General Motors

General Motors, an American borne company established in 1908, designs, builds and distributes a wide range of cars, trucks, crossovers and automobile parts worldwide. The company’s automotive operations adhere to the demands of consumers stationed internationally through its four primary automotive regions: GM North America, GM Europe, GM International Operations and GM South America. GM North America targets and serves the demands of customers based in North America with vehicles manufactured and marketed under the Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC brands. The demands of consumers outside of North America are primarily met with vehicles manufactured under the brands Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden,

This company was created to challenge the Ford Motor company in the twentieth century. General Motors created automatic transmissions, practical air conditioning, and the very first version self start. These creations gave General Motors the edge over Ford and other car companies at the time. “In the early years, GM's marketers added style and color to cars, putting Henry Ford and his industry-leading Model T's on the defensive” (Woodyard 03).With knowledge and advancement General Motors performed well and gained from it. But in recent years General Motors started to cut corners and build things of a cheaper quality making mistakes. These mistakes and corner cutting created problems for General Motors. It eventually lead to General Motors filing for bankruptcy on June 1st in 2009. General Motors was eventually saved from their bankruptcy but the damage was done. The General Motors plant in Moraine Ohio was shut down causing a lot of people to lose their jobs. The mistakes General Motor made did not just hurt themselves but the people who relied on those jobs. There are people who are now homeless and are struggling. The knowledge General Motors had helped them reach their success but the creators lost sight of their morals. They took the easy route and failed hurting plenty of people destroying hundreds of families and people's

General Motors (GM) was one of the premier automakers of the world. Firmly planted as the leader of the big three automakers, GM, Ford, and Chrysler, years of success grounded GM as an economic and cultural icon of American business. As the Japanese auto market grew and became more efficient, turning out improved vehicles that the public wanted, GM was becoming a lumbering behemoth of inefficiency and corporate gluttony. Many circumstances contribute to GM’s road to bankruptcy including high legacy costs in union owned contracts, largely poor design, inferior quality, and low productivity.

Think of it this way, all of the debt, problems, and poor choices made by the notoriously distinguished old GM were put on a boat (Motors Liquidation, Inc.) and given a viking burial (code 363 liquidated (sold in parts for as much profit as possible)) while every asset went to a new company convolutedly called General Motors. Basically, New GM made out like a bandit.

General Motors (?GM? or ?the company?) has a rich history longer than a century starting with its corporate organization in 1908. Following its organization, GM acquired its first brand, Old Motor Works, which was followed in 1909 by the purchase of Cadillac for $5.5 million. Two years later, GM organized both General Motors Truck to handle sales of GM?s Rapid and Reliance products and General Motors Export Company to handle export sales out of the US. In 1918, GM purchased Chevrolet Motors. In 1926, GM entered Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Egypt, Uruguay and Argentina through the General Motors Export Company. General Motors Truck became the modern GMC in 1943 when GM acquired the assets of Yellow Truck & Coach. In 1945, GM finally established all of its historical core brands (Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac) when the Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac Assembly Division, which would be renamed the General Motors Assembly Division in 1965, was formed.

General Motors is faced with a dilemma. In the face of economic depression, competition from foreign players was driving down profits and the market’s preference was changing to efficient cars due to

Even though GM has been given some advantages, it is experiencing problems in Europe and in South America (Kinicki & Williams, 2013). The home market is proving to be a challenge, also. Toyota and Honda are standing out as stiff competition. One plan to help achieve the profit goal for GM is to reduce auto platforms by

Evaluating the Risk of the American General Corporation we started from looking at company's market standing from potential investors point of view. First we take a look at the companies profile. American General Corporation is a diversified financial services organization, provides retirement services, life insurance, and consumer loans. The company offers retail financial programs through fifteen thousand merchants. American General Corp. operates in 41 states. Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands.

Founded in 1908, General Motors has been one of the largest corporation and the second largest automaker in the world coming after Toyota. For 77 consecutive years from 1931 to 1908, GM has been a leading automaker and marketer as ranked by the total number of units sold yearly. General motors have also been a leading employer not only in the United States but also in other parts of the world where it operates. However, the company has been seriously affected by the current economic crisis. The Detroit Three, led by General Motors have been a backbone of the United States economy and there eminent collapse in the current economy crisis is likely to have negative impacts on the United State’s

Recently there have been doubts concerning the survival of General Motors. These doubts stem in part from the firm’s unawareness of the automotive industry’s external business environment. This includes the consumer’s view of current events and economic trends. There are also key issues such as the emergence of technology that are related to the automobile industry that are covered by trade publications.[i] Doubts also stem from problems associated with G.M.’s internal business environment. These problems likely arose from the firm following the wrong generic strategy.

General Motors (GM) has gone through many types of organizational decision-making and learning since its initial conception in 1908. The large American auto-maker has used the various types of decision-making models before choosing one that works the best for them. The organization has improved its decision-making over its long history. GM has done a fair job of ridding harmful cognitive biases that can drive up the cost of operating a multi-divisional car company. They instituted new organizational learning across the whole organization to regain its potential edge over the competition.

General Motors enjoys a major market share in global automotive industry. One of its major strengths is its strong branding and market position. General Motors can be considered as one of the pioneers of modern vehicles. As per data monitor, GM had a leading share in North America and South America and in Europe it held fifth position. Similarly, it holds second position in other major segments. GM bears a strong branding. A lot of prestigious brands are provided by General Motors such as Chevrolet, GMC, Buick, Cadillac and Opal. Like Toyota, GM also has various production facilities in 31 different countries. This strong global presence allows GM to have access global markets way easily as compared to manufacturers with centralized structures. Thus, GM relies less on exports, manufactures its brands locally and is also involved in

General Motors is one of the world's most dominant automakers from 1931. After 1980s economic recession the main goal for automobile companies was cost reduction. Customers became more price-sensitive. Also Japanese competitors came into market with the new effective system of production. So market was highly competitive and directed toward price reduction. The case states that in 1991 GM suffered $ 4.5 billion losses and most part of the costs of manufacturing was due to purchased components. GM NA hired Lopez in order to find the way from "extraordinary" situation and reduce costs.

Over time, it’s how we will build GM into the world’s most valued automotive company.”

Which role should marketing managers play in helping to formulate business-level (SBU) strategies in a large diversified firm such as General Motor? Visit the company’s South African website at http://www.gmsa.co.za and use the information obtainable from it to formulate your answer.