Running head: SWOT ANALYSIS OF GENERAL MOTORS’ NEW DIVISION 1 SWOT ANALYSIS OF GENERAL MOTORS’ NEW DIVISION 11 Swot Analysis of General Motors’ New Division Name: Institution: Background Information Apart from being the world’s largest automobile company, General Motors is also one of the most valued automobile organization and has been for a very long time. To further this amazing success story, a new division which produces cars using alternative sources of energy- solar and electricity is proposed. Since the future of the automobile industry is green, General Motors must move towards using lean sources of energy to produce cars. Also, the car manufacturer understands that with Tesla producing electric cars, there is going to be a lot of competition in the automobile industry hence the need for the newly created division. Charged with furthering research on producing cars which use leaner sources of energy, the new division will largely focus on producing cars that operate on rechargeable lithium ion batteries or solar energy or both. External Environmental Forces Global and Industry Changes Globally and in the United States, the auto industry is going through rapid changes that present opportunities and threats to major players like General Motors. According to Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, the auto industry is going to experience massive changes especially in the next decade. Firstly, according to trends already being seen, more than 50 percent of new car production in the United States will be electric in the next ten years (Calabrese, 2016). From the current statistics, Americans are embracing the new electric car technology and therefore companies in the industry must adjust to get a share of the shifting customer demographics. Secondly, almost all the cars produced in the next decade and a half will be autonomous. Companies should embrace this change and should already focus on producing cars that will have this quality. Thirdly, in the next two to three decades, there will be no steering wheel for the motor vehicles. A lot of changes will have happened that will make driving cars be like driving horses. Economic Forces Firstly, the high growth rate of the developing markets is an external economic opportunity for the new division. The high growth rate of the developing creates an opportunity for the new division to grow and expand into these new horizons (Pound, 2013). For instance, Indonesia and India are presenting a viable market for the new division. Secondly, the economic stability of major markets like United States, Europe and China is a major opportunity for the growth and expansion of the new division. The major markets are relatively stable and therefore the new division and General Motors as a whole is not likely to face major challenges (Pound, 2013). However, rising competition in the developing markets especially from Tesla is like to be a massive challenge. Legal and Re ...

1. Running head: SWOT ANALYSIS OF GENERAL MOTORS’
NEW DIVISION 1
SWOT ANALYSIS OF GENERAL MOTORS’ NEW DIVISION
11
Swot Analysis of General Motors’ New Division
Name:
Institution:
Background Information
Apart from being the world’s largest automobile company,
General Motors is also one of the most valued automobile
organization and has been for a very long time. To further this
amazing success story, a new division which produces cars
using alternative sources of energy- solar and electricity is
proposed. Since the future of the automobile industry is green,
General Motors must move towards using lean sources of
energy to produce cars.
Also, the car manufacturer understands that with Tesla
producing electric cars, there is going to be a lot of competition
in the automobile industry hence the need for the newly created
division. Charged with furthering research on producing cars
which use leaner sources of energy, the new division will
largely focus on producing cars that operate on rechargeable
lithium ion batteries or solar energy or both.
External Environmental Forces
Global and Industry Changes
Globally and in the United States, the auto industry is going
through rapid changes that present opportunities and threats to
major players like General Motors. According to Elon Musk,
CEO of Tesla, the auto industry is going to experience massive
changes especially in the next decade. Firstly, according to
trends already being seen, more than 50 percent of new car

