Introduction
The recent global economic conditions have caused a lot of controversy in the business world and affected the global industry leaders in different ways. General Motors Corporation is one of the examples of the negative influence of both improper government policies and global economic recession upon a business company development.
Background and History
General Motors is a US-based automobile manufacturing company with over a hundred years of history, branches located in 34 countries of the world, and over 450 million automobiles sold annually around the globe. Founded in 1908, General Motors is now one of the world automotive market leaders, which however has experienced considerable financial problems in 2008 – 2009 (General Motors, 2009).
Organizational Structure and Management Model
The organizational structure of General Motors is horizontal and includes the CEO, the Senior Leadership Group, Staff Officers, the Board of Directors, and over 260,000 employees around the world (Thomas, 2008). General Motors also develops its partnerships with Daewoo Auto & Technology Co., Suzuki Motor Corp., Isuzu Motors Ltd. of Japan, Chrysler LLC, Daimler AG, BMW AG, and Toyota Motor Corp (General Motors, 2009).
Analysis
Competition Analysis and Market Analysis
General Motors operates in a highly competitive automotive industry market with Daimler-Chrysler, Toyota, Ford Motor Company, and Honda as its main competitors. The automotive market has experienced stagnation since early 2008 (Thomas, 2008). The analysis of the competition and market environment of General Motors will involve SWOT Analysis and Porter’s Five Force Analysis.
Products and Services, Pricing Policies
General Motors offers a wide set of products and services ranging from automobile productions to maintenance, spare parts production, and GM merchandise production and sale. GM pricing policy is rather flexible that allows GM to offer products and services for different income groups (General Motors, 2009).
Regulation/Deregulation
GM is a privately owned company, whose performance, according to Ikenson (2009), Posner (2009), and Thomas (2008) is negatively affected by excessive governmental regulations of its policies, production, and financial activities. Therefore, the above scholars consider GM as an excessively regulated company in need of substantial deregulation.
Risk Management
GM implements risk management techniques but they prove to be ineffective in the light of the recent developmental trends in the company. Therefore, GM experiences the need for new risk management techniques that, according to Thomas (2008), might include better forecasting, supervision of financial operations, investing only in potentially profitable projects, cutting the expenses in the light of the 2008 – 2009 crisis.
Capital Structure and Budgeting
The capital structure of GM includes $62 billion of total debt, $65.1 billion of book equity, $4 billion obtained in the form of US Government funding, $27.8 billion of trade payable assets, and $9 billion in global warranty obligations. These figures display serious budgeting issues as debts actually outweigh accessible assets (General Motors Corporation, 2008).
Data Collection
Given the above data, the proposed research should consider the GM background and the current situation, and recommend specific policies to be implemented to make necessary improvements. Data for these purposes will be collected in two major ways. First, the GM employees will be surveyed concerning their vision of the current GM problems and possible solutions they can offer. Secondly, documentation and the GM official website will be studied to obtain the basic financial and developmental data to design effective recommendations for GM.
Methodology
The combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods will be implemented in the proposed research work. This will allow comprehensive consideration and analysis of both numeric and factual data on the company in order to make respective conclusions and recommendations.
Conclusions
Thus, the proposed research will consider the past and present of General Motors in order to study the roots of the currently observed company’s problems and offer certain solutions to them. Primary and secondary data will be collected and analyzed using the combined qualitative – quantitative research methodology.
References
General Motors 2009, GM Corporate Website, General Motors Corporation. Web.
General Motors Corporation 2008, Restructuring Plan for Long-Term Viability, Senate Banking Committee & House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, 2009. Web.
Ikenson, D 2009, Will Government Motors do better than General Motors?, Los-Angeles Times. Web.
Posner, R 2009, The General Motors Reorganization and the Federal Government, The Atlantic. Web.
Thomas, C 2008, General Motors’ Strategic Analysis, Amrita School of Business, SCRIBD. Web.