Henry Ford, the father of the over 100 year-old motor company that bears his name, is credited with saying, "Any color - so long as it's black." While he was speaking of the not-so-wide-range of paint colors available for the Model T from 1915-1925, the color is always highly sought after on accounting books.With struggling economic times, more and more car dealers are seeing red these days. But black is the color Ford is hoping their franchisees will see soon. To assist in this effort, one step Ford is taking is to drastically downsize their dealers. With a hope to reduce the 500 franchisees in the top markets by one-third, Ford plans to meet and discuss plans with their dealers at least twice over the next few months. It is hoped that Ford's offering of financial incentives to relinquish the Ford franchise will be the needed spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.
Although it is a tough situation, Ford is committed to their enhancing their high-end Lincoln brand and hoping to elevate their remaining dealers' ability to be profitable. The reduced dealer network in strategic markets, should enable them to do both.
Ideally, the personal meetings and the financial incentives will stay the hand of negative publicity and be an effective way to assist the terminated dealers, their businesses, and the surrounding community.
Sample Test Question: Task 1-F-6
Supplier management professionals should be acutely aware of, and plan carefully for downsizing as it impacts a community, for all of the reasons below EXCEPT:
A) Many states have passed community impact laws that define processes for plant downsizing or shutdown.
B) Negative publicity can harm the buying organization.
C) Negative publicity can harm the supplier.
D) Phase-outs need to be avoided during the organization's high volume periods.
2 comments:
The answer is option D).
The Supply management professionals should be aware of and be mindful of the options given as A), B) and C) when planning for downsizing.
Of course, phasing-outs needs to be avoided during the high volumes to minimize the impact.
[Debbie, I would look to you for a better justification]
Satyam,
You are correct to select D. D is not the correct answer because the question is asking for items as they "impact the community". While it is true phase outs should be avoided during high volume periods, that is not a community concern like community impact laws and negative publicity.
Debbie
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