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Strategic Planning: Ford Motor Company
Planning is an essential process in today’s organizations. Based on the three types of managers: top-level (strategic managers), middle-level (tactical managers), and frontline (operational managers), exist three corresponding levels of planning: strategic, tactical, and operational. The purpose of this essay is to focus on the strategic level of planning for the Ford Motor Company; a leader in the global automobile industry. Strategic planning, according to Bateman and Snell (2009), “involves making decisions about the organization’s long-term goals and strategies” (p. 137). This paper will elaborate on six key influential factors: economic, environmental, competition, foreign policy, domestic policy, and innovation; that shape this corporation’s strategic plan. Finally, a SWOTT analysis will be conducted covering the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends, that the Ford Motor Company has in relation to its business environment.
Economic Factors
Many economic factors exist that impact the development of Ford Motor Company's strategic plan and it’s no small task to project how some of these factors might change as the strategy is being realized. Consider the prospect of expansion into a new market like China or Mexico. Economic changes like currency devaluation will make Ford’s product more expensive to their target market potentially reducing overall sales revenue. Oil prices as we’ve seen in the U.S. economy can also play a big factor as large vehicles become less desirable and more fuel efficient compact cars gain market share.
Ford’s production plants rely on v ...