You have been hired as a consultant to help Ford Motor Company return to its glory days, when either Henry Ford or Alan Mulally ran the company. In doing so, you must produce a short report to Jim Hackett, Fords CEO, that conveys your observations of Fords current situation (situational analysis), and a proposal of strategic actions Ford should take to be the model automotive company of the 21st century. Thus, you task is to answer the following questions based solely on the information provided in the case:
- Perform an analysis of Fords external and internal environments. As you do this, please make sure you organize your response by classifying external trends as opportunities and threats, and by classifying Fords internal environment as strengths and weaknesses. Because of the length of the report, select the most salient issues in your eyes. In addition, you must include at least three functional areas/value chain activities in your analysis of Fords internal environment (e.g., operations, marketing, and finance), and you must include issues regarding Fords financial situation.
- Based on the external challenges (threats), positive external trends (opportunities), Fords limitations (weaknesses), and Fords strong suits (strengths) identified in point #1, provide 4 strategic suggestions for Fords executives to implement. In other words, combine opportunities/threats you identified, with Fords strengths/weaknesses in order to make suggestions on what decisions CEO Hackett needs to make. In your response, make sure you include both strategic actions related to business level strategy (how to compete) and corporate -level strategy (where to compete). Provide strong rationale for your choices.
