Ford Motors

Ford is an American multinational vehicle manufacturer with their headquarters i

n Dearborn, Michigan. It was founded and incorporated by Henry Ford founded the
on the 6th of June, 1903.Ford sells its products mainly under two brands; automo
biles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand while most of its luxury cars
are sold under the Lincoln brand. The organization also owns two other manufact
urers outside the US; FPV, a performance car manufacturer in Australia, and Trol
ler, a Brazilian SUV manufacturer.
Ford is fifth-largest automaker globally behind Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai-Kia
and General Motors who are their biggest competitors in the USA where they are s
econd. According to the 2010 Fortune 500 list, Ford was the Eighth overall Ameri
can company as well as the top automaker in Europe based on global revenues in 2
009 of $118.3B. In 2008, they had employed about 213,000 employees at 90 plants
and facilities worldwide and produced 5.532M automobiles. However, as at 2016, t
he company recorded a revenue of 151.8 billion with an employment of 201,000 as
at 2017.
The company has also produced tractors in the past. They own 8% of the UK-based
Aston Martin, 49% of Jiangling in China as well as other joint ventures; Changan
Ford, Ford Lio Ho, AutoAlliance Thailand, Ford Otosan, and Ford Sollers. The Fo
rd family still controls the organization with majority voting power although th
ey have minority ownership.

SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Ford s finance arm remains to be a great competitive advantage for the organization.
In 2014, it raised $1.9B pre-tax profit of which $1.7B remained as net income,
which made up 30% of their total profit that year. Their early market entrance h
as helped them maintain a strong brand image ranking among the major global auto
motive companies. Their consistent presence in the market has helped them remain
relevant and thus a major advantage. Also, their global presence has helped the
m acquire a strong dealership network of up to 7,500 making more sales and easie
r access to the customer base. Ford might also trace some of its success to exce
llent advertising. Advertising is one of the key marketing aspects, and they are
maximizing in this. Finally, having an active research and development departme
nt has been key in helping the organization develop products that meet the expec
tations of the market as well as make improvements where needed to realize the u
ltimate product.
Weaknesses
The greatest threat that Ford I facing should be its prices which higher than mo
st of her competitors. Price will always remain to be a key determining factor t
o a prospective customer especially when their options offer almost the same rew
ards or functionality. Ford is also heavily relying on pickup trucks whose appea
l is limited outside North America. Finally, with the recent closure of some pro
duction facilities, Ford s production has gone done unable to fully meet market dema
nds. Moreover, they incurred massive losses in Europe.
Opportunities
Increasing fuel prices might work for Ford as they emphasize on fuel efficient e
ngines, this should give them a strong competitive advantage. Also, with rising
user concerns on the environment and its pollution, Ford s green vehicles are expect
ed to have better sales inn the near future due to their low carbon emissions. N
ew product development can provide market entrance to emerging and new markets.
They can also improve their financial standing by expanding their supply chain t
o achieve better economies of scale as well as reducing production costs.
Threats
The firm is also facing intense competition from strong organizations can be fel
t limiting their market share. The competition is also taking advantage of Ford s pr
ices by having products that are less costly. Toyota and Honda for instance alre
ady have a head start in alternative fuel engines with Volkswagen having greater
 expertise in electric vehicles. This means that Ford has a lot of catch to make
if they are to remain relevant in this industry.
Also, the current young people are driving less than previous generations, indic
ating less interest in cars resulting in fewer car sales in the future. Increas
ed usage of public transport is a threat to the whole manufacturing industry.
Improvement
One of the main limitations facing Ford is the speed of innovation and the scope
of its production network. There is also aggressive competition from existing f
irms as well as new entrants. They need to invest more in research and developme
nt to increase their innovation speeds to address competition whist making it ha
rder for new entrants to thrive. They would also need to expand their production
scope especially to Africa which has not been fully tapped yet holds great pote
ntial. Fuel efficiency can also provide a major competitive advantage in the aut
omobile sector particularly for the Asian and African markets which record low s
ales for luxury various which might suggest economy as a determining factor.