Contemporary Issues Of General Motors (GM) And Their Solution Case Study
General Motors (GM) is an American based multinational corporation that specializes in automobiles. The company has its headquarter in Detroit and is involved in designing, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of heavy vehicles and vehicle parts all over the world. The company is also offering financial services in collaboration with its global headquarters in Detroit’s’ Renaissance Centre. The purpose of this study is to allocate problems GM is encountering nowadays and proposing suitable solutions to solve these problems.
The company is facing major weakened sales in the United States, and also the high tariffs for aluminum and steel are projecting a USD 6 Billion cut in costs and also 5% shares. Also, the United States tax reforms brought GM a USD 7.3 Billion non-cash charges. As a result, the company faced a decrease in its earnings with a whole year loss of USD 3.9 Billion. Resultantly, the company announced to close its seven factories with an employment loss of 14000 people around the globe (Eades, 2017).
To combat such a situation, the company may opt for the systems approach to solve the problem. Systems approach comes up with the integrated system of components that are intervened and how these components can come together to reach a considerable solution to a specified problem. A detailed analysis of whats, hows, where can assist in more insight knowledge of the underlined issue and can provide a more reliable solution. Moreover, the systems approach provides the opportunity to the CEO of General Motors to present a well-integrated solution with high overall sales and low-cost objectives (Haines, 2016).
Systems thinking works on the principle of balancing the approach of reinforcement and a balancing process. The stakeholders may experience a lack of equilibrium among these two processes as if unchecked; these may lead to the collapse of the system. Also, attention to feedback from the management, such as in the case of any production department that may not have provided with intended results in the past, may assist stakeholders in looking for alternative approaches to provide a possible solution. The lack of proper attention to feedback may result in an unprecedented loss to the overall production targets of the company.
The stakeholders may employ BOT Graphs to evaluate the changes in the market trends and ought to discuss these transitions with a group of competent individuals to propose possible solutions to reach high production volume and low-cost factors. Moreover, the company must invest more in innovative automobile ideas such as smart mobility projects that can prove ravishing revenue generation for the company. The automatic vehicle technology with self-driving cars would be a great boost in the company’s edge over its competitors, such as Ford Inc. (Kalmbach, 2018).
To conclude, it is crucial to take into account the importance of BOT Graphs that stakeholders must incorporate in their proceedings of the company’s progress. Also, proper feedback considerations of the past production projects can help stakeholders to avoid losses in the future, and investment in evolutionary ideas can bring the company at the top in market shares.
References
Eades, K. M. (2017). General Motors: 1991 Equity Financing. Darden Business Publishing Cases.
Haines, S. (2016). The systems thinking approach to strategic planning and management. CRC Press.
Kalmbach, A. C. (2018). General Motors: Navigating Through a Sea of Change.