The differences in strategy between Ford and General Motors in the period after 1920
             In the 1920ies the automobile industry grew rapidly and became soon the biggest industry in the US. The more traditional transportation industries as ships, locomotives and railroads grew much less at the same time. At the end of the 1920ies the US produced a large percentage of the whole world output. In the industry two important players were Ford and General Motors. Ford was a first mover that invented the assembly line, which gave him the opportunity to enjoy large economies of scale. The other major player was General Motors which was Fords major competitor. The two different companies developed very different. In this paper 3 different strategic choices will be demonstrated as well as their impact of the success of the two companies.
             Ford's initial success was due to its achievement of essential economies of scale which was possible to exploit by employing the assembly line. Therefore, Ford could offer its products at much lower prices than its competitors. Even though Ford had an essential first mover advantage and achieved a market share of 55,7% it was not successful in sustaining this position. There are several reasons for it. A very important failure was the missing recruitment of professional management. This was quite determining for the whole development of the business. Ford was personally run and missed the change to benefit from their positive initial development by taking the right action. General Motors, on the other hand, had a team of outside managers, which were making much better decisions than the inside directors of Ford. Furthermore, they had a careful administration.
             Ford was concentrating its business mainly on production. They were making hardly any adaptations to the car they produced. In the mid 20ies when the shares of Ford dropped while those of General Motors have risen they replaced their traditional Mo...