they met to discuss product matters. The operation team, however, was composed of ten executives representing the various divisions in the globe. This increased bureaucracy even more and the decision-making was made even slower.

The government has also contributed to the GM change. The U.S. government eliminated certain vehicle brands such as Pontiac and Hummer and slashed headcount. It also reduced its debts and the obligated benefits and shuttered dealerships. The government now has a 60% shareholding in the company; therefore, we can say that the ownership and control of the organization has shifted to the government.

However, most of the government intervention in GM has been helpful to its growth as well as its changes. For example the New Deal Legislation in the past which was aimed at avoiding future depressions through relief, recovery and reform. It has somehow helped and the GM to recover from its bankruptcy through government funding and subsidies. The GM had to implement its organizational changes according to the Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy act.

The government also funded the GM to the tune of $14 billion through the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. The Troubled Asset relief Program (TARP) supported the funding. It was aimed at saving the free-market system that GM represented.

Effects of the organizational changes

There were both positive and negative effects of the transition. Positively, the organizational change was able to muster teamwork amongst its workers. Streamlining of production and general operations cut down operational costs. By cutting costs, the organization was able to operate efficiently and maintain its solvency.

Further, a good communication system was established from the teamwork. Good communication increases the motivation of workers through recognition and the ability to voice their grievances. It also helps in reducing resistance to change by engaging employees in the change program.

This ensures that everyone knows what is going to be achieved and they are all willing to contribute towards the same. It will also give management an opportunity to clarify on the need for change and the intended results to ease out employee’s uncertainty and fear of the unknown on the outcomes of the change process such as retrenchments and layoffs.

Much as these changes were meant to add to the development of the corporation, this was not the case. Instead, this transition affected the two most important stakeholders i.e. the customers and the surrounding community. Due to the discontinuation with some of the brands, it became hard for customers of some models to service or upgrade their vehicles. Consequently, GM did not only lose its customer base but also its reputation was affected.

During the transition, however, GM had to close some of its factories aimed at streamlining production. Consequently, other entities “such as restaurants, gas stations, the real-estate market and the grocery stores suffered financially,” (Kenly852009). Therefore, the community’s financial well-being was disturbed.

Of course, this had an impact on the money circulation chain in the market creating unemployment, downsizing in some public departments and generally lower standards of living. “Due to downsizing, people tend to move out of the town resulting to start of the cycle all over again,” (Dawson, 2003).

The transformation of management system also had great effects on the workforce. This is because they were required to learn a new set of skills and also learn central software being used in all the organizations’ offices in the globe. This in turn impaired the communication system. Training and development of staff also became a major problem. This occurred because with the traditional model, the independent departments existing were using different softwares each.

Recommendations for Future Organizational Changes

The organization needs to adopt a new organizational culture which, according to Fitz Henderson, should consist of accountability, focus more on the customer and the product as the main subjects and also one that was ready to take risks. Also, it should be faster in decision making process.

In the past, the organization was restructured where the Human Resource was given the responsibility of supporting culture change rather than drive it. Leaders came up with a new performance management standard and conducted an informative education system to communicate the new organizational culture and it’s values to all the workers.

Those cultures were aimed at incorporating a culture into the organization’s highly bureaucratic system to ensure that its independent departments, regions as well as brands became self-governing and competitive within the organization.

In order to retain its competitive advantage in the industry therefore, GM requires to make new changes to its organizational structure. For instance, it needs to come up with new organizational culture. There should be a way of making the executive body accountable for its performance standards.

Employees should be exposed on how other organizations and, in general, other industries operate. The various staff should be promoted based on their performance as opposed to how much they have invested in the organization or how many years they have been on the job.

Further, the organization should change its bureaucratic nature and adopt a more democratic decision making process to include even the employees in the process. This will bring the employees closer to the product, the problem as well as the customer themselves. In return, he will be able to respond quickly to the rapidly changing and divergent needs of customers as well as the highly unpredictable market conditions. Also, a company that is highly bureaucratic takes long in making decisions thus resulting into slow decisions.

The organization should make changes to its production system into a Just-in-Time production system. This reduces costs since production is only done when the products are needed and therefore storage costs are minimized. Also, they should concentrate on producing environmental friendly cars as opposed to the guzzlers.

