Swot Analysis General Motors

1. Main Drivers for Change Impacting General Motors
As mentioned earlier, there are a number of internal and external forces that drive change within an organization. The internal forces refer to all the processes that incur change from within the organization like culture, structure and the workforce. The external drivers like the economy, competitors and technology influence change from outside the company. Most managers rely on environmental scanning to pick out signs of any drivers of change (Anderson and Anderson, 2010). Environmental scanning relates to observing or analyzing the company’s internal and external environment. A common method to facilitate the scanning process is the SWOT analysis. The SWOT matrix is an organized planned

SWOT Analysis of General Motors as of 2008
STRENGTHS
• Globally renowned
General Motors enjoys the position of largest US car manufacturer and is the internationally, the world’s second largest automobile producer. As of 2008, it was also listed in the Fortune Global 500 (Annual report, 2008).
• Large market share
General Motors market share had faced a significant reduction from 2005 due to high competition, increasing costs and the financial crisis. However, at a market share of 24%, it is still above the major competitors in its US market

Despite having a presence in the market for over a century it failed to innovate its automobiles to the changing trends and demands of consumers. Some of the emerging issues at that time were hybrid technology, fuel efficient vehicles and substitute energy automobiles. General Motors lost market share for not directing its resources and research over the development of such vehicles (Knight and Berman, 2009).
• Poor marketing strategies
Just like GM’s technology, its market strategies are not inclusive, diverse and have not adapted to the changing trends.
• Focusing on one market
Despite having a global presence, General Motors solely focused, promoted and relied on its US market.
• High cost of production
GM had a high cost structure. It had a large amount of employees instead of only retaining efficient ones which hindered productivity. The rigid bureaucratic structure and the high cost of raw materials also greatly contributed to the high cost structure (Knight and Berman, 2009).
• Recalls
Despite having a brand name that synonymous good quality, GM has the highest recall rate in all of America. From 2004 to 2008, GM’s recall rate has varied between 5% to 40%. (Squire,