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  • April 2014
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Ford Motor Company: Blueprint for Mobility

By: Karim R. Lakhani, Marco Iansiti and Noah Fisher
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:22
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Abstract

Mark Fields, Ford Motor Company's COO, had to ensure the company's current business model of building cars and trucks remained strong, while concurrently navigating the company into the rapidly expanding industry of personal mobility. Personal mobility required new technologies and business models that were untraditional at Ford, and Fields had to evaluate the traditional business model colliding with the new business model.
To direct these new technologies and business models, Ford released its "Blueprint for Mobility," which established near-, mid- and long-term goals to make mobility accessible and affordable to all.
The case focuses on the launch of three mobility experiments (car sharing, parking, and on-demand ride sharing), and asks students to determine how Fields should balance these types of experiments with the company's traditional operations. Further, was Ford doing enough in the mobility space, and if so, was it moving fast enough? What new sources of revenue could Ford derive from mobility solutions?

Keywords

Automobiles; Automobile Manufacturing; Ford Motor Company; Mark Fields; Blueprint For Mobility; Dearborn; Michigan; Car Sharing; Parking; On-demand Ride Sharing; Strategy; Business Model; Auto Industry; Michigan; United States

Citation

Lakhani, Karim R., Marco Iansiti, and Noah Fisher. "Ford Motor Company: Blueprint for Mobility." Harvard Business School Case 614-018, April 2014.
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About The Authors

Karim R. Lakhani

Technology and Operations Management
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Marco Iansiti

Technology and Operations Management
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More from the Authors
  • Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality By: Frabrizio Dell'Acqua, Edward McFowland III, Ethan Mollick, Hila Lifshitz-Assaf, Katherine C. Kellogg, Saran Rajendran, Lisa Krayer, François Candelon and Karim R. Lakhani
  • The Crowdless Future? How Generative AI Is Shaping the Future of Human Crowdsourcing By: Léonard Boussioux, Jacqueline N. Lane, Miaomiao Zhang, Vladimir Jacimovic and Karim R. Lakhani
  • Clash of Two Giants Simulation Exercise By: Feng Zhu and Marco Iansiti
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