accountable for a full third of new cars produced worldwide, were doing the same thing as Ford --cutting employee roles, consolidating operations, reducing overcapacity, merging, and entering new markets through joint ventures and mergers.
This suggests that the international sales for Ford were becoming as important as the domestic sales, and the idea of a Ford plant in Germany competing with a Ford plant in France was not efficient. The Ford company web site, referred to in the case, also mentions that most of its projected growth seems to be coming from its international and global sales efforts.
Since there was no specific problem as is the situation in most case studies, it follows that there can be no specific solution. What this case did seem to emphasize was that the European design for the corporation could be a good one for Multinational Corporations to follow. Those concepts can be summarized in three categories: (1) Organizational Efficiencies; (2) Management Considerations; and, (3) Integrated Product Innovation.
Of all the areas of Multinational Corporation Strategy (MNCS) that capture the attention of international marketers and analysts, one of the most challenging is that of providing process information flow between HQS and subsidiaries. What was once an "upstream-downstream" information model (headquarters in one country to operations in another country) is being replaced with a horizontal model. And Ford's European operations are an excellent example of this new and efficient model.
The case discusses the situation of Foreign Direct Investment in China. It also details how China is a socialist republic with Ma
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