This will not only ensure a clean environment but will also increase demand since that is what customers are going for nowadays. Further, they should make more connections with suppliers globally to increase their distribution channels. Also, focus on getting low-cost suppliers by using competitive bidding.

By keeping up with the consumer needs and general economic trends, the organization will be able to change as the market changes and produce products that will satisfy the consumers. It will also be able to adapt to current early enough to technological developments to avoid being outdated. In a world where technology is becoming the in thing, failure to adapt to new technology on time will have disastrous results to the whole organization driving it to bankruptcy.

Conclusion

The General Motors has taken various steps to change its organizational design in order to retain its competitive nature in the industry. This organizational change has helped it achieve some of its objectives such as teamwork and cutting operational costs. On the other hand, those changes have brought about several negative effects by affecting the customers, the community as well as the staff themselves. Its bureaucratic system has also contributed negatively to its failures.

But GM’s organizational change has shown that bankruptcy can also be used as an opportunity to take that crucial step to implement major organizational changes that will see a company fly up and start flourishing once again. Therefore, companies should not fear making that big step and making holistic organizational changes.

References

Dawson, P. (2003). Reshaping Change: A Processual Perspective. Routledge.

Kenly85. (2009). Blog 1: Organizational Change- General Motors (GM). Web.

Spector, B. (2010). Implementing organizational change: Theory into practice, (2^nd Ed). ND.

General Motors, also called GM, is an American-based company, which has the international reputation for quality manufacture of cars and trucks. William C. Durant established the company in 1908 and currently, under the leadership of Edward Whitacre, it operates in sells and services of automotives in over one hundred and forty countries around the world. Employing about 244,500 people in its various manufacturing operations around the world, GM is playing a leading role in stimulating economic growth worldwide.

The automotive industry is exemplified by high profile trade disagreements as well as intense rivalry in this century. Since its establishment, GM has been undergoing important organizational changes from a traditional organizational model to a transformed organizational model in order to preserve its longevity in the market. This paper attempts to analyze the structure of the company and its organization style.

GM sells most of its vehicles to the U.S. market. For example, in 2008, out of 8.35 million cars and trucks sold globally, the U.S. accounted for 22.1% of the market share. The top four regional markets for the company are North America, China, European Union, and South America in that order.

The company has collaborations with different automakers around the world. Some of these are Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation of China, Fiat, and Ford Motor Company. In the global market, the company has recorded significance performance in the Chinese market. For example, in 2009, the company sold 1,830,000 cars and trucks in China, which represented 13.4 percent of its total global sales.

The company is structured into various groups, which represent various regions around the world. These groups are GMAP (GM Asia-Pacific), GME (GM Europe), GM LAAM (GM Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East), GMNA (GM North America), and other operations in different places around the world. Each region has its own president who is answerable to the company’s CEO (“GM profile,” description section).

The Board of Directors, who makes important decisions that affect the running of the activities of the automotive corporation, manages the company.

For example, on December 4, 2009, the GM Board of Directors announced major leadership changes within the company that made Edward Whitacre, who had been previously serving in an interim capacity, to be appointed the company’s CEO on a permanent basis. The company’s mission statement reads, “GM is dedicated to provide products and services of such quality that our customers will receive superior value while our employees and business partners will share in our success…” (“Company information, para.3).

Its vision statement “is to be the world leader in transportation products and related services (“Company information,” para. 5). The company operates in the automotive industry under the following brands: “Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling” (“About GM,” para.1).

In a traditional organization model, a hierarchical structure is usually observed. In this case, a president or executive is usually regarded as the top most official followed by vice presidents or the position of senior managers. After this, different levels of management follow. Most of the employees are usually found at the bottom of the hierarchy and jobs are grouped by function into various departments. Before major transformations were done, this was the case at GM (Taylor, para. 3).

The company was categorized into various autonomous automakers, which functioned separately and competed with one another. The autonomous automakers consisted of Buick, Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Chevrolet, and Pontiac. However, the rivalry and absence of centralization within the company proved to be an expensive affair for the company.

