GM employed the use of establishing the grand strategy, and formulating strategic plans. In this case, it used the growth strategy as the means of carrying out its restructuring. My reasoning behind this choice is that establishing the grand strategy is the level at which a company makes a “rigorous analysis of the organization's present situation to determine where it is presently headed.” After that, the next step is to “determine where it should be headed in the future.” In GM’s case, its present situation was a bailout by the federal government due to debt and bankruptcy. Its goal for the future was to make more than $10 billion a year, raise its profit …show more content…
There would therefore, be no way of measuring its progress and results in order to determine whether it is even attainable or needs a re-evaluation to fix any deviations or adjustments.
4. Using Figure 5.5, describe the extent to which GM is using the planning/control cycle.
In the past years, GM had set out part of their primary goal to selling as many cars and boosting its market share in the U.S. as much as possible. This goal became its focus, even though it was sometimes at a greater cost to the company. During the January sales total report, GM reported a 6% fall whiles Chrysler and Ford reported 44% and 7.3% rises from the previous year respectively. GM later decided to focus more on a healthier margin and profitability rather than market share. Also in 2011, GM made plans and started offering fat incentives on Chevrolet trucks, Cadillacs, and GMC sport-utility vehicles in an attempt to get sales “off to a quick start.” As it carried out this plan, sales jumped up to 20% but investors were disappointed by North America’s soft profit. In view of controlling the direction of the plan and taking corrective action, Mark Reuss, GM's North American chief, met with top sales executives to compare the results of the plan that was carried out and devise a strategy to cut incentives. By cycling through these plans and re-evaluating to correct any deviations that may have caused an offset, GM had used the planning/control cycle