the united states beer industry

1. What does the Chevy Volt case tell you about the nature of strategic decision making at a large complex organization like GM? From the Chevy Volt case, it showed that decision making in a large complex organization isn’t easy. There’re many processes and accessories. Making decision in a huge organization could not be done by Top managements or some departments. They have to discuss in a meeting and ask for the comments from all accessories. So they need the same mind set and objectives for all departments and think in the same direction. Besides, they have just invested for a billion to develop fuel cells technology and many managers still stuck with the pervious failure, the EV1. So they don’t want to suddenly switch gear to develop an electric car at that moment. The last, more processes mean more time requested. They take too long time to discuss and responses come too slow. Competitors such as TOYOTA move faster and hold a big portion of market share already. GM lost the opportunity to be a first mover in the market.

2. What trends in external environment favored the pursuit of the Chevy Volt project? After the project was dropped in 2003, there’re a lot of changes in external environment which pushed Lutz and Burns to review the Chevy Volt again. Firstly, by 2006, oil price surged because of high demand by developed countries such as China and India and limited supplies. People started to find energy-saving cars instead of SUV cars which consume oil a lot. Moreover, TOYOTA drove the fuel-efficient car trend by launched Hybrid Car, Prius, and it’s succeeded. TOYOTA showed that there’re demands for fuel-efficient car. Secondly, global warming is more concerned. There’re regulations to limit Carbon Emission and charge for exceed carbon emission. Fuel cars are the major source of CO2 release over the world. Besides, each country tries to reduce Carbon Emission in their country so customers who buy battery-power technology car will take benefit