Strategic Options for the Motor Industry Post 2001-09 - Crisis

This paper has its seeds in the recent automobile crisis which has been aggravated by the worldwide financial crisis which began after the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis depressed the U.S. economy in 2007.The worldwide impact has been tremendous so far. Among others, the worldwide automobile industries began to suffer even more as the ongoing decrease in sales and revenues was amplified even more by the strict buying resistance of customers which is still noticeable today.While some corporations had to face serious difficulties as soon as the crisis hit the industry others still seem to be better off. This different development puts up the question why certain corporations " at least until today " managed to perform better than others during such trying times. There are two other questions which also go along and are worthy to ask and analyse. The first question is how automobile companies in general can outlast this crisis. The final question of this paper is what companies will have to face in the future.Exemplary for both developments two case studies have been chosen. One is dealing with a still successful corporation, i.e. the Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) and the other deals with the General Motors Corporation (GM).Significant about those two case studies is the origin of the corporations. With the American GM and the Japanese Toyota Motor Corporation there are two companies under review which have their origins in completely different societies. This selection of case studies could have been done on purpose, but in this very case the companies mentioned above were both perfect cases as they also differ in strategic approach, which is the subject of this paper.Core element of this paper is the comparison and analysis of those two corporations which results will be presented near the end of the document. Along with the analysis in which the answers for the questions mentioned above are to be found there will also be an attempt to give a "pathway" for the future development.The findings of this analysis have been most interesting and at times surprising. They will be presented on the following pages. They have however not been complete. The whole extent of the case studies alone cannot be dealt with in a paper of such breadth. The complexity of any of the two Corporations alone with all its branches and products would burst this paper.