International Business Strategy: Case Study of General Motors in India
Verified
Added on  2023/06/03
|9
|2248
|413
AI Summary
This case study analyzes the failure of General Motors in the Indian market and suggests a conceptual framework for sustaining in the market. It discusses the importance of leadership consistency, local leaders, and strategic planning for business sustainability.
Contribute Materials
Your contribution can guide someone’s learning journey. Share your
documents today.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY
Secure Best Marks with AI Grader
Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY Table of Contents Literature Review............................................................................................................................3 Justice and fairness of the case....................................................................................................3 Business sustainability in the case...............................................................................................4 Themes observed in the case.......................................................................................................5 Conceptual framework.................................................................................................................6 Page2of9
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY Literature Review Justice and fairness of the case The move of exiting India came into effect when GM had given effort at expanding their share market in the country but failed to achieve success. According to Kale (2017), the Opel cars were a point of success for the company as a new entrant in the Indian Market and later with the Chevroletcars.However,themomentumofsustainabilitywasdisruptedduetolackof leadership consistency, models and branding. Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai were the tough competitors of GM in the small car sections that had been an extra factor of GM’s failure. GM faced a crisis of business prosperity where it had to see less than 1% car sales and decided to leave India. The verdict of GM for the quitting on Indian market in a purpose of selling still hold them to grab a position as manufacturers where it gets it done at cheap cost and export the cars to South and Central America, Mexico, etc. The strategic failure of GM in Indian market is considered to be the inability of the company in understanding the attributes market and analyse the preferences of the customers to make choices on viable cars. Entering the liberalised country of India again in the year 1994 after exiting in 1954 have made them working with zeal (Chris Culver,2014). India is not a country with poor opportunities but the American companies have started restraining unnecessarily as the fastest growing and major economy of the world. India is concerned about attracting and claim foreign direct investments more from China. There had been key American players until now who achieved sustainability in modern India. In terms of considering the justification of the country as a market, it is observed that the home companies have been able to provide a tough competition to GM and hence, it is not that India is lacking opportunity but have variable client handling plan. On the contrary, GM itself could not feel the Page3of9
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY need of operating in India as a sales unit and therefore, is still holding the place as a manufacturer. The fine line of difference in both of its perspective lies on the economic stabilisation. India wants a wider option, GM wants wider economic opportunity (Oehler, Horn and Wendt, 2017). Business sustainability in the case According to Pradhan (2017), the sustainability of business in the case of General Motors is encouraging the further efforts of the company in preparing for a faster and globally achievable pace of growth. The changes include creating transparency. The sustainability motive of the company is to maintain all over perceptions including business and environment. However, the case study referred here is a result of unstable and inappropriate leadership moves that failed to analyse the need of the Indian market and negotiate to operate sales. According to Chia and Dev (2018), a clear understanding must have been prevailing in the minds of authorities that the economic and social pursuits differ from region to region and along with culture. In order to sustain in the market, it is essential for the organizations to manage and balance financial, social and environmental risks, grab the opportunities and monitor the productivity and the profitability of the company. General Motors tried to sustain in the market by promising that they would increase the exports and keep the cost of sales stable. General Motors delivered promising cars like Tavera, Beat and Cruz to the market but gradually all of these were washed out from the market. General Motors had started a 50:50 joint venture with Hindustan Motors in 1994 and in 1999 bought the stake of Hindustan Motors and went solo. During the global economic crisis in 2008-2009, with a Chinese partner SAIC, General Motors started another 50:50 joint venture and in the year 2012, General Motors bought 43% of SAIC’s holdings and raised the stake to 93%. General Motors India reported to General Motors Asia which caused confusion between the two Page4of9
Paraphrase This Document
Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY and the strategies followed. General Motors debut in India was under the Opel brand but in 2003 General Motors introduced the Chevrolet brand in the Indian market and stopped selling Opel completely (Kahn and Agnew, 2017).Many giant automobile companies tried to set foot in India as India is one of the largest automobile markets. Indian companies such as Tata Motors became global competitors and holds 47% of the Indian market along with other companies like Suzuki, Hyundai, etc. Themes observed in the case General Motors is a US-based automobile company, which came to India in 1994. It had come to India before Volkswagen, Toyota and even Hyundai but in the long-run, the General Motors got lost in the crowd. About 5-7 years ago, General Motors kick-started in the Indian Automotive industry.General Motors had aimed at acquiring 5% of the market share. However, situations rapidly changed, after CEO Karl Slym left the company. The difficulties faced by the company were in terms of branding, leadership and model of the cars (Acharya, Schaefer and Zhang, 2015). Over the last 35 years, 9 CEO's had changed for the company. General Motors' debut in India was under the Opel brand which was with Astra and Corsa. General Motors had started with a positive note, the competition was tough as the market was small and companies like Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai dominated the market. The sales for General Motor reduced over the years and had stated that they would increase exports to Mexico and South America, keeping the cost of production low.International business strategies are the plans that guide financial transactions between the global companies in different companies. Nearly every company is attracted by Internationalization and is being internationally accepted by every kind of economy as it is the process of getting involved in the global market. Executives try to reduce cost and expand in the foreign market. Similarly, General Motors had decided to increase exports to Page5of9
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY Mexico, Central and South America and the main focus of Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motorswas profitability (Crane and Matten, 2016).There are two different modes of entry, which can be used by companies to enter the foreign market.First of which comprises exports and agreements in related to contracts. The second mode is to be part of wholly owned subsidies and in joint ventures.In export and import involves the lowest risk and lowest market control. The companies can get directly involved as an agent in the export.Internationalization has been welcomed by various companies across the world, which encouraged the removal of trade barriers among the countries.The most widespread reason behind internationalization is that it diversifies risk (Fradkin, 2017). Conceptual framework By the end of 2017, General Motors decided to stop selling vehicles in India as the profitability was reducing over the period of time and the reason behind them are discussed below. Leadership – Being consistent in leadership is crucial to sustaining in the market over a long period of time.Indian culture and market area unique mixture of Asian and Western values, understanding which requires constant monitoring over a long period of time. 9 different CEO’s had led General Motors in India over the last 34 years and the average span being 2.5 years and to top the list, consistency is must in India. Local leaders – Indian market requires customization as the fundamental structure of the market is much different from one in West. Co-operation from the local autonomy is essential to sustain in the market and carry out important decisions. To succeed in India, the US-based company required to improve and set free the leaders so that they can analyse local issues, address them and use it is as an opportunity (Ray and Ray,2011). Page6of9
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY Strategic planning- India based companies are developing and entering the global market and increasing competition and therefore it is essential to plan strategies to encounter the new competitors and retain its position in the market.A similar situation has been witnessed where MahindraandMahindra,alocalcompanyhasrisenandchallengedtheworld-famous agricultural tractor business, John Deere. Hyundai has also captured a major part of the Indian company by developing lower-priced quality cars and met the need of the middle-class Indians, which the Indian population comprises mostly (Jhaet al.2014). Another crucial point which is to be considered while strategic planning, is that the planning is to be based on scale and volume. General Motors should have aimed not only the higher income groups but also the middle class and that is how they would be able to leverage dealerships and sustain in the market. Understanding the scheme of scale Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors had committed to invest $1billion to expand the operations in India. However, at the end of 2017, they have decided to withdraw the investment and make cars mainly for the Latin America market. The technological centre is to be retrained in Bangalore. It has recently consolidated its operations with Talegaon factory in Western India, which proves that it is no exiting the Indian market completely. While re-entering India and gaining success is a long game for General Motors, which can only be won with consistency, strategic planning and appropriate leadership (Anagol,Cole and Sarkar, 2017). Thus, analysing the case studies it can be said that following this framework General Motors will be able to sustain in the market and retain its business. Page7of9
Secure Best Marks with AI Grader
Need help grading? Try our AI Grader for instant feedback on your assignments.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGY Kale, D., 2017. Sources of innovation and technology capability development in the Indian automobile industry.Institutions and Economies, pp.121-150. Oehler, A., Horn, M. and Wendt, S., 2017. Brexit: Short-term stock price effects and the impact of firm-level internationalization.Finance Research Letters,22, pp.175-181. Pradhan, J.P., 2017. Emerging multinationals: A comparison of Chinese and Indian outward foreign direct investment.Institutions and Economies, pp.113-148. Ray,S.andRay,P.K.,2011.Productinnovationforthepeople'scarinanemerging economy.Technovation,31(5-6), pp.216-227. Page9of9