Mercedes Benz India Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Mercedes Benz India - Case Study Example The case bring into focus the issues that the Chief Information Officer of the global automobile company’s India subsidiary faces while catering to the decision of the top management officials of shifting the global automobile company’s India based manufacturing operations from the already existing site in Pune to the newly acquired sites at Chakan. The world’s twelfth largest car maker in terms of production volume was one of the first foreign automobile companies to enter the Indian market through the process of formation of a joint venture with Tata Engineering Locomotives Company (TELCO). The company focused on evolving growth in the company by the process of manufacturing of various models of automobiles falling mostly to the commercial segment over the next couple of years/. Around the year 1994, the company focused on the process of development of the E-class luxury sedans for the company’s Indian portfolio. Owing to the significant growth in the number of first generation entrepreneurs handling successful businesses in the Indian market as well as the significant growth in the number of Indian high net worth individuals over the recent years, the market of India belonging to the luxury automobile segment appeared highly appealing to the luxury carmakers all over the globe. Most of the luxury carmakers around the globe, felt that the luxury automobile market in India is ripe for investments due to the rising number of high net worth individuals market and will increasingly contribute to a significant amount of growth for the company. This led to a rise of investments in the Indian market by luxury car makers around the world thereby significantly increasing the competition that is already existing in the Indian market. The Mercedes Benz India, which is the Indian subsidiary of the world’s twelfth largest car maker in terms of production volume, Daimler AG undertook an internal sur vey. The internal survey that was undertaken by Mercedes Benz India forecasted a highly favorable rate of growth in terms of production and sales for the company’s luxury segment portfolio. This prompted the organization to focus on the acquiring of new production facilities within the Indian landmass in order to significantly augment and catalyze and capitalize on the growth opportunities and prospects with regards to the forecasted demand for the company’s portfolio belonging to the luxury vehicles. However, a series of uncertain macro economic factors which got initiated in the middle of the year 2007, due to the subprime crisis in the United States significantly created a shortage of cash flow for the highly capital and credit intensive automobile sector all over the world. The global crisis had a spillover effect on the organization’s various other product portfolios, thereby creating the scenario of non sustainability and uncertainty for the companyâ€℠¢s predicted forecasted growth rates. Overview of Porter’s 5 Forces Model The Porter’s 5 forces model increasingly falls in the domain of strategic management, the processes, tools and tactics of which are increasingly employed by organizations

Thought Paper on On Huntington Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 From Page 3 to Essay

Thought Paper on On Huntington Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 From Page 3 to page 108 - Essay Example Democracies have become intricate, multi-layered systems that no longer truly function as purely representative entities through which the people wield true power. The constant push-pull between lawmakers and external actors who influence the legislative process has, particularly in the U.S., often blurred the line between the elected and non-elected. The resultant deal-making is undemocratic because it plays out behind the scenes, far from the political arena, and often places non-elected power brokers in a position of control over elected representatives. â€Å"If these democratically elected decision makers become, however, simply a facade for the exercise of much greater power by a non-Democratically chosen group then clearly that political system is not democratic† (Huntington, 10). In the U.S., special interest groups, lobbyists, and privatized government services, many of which are co-opted into government agencies, are at the very heart of the Democratic process and of ten behave in ways that run counter to the notion of purely representative government. Bureaucracy In the U.S., the governmental bureaucracy is a powerfully entrenched, often insidious force. The sheer size, scope and complexity of bureaucracy overwhelms the average American Democracy Behind the Scenes 3 citizen’s ability to comprehend how it functions vis a vis elected officials. This enables individual segments of the bureaucracy to play out their roles and impact the business of Democracy in ways that are not directly responsible to the public. Over the past 50 years, most presidential candidates, particularly Republicans, have made â€Å"big government† a cause celebre, campaigning against a vague yet politically effective concept. But what fails to attract the attention of these candidates, or the people who vote for them, is that the big government to which they refer is not governed in a truly Democratic fashion. The business that takes place in bureaucratic org anizations plays out beyond the scope of elective politics and, as such, does not involve the voters. Nevertheless, the outcomes of these bureaucratic activities generally affect citizens quite directly. Americans exhibit a characteristically contradictory attitude towards bureaucracy in that they expect government to be sensitive and responsive to their needs, yet often decry what is considered undue influence wielded by professional bureaucrats. Such unrealistic expectations reflect a fundamental lack of understanding about the nature of bureaucracy in a democracy, though it does not obscure the fact that the work that goes on within the bureaucracy takes place far from the public gaze and so can be considered inherently undemocratic. Regardless of the party or administration in charge, successful Democracies are inextricably linked to bureaucracy through their need for functional efficiency, which in the modern world relies heavily on a strong bureaucracy. The work that goes into the refinement and enacting of policy goes on behind closed doors. Democracy Behind the Scenes 4 Special interest groups Special interest groups present a unique challenge to Democracy in that they represent a subtle, imperceptible erosion of checks and balances within the political system. Interest groups have long held a presence on the American political scene, but their influence on the body politic reached