2. production in the United States will be electric in the next ten
years (Calabrese, 2016).
From the current statistics, Americans are embracing the new
electric car technology and therefore companies in the industry
must adjust to get a share of the shifting customer
demographics. Secondly, almost all the cars produced in the
next decade and a half will be autonomous. Companies should
embrace this change and should already focus on producing cars
that will have this quality. Thirdly, in the next two to three
decades, there will be no steering wheel for the motor vehicles.
A lot of changes will have happened that will make driving cars
be like driving horses.
Economic Forces
Firstly, the high growth rate of the developing markets is an
external economic opportunity for the new division. The high
growth rate of the developing creates an opportunity for the new
division to grow and expand into these new horizons (Pound,
2013). For instance, Indonesia and India are presenting a viable
market for the new division.
Secondly, the economic stability of major markets like United
States, Europe and China is a major opportunity for the growth
and expansion of the new division. The major markets are
relatively stable and therefore the new division and General
Motors as a whole is not likely to face major challenges (Pound,
2013). However, rising competition in the developing markets
especially from Tesla is like to be a massive challenge.
Legal and Regulatory
The legal environment is likely to present opportunities and
threats to the newly created division. Firstly, expanding
regulations on the safety of automobiles is an opportunity for
the new division. Secondly, stricter emissions regulations is
another opportunity for the new division. The new division is
focused on making the environment safer in product design and

3. development and hence will boost GM’s brands. Thirdly,
expanding environmental regulations is an opportunity in the
legal environment. The new division will benefit largely from
intensified efforts for end-of-life considerations in product
design, supply chain sustainability and business sustainability.
Environmental Forces
For the newly created division, environmental trends and
changes can impact availability or resources, product usage and
supply chains (Ili, Albers, & Miller, 2010). The following
opportunities will boost the performance of the new division:
rising interest in business sustainability and rising concerns on
the air quality effects of automotive emissions. The new
division is developing automotive solutions that promote
pollution-free air and business sustainability.
By enhancing its electric or hybrid automobiles, the division is
addressing the rising concerns on the air quality impacts of
automotive emissions (Ili, Albers, & Miller, 2010). This way,
the organization improves its sustainability position, brand
image and corporate image, based on the rising interests in
business sustainability.
Technological Factors and Innovation
Three factors are at play here. Firstly, the high rate of
technological change is both an opportunity and threat. The
high rate of technological change is presenting a great
opportunity for the company to enhance its automobile’s
technologies but also threatens the new division in terms of the
potential rapid obsolescence of the technologies currently being
used.
Secondly, increasing automation is an opportunity since the new
division has great growth opportunities through further
automation of the business processes. Thirdly, the increasing
popularity of the online mobile systems should prompt the new
division to increasingly integrate these systems into the
automobiles.

4. Social Factors
There are three social factors that are likely to present
opportunities or threats to the newly created division. Firstly,
the increasing popularity of low-carbon lifestyles is an
opportunity for the new division. People are increasingly
shifting to low-carbon lifestyles and hence the division can tap
into it (Deyo, 2016). Secondly, there is increasing preference
for renewable energy especially in the automotive industry.
People are caring more for clean energy and the new division
can tap into this potential. Thirdly,
Competitive Analysis
The automotive industry is crowded. Over the years, several
automobile manufacturers have into producing electric car
batteries and electric cars. In fact, today, people are not asking
about companies which produce electric cars. They are rather
interested in companies producing the best electric cars. Elon
Musk’s Tesla is the major competitive threat to GM’s newly
created division. Considered to be one of the best innovative
technology company, tesla produces high quality, cutting edge
cars with creative and high-end features. Tesla is best known
for Tesla Model X and Tesla Model S.
Secondly, BMW, the German’s car marker has entered the
electric car market with its all electric luxury SUV BMW i3.
The model is already changing the market. Nissan’s Nissan Leaf
is probably the most popular electric vehicle in the world
produced by Japanese based Nissan Company. Ford’s Ford
Focus Electric and Volkswagen’s Volkswagen e-Golf is likely
to give the company a run for its money.
Internal Forces and Trends
Structure and Culture
General Motors has a regional divisional organizational culture.
Business activities are grouped into areas of operations or
geographical segments (Helper, & Henderson, 2014). The
structure is characterized by: regional segments, business-type

