2000 Sales Revenue For Ford Motor Company example essay topic

By: Brenda Gonitzke Ford Motor Company began a manufacturing revolution with its mass productions assembly line in the early 1900's. Now the company is firmly entrenched in the status quo as the world's largest pickup truck maker and the number two producer of cars and trucks, behind General Motors. It makes vehicles with such brands as Aston Martin, Ford, Jaguar, Lincoln, Mercury, and Volvo. Among its biggest successes are the Ford Taurus and F-Series pickup.

Ford owns a controlling (33%) stake in Mazda and has purchased BMW's Land Rover SUV operations. The finance subsidiary, Ford Motor Credit, is the United States number one auto finance company. It also owns Hertz, the world's number one car rental firm. The Ford family owns about forty percent of the company's voting stock. The Ford Motor Company was founded by Henry Ford on June 16, 1903. This was his third company that he founded, but it was the only one that succeeded.

Henry Ford owned just 25.5% of the stock in 1903-he didn't become president and controlling owner until three years later. The company began production on a two-cylinder, eight-horsepower design called the Model A. The company produced 1,708 of these models in the first year of operation. (Pictured above is a replica of the 1903 Model A). One year later, Ford Motor Company expanded to Windsor, Ontario, across the Detroit River. Ford Motor Company's headquarters are in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford's business strategy is all about the customer being their number one priority.

Their vision is "To become the world's leading consumer company for automotive products and services. Their mission is: "We are a global, diverse family with a proud heritage passionately committed to providing outstanding products and services that improve people's lives". Their values are "The customer is Job 1. We do the right thing for our customers, our people, our environment and our society. By improving everything we do, we provide superior returns to our shareholders".

Of the 112 worldwide plants, forty-eight of them are located in the United States and thirty-four of them are in Europe. Some of Ford's major changes in 2000 included the completion of the purchase of the BMW Land Rover and supporting the formation of FordDirect. com, an internet-based enterprise offering services to customers wishing to purchase Ford vehicles online. They also purchased minority interest in Top Driver, the largest driver education company of its kind in the United States, and spun off Visteon Corporation, a subsidiary providing automobile parts and systems. The 2000 sales revenue for Ford Motor Company showed the following values: $141.2 billion in automotive operations, $23.7 billion from Ford financial services, and $5.1 billion from Hertz. Ford's competitive forces are those external influences that affect Ford's strategy and ability to compete in the automotive market. For many years, Ford's competitors have been other United States and Japanese automakers, buts its greatest threat today may be coming from the internet.

The internet has changed the basis of competition by providing new capabilities for cutting costs, reducing inventory, and widening access to customers. It is changing the relationship between the automakers, dealers, and the customers. There are car dealers on the web that allow consumers to search and purchase new cars online without taking a trip to the car dealership. In 1999, Ford announced the use of Microsoft's CarPoint web site to help consumers find the specific car they want from dealer inventory or have it quickly built to order.

Any sale made online will still be finalized through a franchised Ford dealer. This CarPoint system also helps collect data on customer purchase patterns and preferences, which can help Ford fine-tune its products to include the features that consumers want the most. One of Ford's major automotive competitors is General Motors (GM). They are the world's number one maker of cars and trucks, with brands such as Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, and Oldsmobile. General Motors has a 49% stake in Isuzu Motors and 20% stake in Fug i Heavy Industries (Subaru), Suzuki Motors, and Fiat Auto. Toyota is another competitor for Ford.

Toyota Motor Corporation is Japan's largest and the world's number four carmaker by sales. They make gas and electric sedans that are already being snapped up in the United States and European markets. They manufacture gas-powered cars, pickups, minivans, and SUV's; they also make forklifts and manufactured housing. The company is focusing on growing its global production base. Daimler Chrysler is the world's number three carmaker in sales. Their brands include Dodge, Eagle, Jeep, and Plymouth vehicles.

The Mercedes brand is limited to luxury sedans, commercial vehicles, and SUV's. They also have a ten percent stake in Hyundai Motor and 37% stake in Mitsubishi Motors. Ford Motor Company faces many challenges, from uncertain economic conditions to increasing competition in key market segments. They also have great strengths and strong momentum. They have a vision of where they want to go and a strategy that will take them there. Some of Ford's managers and supervisors have come up with ideas at their leadership development meetings and centers that add value and help keep Ford ahead of the competition.

Some of these ideas include: a fleet of mobile service units to service Ford vehicles at the owner's home or office, create Ford-branded leisure and adventure trips, free oil changes and other services during the warranty period, entering the parts-recycling business, start a for-profit driver education program, and develop a chain of branded maintenance and repair shops. The company has done the last three listed. Even ideas that are never implemented, though, help to reset the culture at Ford. The goal is a company whose thousands of leaders engage continually in quantum ideas that extend throughout the organization. Ford is conscious that their people are the key to their future and they differentiate themselves from the competition through their creativity, dedication, and energy. They are focused on developing leaders that will contribute to the success for Ford Motor Company.