Therefore, GM adopted the transformed organizational model, which is centralized and cohesive than the traditional model. Regardless of its size or complexity, the company has been able to arrange its diverse workforce coming from different parts of the world to ensure that its operations are run in a streamlined manner.

All the company’s employees are now working towards a common goal and running the company has been more cost effective. In its transformed structure, GM lacks many different departments. Most of the company’s departments are performing the same tasks with related requirements. Thus, this centralized organizational structure makes more sense than the traditional one.

The adoption of the transformed organizational model has made GM to have centralized staff functions. The change that was carried out radically changed its diverse workforce, including its management, since they had to learn central set of skills.

For instance, before the adoption of the transformed model, every autonomous automaker was using different computer software for manufacture of vehicles. This resulted in miscommunication between its different departments. The diverse workforce at GM was to be taught the basics of a central software program which resulted in easier inter-corporation communication.

The large undertaking also made the company’s production team to centralize their operations and learn from one another’s methods of design and engineering, which has resulted in a more productive and easier communication among them. Currently, the diverse workforce at GM communicates and embraces teamwork when working. They no longer work as individuals in completing a particular piece of the puzzle.

The transformed organizational model enabled General Motors to merge its different brand operations. The traditional model made various operations in the automotive company to be redundant. This led to the wastage of resources and time. This is because its employees were duplicating work that had been already performed by another of the company’s eight different brands. The traditional model plagued the operations at the company for years.

However, the merger of GM’s eight brands into four distinct channels drastically changed this. Different vice presidents who are appointed by the company’s Board of Directors head each of the four channels. The United States marketing and field operations are currently more strongly aligned to form four retail channels: “Chevrolet, Premium (Cadillac, Hummer, Saab); Buick-Pontiac-GMC; and Saturn” (Hall, para.2).

As a major strategy in the competitive automotive market, the company is involved in efforts to streamline further its organizational structure. This strategy is intended to lower unnecessary complexity and align resources towards increased growth. Ultimately, the company hopes to regain the market share that it has lost to Toyota, which is a very efficient corporation in the industry. Another strategy that General Motors is using is transforming its portfolio so as to have very differentiated cars and trucks suited for every brand.

For a long time, critics observed that brands within the company were competing with one another in the market. However, the changes that the company has adopted have started to have positive impacts. For instance, Hall notes that “Buick has been geared up for luxury sedan models, while Pontiac will specialize in performance models and GMC is sticking with trucks and SUVs” (para. 4).

The transformed organizational model has made the employees of GM to work on the same page. All of them are working towards realizing the same objective of preserving the core competence of the company of innovation. Because of this initiative, the turnover of the company has dramatically increased in recent years.

Its dominant position in the manufacture of vehicles is largely attributed to the innovative culture that it has embraced in its transformed organizational model. Focus on innovation has also made the company to re-assess the market that it has been striving to approach.

For a long time, the company had embraced a traditional outlook for automobiles. However, with the changing tastes and preferences of its customers, GM has taken a step back to examine critically its position in the market. To maintain this innovative culture, all the heads of the regional operations hold frequent monthly meetings to assess the progress of the company. Global offices usually attend these meetings via phone; therefore, the CEO is able to monitor the progress of the company.

The structure of the company has been affected by various contingency factors such as environment and the lifestyle of its customers in various places around the world.

Because of the nature of its worldwide customers who exhibit distinct tastes and needs, the company has found it to be advantageous to organize along geographic lines most of its activities that can be managed together. Every geographic unit has all the operations that are needed to effectively produce and market products in that region; therefore, this assists in giving the multinational company a more unified face to its local users.

The company’s global corporate headquarters located in Detroit, Michigan, provides brand recognition as well as handling some collective administrative roles. On the other hand, the semi-autonomous local units around the world serve the function of day-to-day running and decision making for the company; hence, the company is able to grow faster.

In order to sell its vehicles to a diverse customer group, the company has implemented a brand management structure that is aimed at selecting diverse potential market areas. As a result, GM has been able to develop strategies to supply these markets with specific brands that meet their tastes such as the “all new” Pontiac Grand Prix, Chevrolet Malibu, and GMC Yukon. These have received an enthusiastic reception in the market.

