1. Challenges/Opportunities on Horizon
The biggest challenge will be to survive. Since 1995, Ford has been going through a series of decentralization steps that were originally called "Ford 2002," a program which was to be the end result of a retro analysis of all Ford operations.
That has not happened, and Ford is, in the words of an October 28 Fortune article, in serious trouble. Revell cites a weakening of the cash position due to major non confidence from investors which is putting a higher yield demand on Ford's bonds which still have investment grades but junk promises. . . .because of rampant 0% financing, Ford's financing arm has a ton of bonds outstanding: a hefty $157 billion in debt, $23 billion of which must be renewed in 2003 alone. The problem is, Ford is "barely covering" its interest expense today" (Revell, 2002, 32).
Ford's domestic sales are tanking and most of its projected growth is seen to be coming from its international and global sales efforts. Beyond that superficial answer, however, there are a number of MNC management structural problems that are not only particular to Ford Motor Company but also generically applicable to other MNCs around the world (Andrews, 1987). Those concepts can be summarized in three categories: (1) Organizational Inefficiencies; (2) Management Considerations; and, (3) Integrated Product Innovation.
As Hoffman in his excellent study on relationships between subsidiaries and headquarters operations, "[What is needed is to]develop a comprehensive model of generic strategies for MNC subsidiaries; and provide an initial validation of these generic strategies (Hoffman, 1994, 69).
2. Alignment between business and marketing?
This is a bad situation. Many shareholders want the zero financing stopped and a stability given to the stock. But with an inventory overload, the company is reeling. It is even sending 300,000 cars to China, to be sold on
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