5. divisions and corporate functional groups. Firstly the regional
divisional structure allows for flexibility in responding to
regional market variations (Helper, & Henderson, 2014).
Secondly, the structure allows the division to separately focus
on automotive business and financial services business hence
optimizing its effectiveness in the global market.
However the structure has limited support for branding
consistency at the global level. The new division has an
organizational culture of agility just like the parent company.
The agile organizational culture in the new division is based on
five important pillars: freedom and opportunity to grow, learn
and evolve; fast thinking for continued success; innovation and
emphasis on quality; responsibility and accountability; and
positive relationships for operating success.
Strategy and Strategic Capabilities
General Motors has a generic strategy that ensures competitive
advantage even with the rising competition in the global
automotive industry (Goolsbee, & Krueger, 2015). The
company’s generic competitive strategy is based on cost
leadership and this has been taken up by the new division. The
new division’s competitive strategy emphasizes on the
opportunities created through economies of scale.
The new division’s automobiles will be offered at lower prices
to attract customers. Three strategic capabilities support the
generic or overall business strategy: fast market penetration,
automated and efficient product development; and market
development (Goolsbee, & Krueger, 2015). However, limited
product diversification may limit the ability of the new division
to take on the industry giants.
Processes, Technologies and Innovations
The new division will benefit from technologies and innovations
that have been embraced by the company. The division is
focused on delivering IT and other innovations faster, help in

6. shortening the time from design of the vehicle to its
manufacturing. One of the best innovation is the Detroit-based
Social Center of Expertise where members of a team can
monitor and contribute to social media conversations about the
organization.
Through the use of GM’s Oracle-based Social Media
Management system, new division’s CoE agents are capable of
tapping into the organization’s databases to record ongoing
interactions with customers and sales leads. Secondly, the
company has improved and sped up back-end processes with
several tech innovations. The company’s engineering team for
instance has ramped up its high performance computing
capabilities to improve wind tunnel, crash, combustion and
many other simulations.
Thirdly the manufacturing branch of GM is applying monitoring
and data analytics to different processes to evaluate the quality
of a plant’s pant jobs in real time. This helps in spotting
problems before the vehicles can get to final inspection. The
company also has a vision for autonomous driving. Tightly
connected to the future of urban mobility is the concept of
autonomous driving where the vehicles equipped with
sophisticated software and sensors navigate themselves without
the aid of a person in control of the wheel. As a move towards
autonomous driving, the company has acquired Cruise
Automation to accelerate the development of autonomous –
vehicle innovative technology.
Leadership
Transformational leadership at General Motors is a strength that
will transform the new division into a performance- based
outlet. Mary Barra’s transformational and exceptional
leadership has changed how things are done at the company and
the same is likely to be experienced in the new division (Colby,

7. 2015). Barra has brought in three transformational leadership
qualities that will be significant for the new division.
Firstly she is team oriented. Mary Barra and her team believe
that collaboration yields results and so they have invested in
teamwork. Secondly, she is decisive. Transformational leaders
must take decisions in the most difficult moments (Colby,
2015). Thirdly, together with her team, they have built a culture
of respect and persevering attitude at General Motors.
Summary of the SWOTT Analysis
Strengths
· Economies of scale
· Strong brand and corporate image
· Highly innovative processes and control on vehicle production
· Transformational leadership exhibited by CEO Mary Barra and
the rest of her team.
· Rapid technological development including autonomous –
vehicle innovative technology
· Organizational culture of agility optimizes the success rate of
strategic implementation in the auto market.
· Regional divisional structure allows for flexibility in
responding to regional market variations.
· Structure allows great focus on automotive business and
financial services business hence optimizing its effectiveness in
the global market
Weaknesses
· Limited market presence especially in the developing
countries.