The ever-changing consumer demographics have made the company to look for non-traditional methods of reaching different customer groups; therefore, its fresh image has started to emerge on different fronts. In efforts aimed at rebuilding its corporate brand image, the company is trying to reach clients in a variety of promotions and venues, for example, sponsorship of the WNBA and partnership with the fashion industry.

In this way, GM aims at reaching the users on their terms and gives them a reason for purchasing its brand of vehicles. In addition, with the evolution of the automobile industry, more consumers are currently using the World Wide Web to become better acquainted with different products before making the final purchase decision. Therefore, the giant automakers use E-commerce as a strategy for reaching diverse customer groups all over the world.

The company culture that is embraced within General Motors focuses on six core values, which gives it the road map on what it wants to accomplish. This is what defines the conduct of the business of the automaker and gives it its standing as a company.

All the workers of the company around that world are aware of the six core values since they are the drivers for the company’s key decisions and activities in all the nations. The first core value is customer enthusiasm. This calls on all the company’s employees to strive in fulfilling the varied tastes and preferences of the customers.

The second is teamwork, which stresses the fact that the company is composed on a unique workforce; therefore, embracing teamwork is the only way to succeed. In this century, GM is faced with intense competition from market rivals such as Toyota and the Volkswagen Group. That is why the next core value focuses on innovation, which is aimed at giving the company a competitive edge in the market. The core values of individual respect and responsibility focuses on respecting the employees’ health, safety, and dignity.

Serving different customers around the world, General Motors has abandoned most of the traditional ways it employed in carrying out its operations. Although it is ranked at position two after Toyota in the automotive industry, it still has several competitive advantages.

These include a large market share that exists throughout the world, years of global experience in dealing with different customers, and a variety of brand names that appeal to all the target markets. However, in as much as the structure of the company makes sense, it must continually adopt changes in this dynamic world in order to maintain its market leadership.

Works Cited

“About GM.” GMC. General Motors Company. 2010. Web.

“Company information.” General Motors. General Motors Company. Web.

“GM profile.” Investorguide. 2010. Web.

Hall, Kenneth. “GM finally merges brand operations.” Motor Authority. High Gear Media. 2009. Web.

Taylor, Alex. “GM Gets Its Act Together. Finally How America’s No. 1 car company changed its ways and started looking like … Toyota.” Fortune. Time Warner Company. 2010. Web.

Introduction

Indubitably, General Motors Company (GM) is one of the largest vehicle manufacturing companies in the world. Currently, General Motors employs over 325,000 people around the world. Although headquartered in Detroit, General Motors has over 120 branches in different countries, 31 of them being manufacturing centres.

Primarily, General motors and its strategic partners manufacture vehicles but sell them in diverse brands such as Opel, Isuzu, Chevrolet, Holden and many more to interested buyers all around the globe. According to the recently released statistics from GM’s department of logistics and supply, China tops as the biggest market for GM’s products.

Other major market places include countries in the European Union such as Germany, France, Russia and United Kingdom. Traditionally, the automotive industry has employed a business model of mass production where automotive companies rely on mass production for competition.

Providentially, this was the then fortitude of competition. However, as time went by, the mass production of vehicles from other automotive manufacturers such as Toyota and Ford became irrelevant. On the other hand, demands and expectations from customers intensified forcing many manufacturing companies to reconsider their logistics and supply chain management.

The paper is an executive summary of General Motors Company and will specifically look into the past successes and failure, current economic and financial situation, and economic and financial future (Cooper 1).

Past Successes and Failures

Since its foundation in 1908, General Motors grew form a small holding company into a leading manufacturer of motor vehicles. During this period, General Motors experienced a number of successes and failures. The road to GM’s success started in 1908 when its founder, William Durant, devised ways of expanding the horizons of the company.

However, the company was one year later plunged into financial distress that threatened its collapse. Since most American businesspersons had seen the business idea of GM, some bankers pumped financial resources into the company thus, preventing its collapse.

The company was again back on its feet, and in 1911, it entered into the international market by making sales outside North America. Durant who had been ousted from the company he founded, moved on to create another company, Chevrolet, which enables him to come back to General Motors in 1915. History categorically states that GM started growing hysterically.

