Abstract:

People define targets in order to achieve them and by the time they are reached they have to set themselves new ones. But could it happen that the target itself is limiting the performance of a person, a group or of a whole organization? And if strategies and specific goals would restrict the efficiency and output of a company to what extent could they affect the outcome at all? These questions should be analyzed and answered within this paper.

Starting from an initial overview of business strategy approaches in general and specific for the automotive industry this research focuses on 12 automotive original equipment manufacturers and their respective business strategies. Based on annual reports and company publications all relevant quantitative measures are derived and will be compared with each other (from an absolute value and a relative proportion perspective). The outcome is that, compared to the baseline, the OEM strategies and quantitative goals are quite similar. In the second part of the paper the target achievement rate will be analyzed and visualized. Based on the outcome various dependencies and correlations of strategy and business performance as well as a possible limitation of the outcome will be visualized. Summarizing, most of the targets have been reached before the deadline, but new targets have not been set in advance. This could limit an organization and demotivate its members.

Keywords:

Business strategy, limitation, Management, performance, success, automotive.