8. · High prices
· Limited supply chain
· Inherent bureaucracy in the organizational structure and
culture.
· Limited product diversification may limit the ability of the
new division to take on the industry giants.
Opportunities
· Increasing automation in business
· Increasing popularity of online mobile systems
· High growth rate of the developing markets.
· The economic stability of major markets like United States,
Europe and China.
· Expanding regulations on automobile safety.
· Expanding environmental regulations is an opportunity in the
legal environment.
· Rising interest in business sustainability.
· Rising concerns on the air quality effects of automotive
emissions.
Threats
· Rising competition in the developing markets.
· High rate of technological change.
· Intense competition from Tesla, Nissan, BMW and Ford.
· Dealership regulations
Trends

9. · Increase in strategic partnerships with external tech
companies.
· Rapid momentum gain on connected and autonomous vehicles.
· Increased research and development on par with the globe’s
most innovative firms.
· Shift in recruitment needs as computer scientists and engineers
lead the way.
· Consumers increasingly browsing online and demanding
digital solutions to their cars.
References
Calabrese, G. (Ed.). (2016). The greening of the automotive
industry. Springer.
Colby, L. (2015). Road to Power: How GM's Mary Barra
Shattered the Glass Ceiling. John Wiley & Sons.
Deyo, F. C. (Ed.). (2016). Social reconstructions of the world
automobile industry: Competition, power and industrial
flexibility. Springer.
Goolsbee, A. D., & Krueger, A. B. (2015). A retrospective look
at rescuing and restructuring general motors and Chrysler. The
Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(2), 3-23.
Helper, S., & Henderson, R. (2014). Management practices,
relational contracts, and the decline of General Motors. The
Journal of Economic Perspectives, 28(1), 49-72.
Ili, S., Albers, A., & Miller, S. (2010). Open innovation in the
automotive industry. R&d Management, 40(3), 246-255.
Pound, A. (2013). The Turning Wheel-The story of General
Motors through twenty-five years 1908-1933. Edizioni Savine.
Running Head: GENERAL MOTOR’S NEW AUTOMOBILE
BRAND 1

10. GENERAL MOTORS’ NEW AUTOMOBILE BRAND
7
General Motor’s New Automobile Brand
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
General Motors’ New Automobile Brand
Propose a new product or service for the new company division.
The division should be customer-focused with an innovative
mission statement.
General Motors is one of the most valued automobile company
in the world and it has been in the business for more than a
century. It is also the world’s largest automobile company with
braches all over the world and its production output is the
largest at approximately 10 million vehicles annually. The
company’s headquarters is at Detroit, Michigan, United States
of America. The company has a number of subsidiaries which
make different models of cars and to add to this list is a new
subsidiary which will deal with the manufacture of the cars that
utilize alternative source of energy to run. The alternative
sources of energy will be solar energy and electricity. This new
division has been created because General Motor’s management
has sought it through and has seen that the future of automobile
is green and therefore, fossil fuel will not be used because of
the adverse environmental effects it has (Hill, Jones, &
Schilling, 2014).
The new cars will be in line with the American vision of
reducing its carbon dioxide emission as the United Nations
Paris agreement. Furthermore, General Motors has done some
extensive research and it has been realized that fossil fuel will
not be there forever. A research conducted by some top
scientists suggested that the oil wells are getting depleted as

11. more oil is being mined due to the high consumption. This will
drive the oil prices very high in the near future because of
scarcity and there will be need to have automobile that use
alternative sources of energy to run. The new division will
focus on manufacturing vehicles that operate on rechargeable
lithium ion batteries or solar energy or both.
Describe how the division addresses customer needs and
achieves competitive advantage.
The new cars have been designed after an extensive research but
at the moment the electric cars cannot compare to the gasoline
cars in terms of distance they cover but this is just for a limited
time because research is still going on and engineers are
working day in day out to ensure that electric cars are suitable
to replace gasoline powered vehicles. Research by General
Motors conducted in the cities of New York, Los Angeles,
London and Paris revealed that on average most people driving
to the city for businesses or their own activities cover a distance
of 60 miles on average. This means that this product will be
marketed to target the people living in city suburbs and within
the city. Cities are where most pollution from cars happen
because of the high congestion of vehicles and therefore,
changing the cars that these people use will achieve reduction in
both air and noise pollution significantly.
The cars will be designed to have a total mileage of 100 miles
before they can be recharged again for three hours to 100% and
this gives the customers a great value. This means that
customers can charge their cars overnight and be sure to do all
their activities of the day without worrying that the car batteries
will be depleted. The value conveyed to customers is that
electricity is cheaper than gas and therefore, they will be saving
money. There is also a greater good being achieved, the effects
of too much carbon dioxide on our atmosphere are obvious.
Global warming is as a results of these gases that are emitted by
cars and factories that hinder the terrestrial heat from earth

