cars
... There is a certain amount of information within the case study relating to the globalisation of the car industry, and in particular to the way in which car manufacturers have moved away from manufacturing for their own domestic market towards producing very similar cars for sale in a broad range of different countries. ... The issue that is arguably of greater concern to BMW is any possible downturn in the global economy, which would lead to a downturn in the demand for cars in an industry that is already suffering from notable overcapacity. ... Analysis of the 5-Forces framework needs to concentrate on the high-performance saloon and sports cars segments. The key issues may include: - significant threat of entry, both from lower-specification and higher-specification car producers; - substitution threat significant, in terms of competing for disposable income that might be spent on such cars - fleet buyers of cars exercise considerable power; - power of suppliers probably relatively limited, given close working relationships and joint destiny for the organisations concerned. ... Value chain analysis should highlight the strengths that BMW have in the areas of marketing and sales (and picking up on the effective, long-term, brand management in particular), of technology development in terms of both the product itself and the manufacture of that product, although it is notable that BMW cars do not incorporate leading-edge technology; of operations in terms of the high build quality and engineering excellence; and of procurement in terms of the links with suppliers. ... Equally, one can argue about the value of that resource; it would appear that other car manufacturers are able to produce cars with the comparable engineering quality but without the highly qualified workforces. ... You could validly argue that there is nothing very special about the car itself, in that many car manufacturers now produce comparable cars in terms of engineering quality, and therefore that BMW does not appear to have any core competence in that regard. You could also point to the limited product range that BMW has - little more than saloon cars, which may make it vulnerable in the future.