FORD Management Report
Table of Contents
Corporate Social Responsibility. 6
Matrix Organizational Structure. 9
FORD Management Report
Introduction
FORD is a U.S. based Automobile manufacturer incorporated in the year 1919. The company has grown in a challenging environment throughout the years. However, she has managed to get to the top in the global ranking (Ford Motor Company, 2015). She is among the top automobile manufacturers. Her products range from trucks, sport utility vehicles and many other vehicles. She prestige in her already established brand name and endeavours to deliver quality products in the over 60 countries where she sells her vehicles. This paper provides a report of the company.
SWOT Analysis
The company has achieved progressive growth over the years. This growth can be mainly attributed to the response mechanism to the environment. She has been able to manage the forces in and outside the organization (Valentin, 2001). Below is an analysis of the major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company.
| Strengths I. Established brand name II. Strong Manufacturing Capabilities III. Large product portfolio IV. Strong focus on innovation V. Strong position in the U.S. and China markets | Weaknesses I. Product recalls II. Weak position in India and other emerging markets
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| Opportunities I. Artificial intelligence and autonomous driving II. Digital Marketing opportunities III. Supply chain digitization IV. Electric vehicles | Threats I. Stiff competition II. Regulatory threats III. Increasing costs of materials and labour. |
Strengths
The brand name is already established. The company, therefore, is saved the efforts of penetrating the markets. The company also produces quite several vehicles using their high technology which increases the market presence. The company has also already established a strong market in China and the U.S., which is an advantage. Finally, the company heavily invests in innovation which could create greater opportunities.
Opportunities
Among the opportunities available to the company are the large markets that are still unexplored, the use of A.I. in production, digital marketing, digitization of their supply chain and the production of electric vehicles. All these are potentials yet to be explored.
Weaknesses
The company struggles to establish a market in India and other emerging markets. The second weakness of the company is product recalls. A number of vehicles have been recalled due to gear shift problems, and this tarnishes the company’s reputation.
Threats
The company experiences stiff competition from companies like Toyota, BMW, Mercedes Benz, among others. Government policies are also changing, forcing companies to change their production mechanisms with time. Finally, the costs of production are plummeting.
Ethics
Ethics define the conduct of a company. They are a set code of limits to be adhered to by a group of people. The company has a code of conduct to guide the conduct of the employees and the production process (Mack, 2018). The most important code is that which is meant to discourage bribery in the company. The employees are tasked with not appreciating gifts from strangers or company insiders if they exceed $50. In case someone seeking to do business with the company makes an offer, it should be for the whole organization and not a single employee. This helps the employees to counter rival traps.
Corporate Social Responsibility
The company has a number of plans to give back to the community and the employees. Their first responsibility to their employees is ensuring that they ensure the safety of the employees (Canis& Brent, 2010). Secondly, the company gives back to society through various projects like Ford DSFL, where youths are taken through driving lessons to gain the proper driving skills for life. The company also has a team of people called Ford Volunteer corps who are in charge of helping build homes for poverty-stricken communities. Thousands of volunteers team up to support this project. According to Lombardo (2016), these are very important moves to the growth of the company.
Planning
A plan is a layout of the future of the company. A company’s plan dictates the future of the organization. There are four key elements of a plan. There is need for objectives, actions, resources and the implementation.
Objectives
A plan must have its objectives. The One Ford plan is incorporated in its vision. The plan is SMART. The objectives are very specific. That is achieving a unified Ford throughout. The objective is also measurable as it incorporates measures to evaluate achievements. The plan is so achievable as there are already plans in place to ensure they get to the best (Blomberg, 2012). It is realistic as they are things that have already been done by the organization. Finally, the plan is timebound, as it is limited to the year 2022.
Actions
Strategic Actions
Among the strategic actions that the company has taken to ensure that it achieves its one Ford plan is the closing of its operational units in some countries. This has helped in the achievement of the main aim of the company, which is a unified source of the command.
Tactical
Tactical steps that have been taken by the organization include selling some production lines and closing others. The company has ceased the production of some models to ensure they emphasize on others.
Operational
The company has ensured a unique design of curvature in all its productions. This is meant to achieve a unified theme.
Resources
The organization has all the necessary resources to achieve a unified Ford. It is important to note that the formation of the various production units and ensuring the resources are all brought together is among the steps the company has made to ensure the resources needed for production from a centralized place are all available.
Implementation
The company has been in the frontline to implement all its projects and to ensure the success of all of them. Even when the other companies are struggling financially, Ford has made sure that their plan goes through for the success of the organization. The implementation of the various objectives calls for strong plans
Organizational Culture
Uniformity of products is one of the most important organizational cultures. Ford, as a company can leverage on this to ensure that their products can be easily identified from afar. This starts with the standardization of the production schemes to ensure that the products are standard. All the productions from the company are standardized in such a manner that the company delivers the best products when they are needed the most. The company has already leveraged on this opportunity. They have a uniform curvature that identifies the brand’s vehicles even from a distance. Quality is yet another unification tool in place. All their products are associated with quality.
