The Automotive Industry: A Case Study

Established an internal design division reducing “time to market” for new products; cross-functional integration required for successful development of new products [Grant p 135].

The Hedo-Falls shower system is the first of its kind. This kind of shower has not been seen before in the market. It offers something totally unique with no direct competition. No company has been ambitious enough to integrate so much into a device that has remained virtually the same for decades. The developers at Quantum Studio decided to take a chance and tap into a new and exciting market. Their risk paid off greatly. There is no direct competition for the Hedo-Falls shower system at this time, but there is secondary competition, such as other basic shower units.

In addition, it is essential to generate detailed divisions for merchandise progress and industrial can have an effect on the company’s administrative structure known as product evolution. Centralized management retains all major decisions with one detailed decision-making group, whereas decentralized management lets company managers to have more ‘say’ in the executive process. Next, corporations that participate in the mass production of products may not exert as

Nissan Motor Company was the world’s 4th largest automobile manufacturer in 1990. They had 10% of the market for cars and trucks, with roughly 2 million passenger cars being produced each year. To increase its market share, Nissan implemented a plan to achieve domestic sales of 1.5 million cars by 1992. It also sought to obtain the number one rating in customer satisfaction. The company tried to develop a plan to produce a line of automobiles that matched consumer lifestyles. Nissan had a three stage process of introducing new models, the conceptual design stage, the product development stage, and the production stage, which typically took 10 years to complete.

Several threats exist. Company G is a well-established and respected company. Although this is a factor, rival companies eager to capitalize exist. Companies will make product closely resembling Company G’s and may offer at a lower price or with more incentives. Market growth will not be slow and low fixed cost to produce item will decrease rivalry. Since customers somewhat easily and freely switch from one product to another, this will increase rivalry. There are quite a few rivals in the same market.

” granted each strategy has its pros and cons in all aspects of the company. The definition of centralization is “ A single individual who makes all the decisions for their company. ” small companies and beginner business owners most commonly use centralization since the founder of the company is responsible for all business operations. (Vitez). On the other hand there is decentralization, which is defined as “ Multiple people in charge of different sectors of business within a company, and all together as a group make executive decisions. Also people at other levels in the business have to ability to rise up and not only create ides but also decide on ideas for the company. ” (Vitez). Through the world of technology when making the final decision regarding the selection of either centralization or decentralization technology is of the most important. The computer processor is the focus for all things that can be done and the center for any modern company. The processer controls all aspects of the company’s productivity and efficiency. For example it can control the amount and type of work that can be done. This means that for a company such as Pixar who use the latest technology by Intel and Nvidia totaling to over two thousand computers for just to

New technology and innovation are important roles in any industry attempting to succeed in the current market. Automakers have recently put effort toward low emission vehicles, lightweight materials, safety and assisted driving. The American consumers expect the latest technologies and safety features, and the automakers are tasked with efficiently and effectively providing this.

Apart from consumers, other stakeholders play a role in the product market situation. We note that the policies and procedures in the organization will directly influence the status in the product market. Any stakeholder claims that affect the operations of the business will therefore affect the product market even though not directly. To understand this better, let us take an example of employees. These are the people who are directly concerned with the production. If proper coordination is not implemented, it is likely that the final outcome will be poor products. As discussed earlier, poor quality products will do poorly in the product market. Employees have claims in the business such as right to remuneration; insurance packages and fair treatment in terms of education and promotion (IMPROVE). Challenges with employees can also come up where trade unions are involved. Trade union's claim in the business is demand for fair treatment,

     Our assignment is to create and promote an innovative product. In developing a new product, we started with an idea generation. This is a systematic search for new-product ideas. Companies go through many ideas before they come to find some good ones. We had to do the same thing. We thought of many ideas on our own. It was more of an internal idea source as opposed to going outside of our partnership for ideas. Our first idea was a restaurant with half of it an actual restaurant and the other half an automobile tuner shop. The next idea was a new energy drink that would be less costly and better tasting. Our next idea came up when we were sitting

Kirkham’s strategy was to integrate the different systems of each division into an “all-inclusive” product and also to involve all the divisions together with regards to product development, instead of letting each division be responsible for just products within that division. Mr. Donaldson chose Kathleen Quinn, Vice-President of R&D, to be responsible for coordinating the development of new products. This proved to be quite a challenging task considering that each managing director (of each division) still retained responsibility for the turnover and profitability of their respective decisions and also for the strategies to achieve the goals of their divisions. In addition, regardless of the trend of their customers in purchasing integrated systems, the majority of each division’s turnover came from the sale of stand-alone products.

Mr. Shih, I am fully aware of your concerns and complications of the potential success for ACC’s first product “Aspire”. After analyzing the strategic issues, strategic goals, and strategic initiatives, I developed some beneficial recommendations for you. My recommendations are to support ACC “Aspire” and apply transnational strategy to defined the corporation global vision into the local market. It will reflect on the current model of global brand and local touch.

While global category management had improved cross-market coordination, innovative new products were still being developed very slowly especially if developed overseas. They were taking years to rollout. The matrix structure seemed an impediment to entrepreneurship and flexibility.

One of the world’s largest automakers, GMC has it’s roots traced back to 1908. Also known as GM, this company is a United States-based automaker with its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. After the General Motors Company was founded, it soon became known as one of the largest car manufacturers in the world. In 1909, the Grabowsky Rapid Motor Vehicle Company (GMC) joined with GM. The trade name GMC Trucks was first exhibited in 1912 at the New York Auto Show and registered with the U.S. Patent Office eight months later. The

Enterprise & Industry magazine. (2012, July 13). Automotive Industry. Retrieved November 05, 2013, from European Commission's Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/automotive/index_en.htm

Starting a new product is never easy for a company. The difficulties they face are diverse in nature, and often they lack initiatives so that customers are not interested in the product.