Ford was facing several strategic issues as they entered the mid 1990’s. The Team Taurus concept had been tremendously successful. However, that concept had not gathered strength throughout the organization and was losing traction within Team Taurus. They were encountering a loss of differentiation through increased imitation and a lack of innovation. The competitive landscape was changing, somewhat due in part to GM’s own problems and the economic issues in Japan. Finally, Ford had gained a strong market share in the Truck and SUV market, but had little penetration in the other automotive segments. Overall, Ford had to make some key strategic decisions if they were going to succeed in the late 1990’s.

Ford was in an interesting position, as its chief competitors were having their own problems. They were making more profits than any other manufacturers, while actually selling less vehicles and, therefore, generating less revenue than their top rival, GM. Japan had strong sales; though, because of the value of the Yen versus the Dollar, their costs were increasing dramatically. This will drastically affect the marketplace, as the other auto builders would have to be worrying about their own costs/issues first. This does give some Ford some competitive advantage,

The second option is to take what had been created in developing Team Taurus should be replicated throughout the entire organization. This brings many increased efficiencies to the company. The supplier relationships brought reduced inventory holding times, reduced defects, and reduced relationships to manage. This would lead to lower costs and possible lower selling prices, which would enable Ford to possess a price differentiator. The other improvement that it would realize is an improvement in developing truly innovative products. Team Taurus fostered innovation throughout the organization. By having marketing and engineering working together ideas were fleshed out early and changes could be made quickly and cheaply. This led to the Taurus product becoming different than other entries in that segment as wel

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