12. from disappearing into the atmosphere, but it is trapped within
the earth’s environment and the result is the greenhouse effect.
The earth now is like a huge greenhouse and that is why, there
is increased desertification in sub-Sahara in Africa, ice is
constantly melting in Greenland, Iceland, arctic and Antarctica
and water levels in oceans is increasing. Islands such as Hawaii
are in trouble because of the increase in water levels, they will
soon be covered by water if something is not done.
Reducing the carbon dioxide emitted is one way of reducing the
effects of global warming and General Motors is taking the
broad step. Furthermore, gasoline cars are very noisy in the
cities, one of the advantages of electric cars is that they do not
produce sound and therefore, not noisy at all. The cars will also
have a solar panel which can use the sun energy to charge the
batteries of the car. This means that when the sun is shining,
customers will not need to charge their batteries using
electricity, the solar panel will convert sun energy to electricity
which will charge the battery continuously and this will give
General Motors a competitive advantage over other players in
the industry.
Create a vision and a business model for this new division that
clearly demonstrates your decision on what you want your
business to become in the future.
Vision
The vision of the new division is as follows; ‘to develop a
sustainable product that will take care of the people, planet and
bring profits to General Motors.’ This vision aligns with the
bottom line of the company and by taking care of the people and
the planet, GM aims at making profits and this is why it is the
long time goal of the organization to completely stop
manufacturing cars that run on gasoline. The world is changing
fast and the effects of global warming are causing poverty in
other areas of the world and one way to show that the company
cares for the people, is by manufacturing cars that do not emit

13. carbon dioxide which is the most abundant greenhouse gas in
the atmosphere.
Mission
The mission of the organization is as follows; ‘comprehend
importance of people and the planet and hence become a
responsible company understanding global environmental issues
like global warming and doing all possible to reduce their
effects.’
Business model
The division will create value by making the market understand
the effects of global warming and hence the need to do
something about it. Since, people have come dependent on cars,
they cannot be eliminated but the source of energy they use to
operate on can be changed and hence the electric cars. The cars
are cheaper to maintain and operate because their batteries can
be recharged either by electricity or solar energy from the solar
panels installed on the roof of the cars.
Explain how the vision, mission, and value of the new division
align with the company's mission and vision.
The current vision of GM is to be the world leader in
transportation products and related services. The vision of the
division is aligned with this vision because GM will be the first
large automobile manufacturer to mass produce electric vehicles
to promote environmental sustainability. The company will have
the first mover advantage giving them some edge over their
close competitors such as Toyota, Ford Motor and Volkswagen.
The organization’s mission statement establishes the approaches
required to push the organization towards its desired future
position in the automotive industry. The future of the industry
is to reduce the adverse environmental effects of fossil fuel
which automobiles operate on.
Summarize how the vision, mission, and values guide the

