Final Paper
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BUS 200“
Ford vs. General Motors“
The two companies that I decided to research, analyze, and compare are Ford
Motor Company and General Motors — both being US based automobile-manufactur–
ers, supplying similar products to the global automotive market. I’m going to be as–
sessing five key-variables in my approach: corporate success, organizational structure,
global reputation, transparency, and strategic plans.“
I chose these two companies in particular for a few reasons. Ford and GM have
been mainstays in the auto industry, Ford since 1903 and GM since 1908. They have
long been rivals in competition to lead the industry. Perhaps the most intriguing reason
to investigate these two companies is the volatility of market in which they compete in.
In the auto industry, sales can decline in a financial crisis, recession, geopolitical event,
and costs can rise due to tariffs on imported materials. For example, in 2018, President
Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on all imported aluminum and steel goods in order
to promote the domestic steel industry. So, you can take these two leading firms and
be objectively neutral about the products themselves because we know that they are
very similar and subject to taste. However, given the volatility of the market, you can
look at how they respond to these external struggles, and make judgments on the in–
tegrity of each organization, which will lead you to draw certain conclusions about their
long and short-term success as a company.“
With regard to corporate success, transparency, and global reputation, the ap-
proach that I took to researching these companies was to utilize The Wall Street Jour-
Final Paper
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nal. Ford and GM show up in the headlines very often as these companies have a lot of
investors and their success can be indicators of economic shifts. This publication is
very influential and can shape public opinion.“
When it came to organizational structure, corporate success and strategic plan-
ning, a tool that I utilized in my research is the company’s 10-K. A 10-K is a compre-
hensive report of a companies financial performance, that the US Securities and Ex–
change Commission requires all public companies in the US to file and make public.
This file can be found on the companies website. From company to company, they
share they same structure of information: business, market share, sales, employment,
revenues, etc… “
Ford Motor Company has a 14.1% market share in the US, 6.8% globally, and