During this time, GM sold the highest number of Cadillac vehicles, and in 1918, GM acquired another motor company, Chevrolet Motors. The economic recession of 1920 caught the company by surprise and Durant was again affected as he found himself outside the ranks of General Motors Company.

Nevertheless, the financial boom of 1920s helped the company to regain back setting another success mark. The number of auto sales hit 4.5 million mark, and by this time, the company started competing with other giant automakers such as Ford and Chrysler. At the helm of GM’s hierarchy was a brilliant engineer and marketing genius, Alfred Sloan, who led the company to outdo the then successful automaker, Ford.

Although Ford had been successful in those days, its philosophy being to “offer customers product equivalent to the value of their money”, it offered little variety. GM under the leadership of Sloan, capitalised on this weakness by coming up with products of different stylish colours, features and comfort. Eventually this became the new motto of the company.

Additionally, the company unleashed a brilliant offer into the market where the public took products on credit. This offer in addition to the looks and styles of the five brands of GM (Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Chevrolet) increased the number of sales, and GM eventually overtook Ford from the number one spot.

However, another failure came in 1929 during the great Wall Street Crash forcing GM to abandon all of its expansion programmes. Notably, stocks of GM in major trading exchange centres fell terribly. Three years later, the company found itself rolling again and to mark its return, GM bought the Yellow Coach bus company and Electro-Motive Corporation, which enabled the production of diesel locomotives.

In 1955, GM became the first automaker to make over a billion dollars as revenue. Other successes include GM being the largest corporation in United States at one time and the greatest employer in the world at specific times.

On a sad note, GM was recently hit by financial woes that saw over 30, 000 employees leave their positions in addition to $4 billion losses. However, the Obama administration has poured in excess $30.1 billion into GM to help it regain.

Current Economic and Financial situation

The current global economic and financial crisis has always posed a serious dilemma to many companies including GM. Currently, the revenue stands at $193 billion, meaning GM is standing at the crossroads. Although 30, 000 employees no longer work for the company, the company pays $8.7 billion as wages.

This means that that if GM shuts its operations, over 1 million jobs it supports will also be lost, which is a big blow to the economy. For instance, the 1988 labor industrial action that shut GM’s operations for 54 days had serious negative impacts to the economy of US. All is not well at GM, for example, in the first quarter alone of the year 2009, the company made a loss of $1.1 billion.

The $1, 600-per-vehicle legacy costs also threaten the operations of the company, and soon, the consequences of junk-bond ratings might affect it further. Since the year 2000, the company has continually lost its market value (43 billion) – currently stands at 74 percent. This has scared away investors as GM no longer enjoys its fundamental business—that of selling cars.

The huge losses incurred means that GM cannot afford to invest more in technology and design. This has resulted into a decline in sales by 5.2 percent in United States alone. The market-share has declined to its lowest in four-decade history to 25.6 percent. For the first time in the history of the company, the total expenditure is higher compared to the total revenue generated from car sales (General Motors Company 8-20).

Economic and Financial Future

The US government took measures to halt the further collapse of GM. By injecting $30.1 billion into the company, the company is now emerging from bankruptcy. 17 months down the line from June 1, 2009, GM started trading its shares again. Additionally, the company has marked major changes to exude confidence in the market.

Dubbed the new GM, the company/s main objective is to rejuvenate the number of sales through anew business model. Over the next five years, the company plans to lower cost structure, develop an ambient balance sheet and minimize risks. Moreover, the company intends to enter equity market and register its mark in the NYSE balcony.

GM has also collaborated with other business ventures internally and externally in Brazil Russia, which has seen robust sales of all brands. Additionally, at the start of 2011, the company came up with new design vehicles Chevrolet Silverado HD that has since won the Motor Trend Award.

By reducing cost base and restructuring operations in North America, GM has announced revenue of $5.7 billion before tax. Additionally, the company has managed to cut its debt by $11 billion, injected over $4 billion cash contributions into the pension plan, and continues to maintain a strong liquidity position.

Advanced technology, improved customer relationship through dealer networks, and financial discipline are the long-term strategies of building the new GM (General Motors Company 22-288).

Work Cited

Cooper, Victoria. General Motors Profile: Driving Customer Satisfaction. 2010. Web.

Motors Company. 2010 Annual Report. 2010. Web.