Organizing
Unity of Command
There are a number of ways the company can use to attain unity of command. The most efficient one is the centralization of power. Through a centralized system, an organization creates a hierarchy of command. Power and command flow from the top to the bottom. The company has already established a system that guides the production and quality of their services and the distribution of their products too. The most important strategy for the company is the One Ford vision. This is the vision of creating a unified Ford. This is a vision that can be easily achieved only if all mechanisms are put in place for the governance and control of the organization.
Centralization of Power
A centralized system of governance has already been established through the One Ford vision that has brought together all the production units. This has helped in the elimination of bureaucracy and the establishment of plans to enhance the growth of the company. Earlier on, there were challenges in the organization as the various units competed for power and control over the organization. However, over the years, the structure has changed, bringing in all the department to work under a common source of the command. This has helped in the achievement of centralization of power.
Matrix Organizational Structure
Matrix organizational structure is a structure that establishes an organization with the top leaders and other functional units below them. These functional units are tasked with specific obligations towards the organization (Jackson, Joshi, & Erhardt, 2003). The project leaders pick the people and resources that they deem sufficient to achieve the project objectives. This structure could work pretty well for the organization. This is by ensuring that all the organizational members are tasked with different responsibilities towards the achievement of a common goal. This way, there will be very little competition between the departments. Departmental competition creates the issue of unhealthy competition, and this has earlier on been experienced to cause lots of challenges to the organization.
Leadership
Organizational leadership shapes the organization a huge deal. There are a number of leadership theories that have been proposed by both contemporary and traditional theorists. Charismatic leadership theory is one of the best leadership theories (Bayt, 2018). It seeks to establish the role of a leader in the growth of an organization. Leaders have a crucial role in planning in the running of an organization. According to charismatic leadership theory, the subjects or employees follow the vision of the leader in the running of the various businesses. In their daily conduct, employees rely on their employers as the main source of motivation. This means that an organizational leader needs charisma or some special power to gain control. Most importantly is the vision of the leader. This is what the followers look for. Once the leader has shared the vision, the employees can do anything to ensure they achieve it. The case is particular for the company. The various members of the company have been in a continuous effort to produce unified products as charged by the CEO. It is this vision that the employees are following to ensure the growth of the organization.
Employee motivation
Employee motivation is at the forefront of any organizational performance. Without a well-motivated team, the organization is likely going to lose focus. Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs defines the ultimate need for motivation and the important aspects that all leaders should focus on in their employees. All employees need to feel part of the organization. The importance of the motivation theory is that it sets the key areas that the managers need to focus on. There are five key human needs (Gartenstein, 2017). These are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs. All these needs are essential in the hierarchy of human needs. The satisfaction of these needs means that the employees will always be motivated to work for the organization. As organizations seek to get the best human resources working for them, the employees are tasked with choosing an organization that will satisfy all of the above needs. This works as the most basic motivation. Organizations and employers that underestimate the need for any of these are at risk of losing their most valuable workforce to competitors. Ford, as a company has been at the forefront of ensuring that the employees have the best working conditions and all the motivation needed to complete their tasks. This propels their desire to work for the organization.
Strategic Recommendations
There are a number of opportunities available to the organization for exploitation. Among these opportunities are the use of A.I. in the improvement of their services and products. The company also needs to open up to new markets to gain the advantage of a wider market to the products. The organization could also expand its production to cover the needs of populations like the low-budget people in the developing nations. Exploiting this opportunity like Toyota has done could be an added advantage to the organization.
Conclusion
Ford is among the leading automobile manufacturers in the entire globe. The company enjoys the privilege of having established a brand name. The company can, therefore, leverage on this opportunity to explore other markets in Asia and other developing countries (Batema, Snell & Konopaske, 2018). The company should also focus on employee motivation as it is key to the growth of the company. Without an internally motivated workforce, the organization will always struggle with exploiting its potential. The company’s strategies are among the biggest efforts in ensuring its growth. It is projected to grow more in the future if the company looks at their strengths, works on their weaknesses and leverages on the opportunities available in the market place.
References
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Bloomberg Businessweek. (2012) “Ford Motor Co (F: New York).” Bloomberg Businessweek 1. Print.
Canis, B., & Brent D. Y. (2010) “The U.S. Motor Vehicle Industry: Confronting a New Dynamic in the Global Economy.” Congressional Research Service.: 1-66. Print.
Ford Motor Company (2015). Supporting One Ford.
Gartenstein, D. (2017). Open Systems Theory in Business. Retrieved from: https://bizfluent.com/info‐8039547‐open‐systems‐theory‐business.html
Jackson, S. E., Joshi, A., & Erhardt, N. L. (2003). Recent research on team and organizational diversity: SWOT analysis and implications. Journal of Management, 29(6), 801-830.
Lombardo, C. (2016). Pros and Cons of Corporate Social Responsibility. Retrieved from: http://visionlaunch.com/pros‐and‐cons‐of‐corporate‐social‐responsibility/
Mack, S. (2018). Individualism and Ethical Decision Making. Retrieved from: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/individualism‐ethical‐decision‐making‐56240.html
Valentin, E. K. (2001). SWOT analysis from a resource-based view. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 54-69.