They want to create learning opportunities at every level in the company though coaching and mentoring on the job and linking outside education and development processes to real business situations. Ford Credit is much more than a car-loan provider. Having financed more than 50 million vehicles worldwide since the company was founded in 1959, Ford Credit continues to be a pioneer in the auto financing industry. With its global network and level of expertise unmatched to the industry, Ford Credit is continually expanding into new markets, bringing value-added service and customer-driven approaches to a growing community of Ford Motor Company auto consumers. It helps people who are facing credit challenges with an opportunity to re-establish their credit through Fairlane Credit, a wholly owned Ford Credit subsidiary.

Ford has placed a substantial order for Insignia's Soft Windows for Unix product to allow its engineers and designers to run Windows packages such as Word Perfect and Excel on Unix workstations. The Ford network includes 18,000 PC's and 1,300 Unix workstations from companies including DEC, HP, IBM, Silicon Graphics and Sun. The company hopes Soft Windows will ensure users stick to the same software, regardless of the machine they are using. Soft Windows comes with built-in network support. It turns a Unix workstation into a virtual PC, allowing the systems administrator to distribute Windows applications anywhere on a mixed PC and Unix LAN.

Their two break though strategic priorities-customer satisfaction and e-business are aligned with this customer driven vision. They made tremendous progress on both initiatives in 2000. in the past year they launched a Customer Driven 6-Sigma, a scientific data driven process to uncover the root cause of customer concerns out defects. We now have more than 1,800 full time, trained problems called Black Belts leading customer satisfaction team projects. The projects they completed last year have already saved them more than $52 million and will save them more than $200 million in the next two years. More important projects made a real difference to our customers by eliminating high concerns and increasing satisfaction. Ford has what it calls the Blue Oval Certification.

You ask, "What is Blue Oval Certified?" Blue Oval Certification is bestowed upon a dealership as recognition from Ford Motor Company for the high level of customer satisfaction achieved with every purchase, lease and service experience. A dealer must pass a certification process to be awarded this recognition. The Blue Oval Certified thumbprint is a symbol of personal commitment to customer satisfaction. The thumbprint represents the commitment of every employee to provide their own unique brand of personal service to meet and exceed customer expectations. New and innovative technologies are continuously being developed at Ford Motor Company with ideas such as: Environmental Research-which is keeping the world a safe, clean place is important to us. They are doing research on what they can do to reduce emissions and maintain a clean environment.

Vehicle innovation-with laser lit tail lights and improved paint durability are just two of the better ideas they are implementing. Global Efforts-the world is our marketplace. They are working on research in a facility in Asia and what they can do to try and reduce emissions there also. European Research Center-The Ford Forschungszentrum As chen (FFA): They are discovering how Ford Motor Company is meeting the growing demand for personal mobility while increasing safety levels and minimizing environmental effects in Europe.

Technology Partnerships-With NASA, they developed a new computer chip for vehicle power-train systems that mimic the way the human mind handles complex tasks. Asia-Pacific Technology and Environmental Programs- Ford Motor Company has had a presence in the Asia-Pacific regions for almost since they are founded nearly 100 years ago. Serving customers in the regions is an important part of their past and a critical element of their global strategy for the future. Ford has made strong progress in applying e-technologies to our intern activities. Their web sites are enabling them to develop and nurture long-term relationships with their customers. The web also offers new growth opportunities for them.

Percepta, their joint venture with Tele tech, is transforming their global centers into Customer Relationship Centers. It has generated operational savings while increasing service levels and improving customer satisfaction. Their goal is to use Percepta's web-based capability to manage all of the customer interfaces in an integrated, efficient and value-added technology is allowing them to get more personal with the customer. In December they began a test launch of FordDirect. com, a company formed with Ford Division dealers to bring direct, online sales to customers. More than 80% of dealers in the United States have committed to participate in this groundbreaking venture. Wing cast, their telematics joint venture with Qualcomm, was launched to bring wireless, digital information and entertainment services into their cars and trucks.

Telematics services will be available in Europe next year, with a later debut in the United States. Ford Motor Company's Minority Supplier Development (MSD) Program started in 1978. Ford recognized that it has a social responsibility to provide opportunities to minority individuals and their communities. When Ford started this program there were few minority owned and operated companies with the capabilities to provide goods and services purchased by Ford and other automotive manufacturers. At the direction of Henry Ford II, a program was designed to identify high potential minority business persons and assist them in growing their companies to competitive positions in our industry. Ford now purchases more goods and services from minority owned and operated companies than any other U.S. corporation.