Strategic Management for Ford: Identifying and Mitigating Strategic Issues

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Strategic management
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Table of Contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................2
Identification of the strategic issue..................................................................2
Political factors.............................................................................................3
Economical factors.......................................................................................3
Social factors................................................................................................4
Technological factors....................................................................................4
Legal factors.................................................................................................5
Environmental factors..................................................................................5
Critical analysis of the issue............................................................................6
Implications on the competitive advantages...................................................6
Impact on the competitive performance.........................................................7
Recommendations...........................................................................................7
Market development.....................................................................................8
Product development...................................................................................8
Market penetration.......................................................................................8
Diversification...............................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................9
Reference......................................................................................................11

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Introduction
There are different and diverse sets of strategic issues being faced by
the contemporary business entities due to their global operations and
business factors. These strategic issues are getting emerged due to various
reasons and are having multiple implications on the long term business
viability. In the case of large business organizations or global business
entities, the probability of strategic issues is more because they are facing
different business environments in different regions. Thus, it is important to
have proper mechanism of identifying the issues and accordingly designing
the strategies. This same and similar phenomenon is applicable for Ford.
Ford Motors are one of the leading car companies in the world and they are
based in the United States (De Wit & Meyer, 2010). Ford is also considered
as one of the topmost companies in the world in terms of global presence
and revenue level. However, in the recent time, their sales are taking a
plunge across the globe. External factors as well as their strategic failures
are to be blamed for this recent roadblock in the business generation of Ford.
In this case, it is recommended that Ford should review their current
strategic intent and practices and identify the key areas of improvement.
This report will discuss about the major strategic issues for Ford that
they are facing in the recent time. Different factors and reasons will also be
identified with the help of the strategic management tools for the latest
challenges of Ford. In addition, the implications and impacts of the identified
issues will also be evaluated for Ford and how they should be mitigated. The
impacts on the competitive advantages of Ford due to the emergence of
these strategic issues will be analyzed and the recommended steps will be
based on these factors.
Identification of the strategic issue
Prior to the identification of the core strategic issue for Ford, it is also
important to review the external business factors being faced by them. This

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is important because changes in the external business factors are forcing
Ford in changing their strategic intent as well and getting in to this current
position. This report will involve the PESTLE analysis for the identification of
the major external business factors. The following sections will discuss about
each of the elements of PESTLE analysis from the perspective of Ford.
Political factors
As of now, Ford is having their business and operations across all the
continents and thus they are facing diverse sets of political environment in
different countries. For instance, Ford is having their operations in China,
whose political scenario is completely different to that of the home country
of them. While the United States are having capitalistic type of system, China
is following communism. This is a major challenge for Ford because their
business systems and strategies are being adapted according to the different
political scenario in the foreign countries. This is one of the major reasons for
Ford of not having standardized policy in their global operations. On the
other hand, it is also identified that different political system is also posing
challenges for Ford in their global trading process due to the reason that
trade barriers are coming in to effect (Li, He & Lin, 2018). For instance, the
latest trade war between the United States and China and between the
western nations and Russia is causing Ford in facing the barriers in the
trading process.
Economical factors
Ford being one of the leading automobile brands in the world is
involved with huge capital investments in their global operations and thus
the economical risks are also more. Furthermore, the emergence of the
economic recession is also posing challenges for Ford in managing their sales
volume. In the current era of globalization, the economical state of different
countries is different and it is forcing Ford to design their business strategies
accordingly. For example, urban and smaller cars are offered in the Asian