14. division's strategic direction.
The future has many uncertainties and for a company to be
successful, it has to think, about the long term goals, 30 years
or 50 years ahead. General Motors has been a leader in the
automobile industry for more than a century and for them to
maintain the position of the leader of the industry, they have to
think ahead and invest in continuous development. The trend
shows that the next big thing is electric vehicles and that is
where GM should invest their resources to ensure that they
achieve the first mover advantage on the new technology
(Sukitsch, Engert, & Baumgartner, 2015).
Define your guiding principles and values for your division in
the context of culture, social responsibility, and ethics.
The principle guiding the division is the triple P, profits, people
and the planet. When these three things are taken care of, the
division will be able to generate high revenue, show some social
responsibility and also be on the safe side with the law. By
taking care of the people, GM will not just be taking care of
their customers, but also showing concern to all people.
Manufacturing electric cars to reduce effects of global warming
means that the people living in areas where the adverse effects
of global warming are visible will have something to be proud
of. Taking care of the planet means that the organization will be
dedicated to ensuring that their products have no adverse effects
on the environment and this indirectly helps the people as well
(Senge, 2014).
References
Grant, R. M. (2016). Contemporary Strategy Analysis Text
Only. John Wiley & Sons.
Epstein, M. J., & Buhovac, A. R. (2014). Making sustainability
work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate
social, environmental, and economic impacts. Berrett-Koehler
Publishers.

15. Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., & Schilling, M. A. (2014). Strategic
management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
Sukitsch, M., Engert, S., & Baumgartner, R. J. (2015). The
implementation of corporate sustainability in the European
automotive industry: An analysis of sustainability
reports. Sustainability, 7(9), 11504-11531.
Senge, P. M. (2014). The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies
and tools for building a learning organization. Crown Business.
Purpose of Assignment
Students will have the opportunity to develop a Balanced
Scorecard. This, in turn, will allow them to create effective
strategic objectives to be included as part of their overall
strategic plan. They will also be presented with the task of
creating a brief communication plan that will be used by their
proposed division to efficiently distribute information with
regard to their strategic initiatives.
Assignment Steps
Resources: Strategic Planning Outline and Week 4 textbook
readings
Create a minimum 1,050-word strategic objectives summary.
Include your balanced scorecard and its impact on all
stakeholders, and the communication plan.
Identify key trends, assumptions, and risks in the context of
your final business model.
Develop the strategic objectives for your new division of the
existing business in a balanced scorecard format in the context
of key trends, assumptions, and risks. The strategic objectives
are measures of attaining your vision and mission. As you
develop them, consider the vision, mission, and values for your
business and the outcomes of your SWOTT analysis.
Consider the following four quadrants of the balanced
scorecard when developing your strategic objectives:
· Shareholder Value or Financial Perspective, which includes

16. strategic objectives in areas such as:
· Market share
· Revenues and costs
· Profitability
· Competitive position
· Customer Value Perspective, which includes strategic
objectives in areas such as:
· Customer retention or turnover
· Customer satisfaction
· Customer value
· Process or Internal Operations Perspective, which includes
strategic objectives in areas such as:
· Measure of process performance
· Productivity or productivity improvement
· Operations metrics
· Impact of change on the organization
· Learning and Growth (Employee) Perspective, which includes
strategic objectives in areas such as:
· Employee satisfaction
· Employee turnover or retention
· Level of organizational capability
· Nature of organizational culture or climate
· Technological innovation
Evaluate potential alternatives to the issues and/or opportunities
identified in the SWOTT Analysis assignment and table you
completed in Week 3.
Create at least three strategic objectives for each of the four
balanced scorecard areas. Baseyour solutions on a ranking of
alternative solutions including the following:
· Identify potential risks and mitigation plans.
· Analyze a stakeholder and include mitigation and contingency
strategies.
· Incorporate ethical implications.
Develop a specific metric and target for each strategic objective
using a balanced scorecard format.
Example: a strategic objective in the shareholder or financial

17. perspective is to increase market share. A metric to actually
measure this strategic objective of market share increase is,
"The percentage of increase in market share." The target is the
specific number to be achieved in a particular time period. The
target for the metric of "Increase market share" could be
"Increase market share by 2% for each of the next 3 years" of an
increase of 2% per year for 3 years.
Outline a brief communication plan discussing how you will
communicate the company's strategic objectives including the
following:
· Define the purpose.
· Define the audience.
· Identify the channel(s) of communication and why you
selected that channel.
Format your assignment consistent with APA guidelines.