Ford Motor Company is one of the biggest American multinational automobile company. Its main headquarters in Michigan. Ford is involved in selling commercial automobiles and vehicles under a brand Ford name. The company sells luxury cars and owns Brazilian SUV manufacturers. The company is listed in the Stock exchange of New York (Ford, 2020).
VRIO Analysis of Ford
VRIO framework is an analytical tool, which is used by the companies to assess the capabilities and resources. The framework helps the company in achieving competitive advantage to avail new opportunities and mitigate the threats. Here is the detailed VRIO analysis of Ford.
Value
This is the first component of the VRIO analysis. The resources are needed to be valuable to achieve competitive parity in the industry. The resources and capabilities will be considered valuable when they bring efficiency and effectiveness in the company. Moreover, the valuable resources also help the company in strengthening its position in market. Ford has successfully maintained its strong position in China and US markets. These are considered as main markets for automobile and vehicle brands. Ford has maintained its reputation and marketing capabilities in the industry. The company strongly focuses on the innovation (Pratap, 2020).
Rarity
This is the second component of the VRIO analysis which believes that resources should be rare. Resources and capabilities will be rare if they will be acquired by one or few companies. If the resources will be easily available, every company will use it in the same way for their own benefits and then resource will lose its exclusivity. Ford is a big name in the vehicles industry. Its supplier base and strategic alliance is one of the rarest resource for the company. its supply chain network helps the company in mitigating the costs and produce vehicles in efficient way (Imbriaco, 2020).
Imitability
Resources and capabilities of the company should be hard to imitate. This could be done in two ways, either making it costly or hard to find the substitute for. This will help the company in attracting more customers and strengthen its brand image. Ford has developed a strong financial position over a period of time, which is very difficult to imitate. Its operational strategies, innovation techniques, attracting the consumer base, and supply chain network are very hard to imitate by the competitors. It brings new features in its automobiles which provide best experience to the driver (Google site, 2020).
Organization
This is the important component of the framework, as if the resources are needed to be organized. If the company will be able to achieve all four components of the model, it will be able to achieve sustained competitive advantage. The organized resources will help the company in exploiting competitive potential of the company. Ford is highly organized in terms of its leadership, management, and organizational skills. It has well-defined organizational hierarchy, organizational structure, and culture, which motivates employees to work with them. The company maintains its operations very well and keep its customers and other stakeholders satisfied (Google site, 2020).
Conclusion
Ford is a big name in the automobile industry and is very successful in building its brand image and reputation. The company is able to achieve sustained competitive advantage which helps it in standing odd one out among competitors.
| Resource/Capabilities | V | R | I | O | |
| Supply Chain | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Sustained Competitive Advantage |
| Inventory management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Sustainable competitive advantage |
| Brand Equity | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Sustainable competitive advantage |
| Marketing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Competitive advantage | |
| Product quality | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Sustainable competitive advantage |
| Product range | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Sustainable competitive advantage |
| Talented HR | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Competitive advantage |
References
Ford, 2020. About us. [Online], Available at: https://corporate.ford.com/company.html, [Accessed on: 15th May, 2020].
Google site, 2020. Strategic management Ford. [Online], Available at: https://sites.google.com/site/buad467ford/home/vrio-internal-analysis, [Accessed on: 15th May, 2020].
Imbriaco, D. 2020. VRIO analysis. [Online], Available at: https://sites.google.com/site/danimbriaco/home/vrio-analysis, [Accessed on: 15th May, 2020].
Pratap, A. 2020. Ford Motors strategic analysis. [Online], Available at: https://notesmatic.com/2018/09/ford-motors-strategic-analysis/, [Accessed on: 15th May, 2020].