What global factors stimulated Ford's investment in web-based technology?

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1. What global factors stimulated Ford's investment in web-based technology?

The global factors that stimulated Ford's investment in web-based technology include an interest to provide customer satisfaction and the need to effectively use e-business. The need for Ford to overcome constraints on the internal and external information flows frequently found in a complex global organization was an additional factor that encouraged Ford to invest in web based technology. Moreover, the company required teams on different continents to be able to work together as if they were in the same building. The idea was to tailor products and services to individual markets by leveraging technology. The need to integrate the 345,000 employees spread over 200 countries, the need to synchronize teams, divisions, and regions into a global entity with a single strategic focus on consumers. The need to deliver products to consumer specifications, the need to form consumer assistance centers and the need to integrate the supply chain drove Ford to invest in web-based technology. An important need for Ford was to connect and closely work with its 30,000 suppliers. Finally, with the worldwide proliferation of Internet. Ford felt the need to reach out to its own employees by purchasing PCs for each of them with Internet connection.

2. What trade-offs face Richard Canny as he seeks to balance corporate Headquarters (CHQ) needs with those of Argentina's market?

The trade-offs that Richard Canny faces as he seeks to balance corporate Headquarters needs with those of Argentina's market include the prospect that the ratio of 70/30 financing of e-business initiative may fall and the Argentina's subsidiary may have to finance its own e-business initiative. The first trade off was that there was a need to continue deploying web technologies. On the other hand the resources needed to persist with the momentum were ...