This research provides a brief overview of Ford Werke AG. The firm's position within the Ford Motor Company, as well as the strategic objectives the Ford Motor Company pursues with respect to Ford Werke AG are addressed.
General Motors and Ford Motor are the world's two largest automobile manufacturers in the 1990s (Car, 1992, p. 59). The largest automobile market in the world is not North American, as most Americans assume. Rather, Western Europe is the world's largest automobile market. Both General Motors and Ford are major players in European automobile manufacturing (Johnson 1990, p. 17). Ford Motor Company has followed a deliberate strategy of locating major production facilities within the markets being served and targeted.
Ford conducts its European operations in the name of Ford of Europe, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company (Leach, 1994, p. 104). Ford Werke AG is a component of Ford of Europe (Johnson, 1991, pp. 2-3). Consideration of a European strategy such as that pursued by Ford Motor Company is particularly relevant for American firms because of the increase in economic integration within the European Community.
The Ford Motor Company is the second largest automobile maker in the United States and one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers, as well as being one of the world's largest private sector companies. In addition to automobiles, the company also makes trucks, tractors, farm equipment, and electronics products. Automobiles and trucks, however, contribute approximately 93 percent of the company's total sales, and nearly 100 percent of the company's total profits. Automobile and truck manufacture is the essential activity of Ford Werke AG (Smith, 1994, pp. 70-71).
Ford Motor Company (1994, pp. 17-47) is an international company, and approximately 23 percent of its total revenues are contributed by foreign operations, including those in the European Communit...