The Competitive Environment: An Analysis Of Ford's Competitive Environment

To have success in a competitive environment you have to have the right mindset. Managers often view the competitive environment as a hostile battle for dominance. According to Michael Porter this is the wrong way to view the competitive market. A company should aim to be unique not the best. The heart of competition is creating value, and not beating the rivals. (Magretta and Porter, 2011) This should be Ford’s focus moving forward. The Aluminum body truck is a good example of being unique and creating value. With the hybrid car craze in full effect, Ford had to find a way to increase their competitiveness. Instead of focusing on engine efficiency they found a way to increase fuel efficiency through weight reduction. Companies have attempted to achieve this before with material such as fiberglass, or even plastics. Ford took a different approach using military-grade aluminum alloy. This kept the safety of the consumer in mind while increasing efficiency. Although this technology is more costly, the savings is passed to the consumer, and is spread out over the lifetime of the vehicle(ex. fuel savings). Moving forward Ford should try to extend this technology beyond the F series truck line. Aluminum alloy is the auto body of the future, and Ford is paving the way. To maintain competitiveness and help squash the competitive rivalry they
Competitive rivalry is a strong force, and Ford must remain innovative on many fronts. This is best done working together as one global team. Borrowing innovation from each other across all departments, and maintaining a large global market share. Ensuring Ford is on the positive end of competitive rivalries. At the same time, this should help curb the threat of new entrants as Ford shall be on the cutting edge of innovation. Innovation is really the only avenue new entrants have when it comes to entering a market where the founders of the industry still lead