Case Studies on Global Automobile Industry - Vol.I

Edited by : R. Muthukumar
ISBN : 81-314-0611-3
Price: $30  ( INR)
276 pages( Hardcover edition )

The automobile industry ranks among the most significant business phenomena and remains virtually important today, accounting for around 10% of GDP of developed countries. In economic and social terms, the industry has fundamental impact on the modern society. Yet, the industry has found it hard to adjust to emerging challenges and the competitive scenario. Though Ford has revolutionised the automobile industry with its mass production system, Toyota overtook it by its lean manufacturing system. Now, almost all the companies try to replicate the Toyota model. In addition to this, the emergence of other Japanese, European and Korean companies changed the entire industry trend. The Big Three, once the behemoths, started losing their market share to their Asian rivals. Moreover, the declining trend in the US and Europe, and the booming trend in Asia especially in China, again gives opportunities and challenges to the major players. To tide over their losses, and retain the global market shares, the major players entered China. Even there, they witnessed problems due to copyright and price war issues. The growing need of customer preferences over the car models is playing a major role in the industry. Each player tries to attract customers with their new innovative models. This led to the emergence of cross over vehicles. And because of the inventory of old models, GM started giving discounts. Others too followed GM. But all are making losses. So it is very difficult to survive successfully in a matured industry like automobile. It requires a very different and innovative skill sets altogether. Obviously, the best way to acquire these skill sets is by reading success and failure stories and doing thorough examination of the industry.

The case studies chronicled in this book Case Studies on Global Automobile Industry - Vol.I capture the trends, success stories, failed strategies, innovations and impeding challenges in the automobile industry. It does not offer any set of rules but rather helps one to gauge the likely shape of the global automobile industry in the years to come.