General Motors Company

Running Head : GM GLOBAL STRATEGY

General Motors and Its Strategy Across the Globe

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General Motors and Its Strategy Across the Globe

Detroit-based General Motors is one of the largest automobile companies and oldest multinational corporations in the world today . It was established in 1908 . Since then , it has been doing business in 157 countries and producing cars and trucks in 31 countries (n .d

In the years prior to 1997 , the company 's international strategy had been marred with lack of strategic coherence . It allowed certain facilities

to design their own cars and formulate own marketing plans while retaining the tight control of Detroit overall (Hill , 2004 br

.436 . This type of practice regarded Detroit as the powerful center and the rest of the world as toothless peripheries . By 1997 , GM overhauled its international strategy by embracing the philosophy that centers of excellence may reside anywhere in the company 's global operations and may contribute the latest technology (Hill , 2004 ,

.436 To implement such philosophy , GM ensured that its plants in Argentina Poland , China and Thailand are identical , equipped with state of the art technology , and supervised by both local and international talents . Such a strategy makes great business sense . This is because , by having identical plants spread across the world , GM can rapidly replicate products and processes throughout its operations , saving the company time , effort and money

While GM allows its local operations some free room to customize products and processes to suit certain cultural preferences...