Strategy and Strategic Dilemmas

According to CEO of the company, despite the decline in sales, BMW will surely keep its position as the leading manufacturer of a luxury car due to the planned expansion of the lineup.BMW Group aims to make permanent its nine-year reign as the world's No. 1 premium automaker. To achieve this, the company plans to strengthen internal synergies between its BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brands as well as consolidate platforms and produce engines that can be shared by more models. BMW calls its plan Strategy Number One. Its goal is to ensure profitability even in volatile times. The plan has already helped BMW Group cut billions in costs while achieving record sales, including a new all-time high last year of 1.94 million units. That was up 6 percent on 2012, bringing it close to its 2016 target of 2 million units. BMW development director Herbert Diesstold that they already introduced downsized gasoline and diesel engines and launched its first battery-powered car, the i3. But now they are going to introduce a new front-wheel-drive architecture as well as a new three- and four-cylinder modular engine family. They have also seen a trend toward more functional cars and it would have been very difficult to derive a model such as the Active Tourer from rear-wheel-drive platforms. Reducing the amount of variety and complexity is a key pillar of Strategy Number One. In the past the company basically had two rear-wheel-drive platforms. One was centered on the 1 and 3 series and their respective X models and the other on the 5, 6 and 7 series and larger X models. In the future, BMW will converge all rear-wheel drive and X models on a single, highly flexible architecture. Now BMW embarks on a new era of electric mobility. With the BMW i3, the new BMW i brand presented the first all-electric series-production model from the BMW Group. CONCLUSIONWhether BMW is deciding on which market to enter or where to its next factory or which car to build next, it relies on many aspects of its multinational strategy to make the best decisions. BMW shows how a company can benefit from geographical dispersion by being close to customers throughout the world and seeking innovations from these locations to share across the company. Having analyzed company’s weaknesses and strengths, brand image, product innovation, suppliers, employee productivity, research and development capabilities, cost structure, the history of its strategy formation and its final result, it can be said that nowadays the BMW Group is the only manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles worldwide that concentrates entirely on premium standards and outstanding quality for all its brands and across all relevant segments. BMW is a European company which has managed to carve out an enviable niche market for itself in the premium segment of automobile industry through technological innovation. The company has had to manage a companion challenge to its success in the market. This challenge is that of evolving and applying a corporate strategy that facilitates its advancement as a global corporation. BMW has evolved a corporate strategy that reflects its global interests. This global strategy BMW has described as “globalization”, where the aim is to find right combination of global networking and local policy. BMW has created its own strategy analyzing and taking into account all the marketing mistakes of the past, internal analysis of the company, market competition, globalization, urbanization, politics, regulation and even environmental problems. The BMW Group company follows Strategy Number ONE, which aligns with two targets: to be profitable and to enhance long-term value in times of change. And this applies to technological, structural as well as cultural aspects of the company. Since 2007 BMW has been implementing various initiatives in keeping with the strategy’s four pillars: Growth, Shaping the Future, Profitability and Access to Technologies and Customers.Key success factors of BMW group are long term planning, ecological and social sustainability, research and development investment, global positioning in established markets and innovation. Values of the company are high quality standards, customer focus, continuous improvement and sustainability. All strategic objectives of BMW are derived from the Corporate Strategy Number ONE: generate growth (new target groups, new products and services), technologies/customers (pioneering technologies and design, visionary services, new sales concepts), and shaping the future (differentiation from competition, future proof product portfolio, sharpen BMW image as sustainable and innovative brand).The work of the company is firmly focused on the premium segments of the international automobile markets. The goal up to the year 2020 is clearly defined: the BMW Group is the world’s leading provider of premium products and premium services for individual mobility. REFERENCESDe Wit, Bob and Meyer, Ron (2010). Strategy: Synthesis, Cengage.Cullen, John B., Parboteeah, K. Praveen (2012). Multinational Management.JacobNina (2010).Intercultural Management.