IN PRACTICE: GLOBAL SUCCESS STORIES

pushing the standardization of parts and design to reduce costs. Ford
has relocated product development centers to the countries where
specific products are sold to help deal with national preferences. In
2000, it introduced the ``Think'' line of electric-powered vehicles
with plastic bodies based on technology purchased in Norway.
Said CEO Jacques Nasser, ``we really believe that consumers want
alternative products . . . We're using the Think as a way of incubating
and hatching new technologies such as fuel cells. The technology
will then migrate to other vehicles.'' Ford has also announced plans
to sell a hybrid gas-electric sedan using an internal combustion engine
mated to an electric motor and achieving a fuel economy of 80 miles
to the gallon and has suggested that the US government create a
tax credit for such vehicles to offset their increased purchase cost.

As a prime mover in one of the twentieth century's chief engines of
growth Ford has always been involved with governments. Prior to
the development of fascism in the 1930s, Ford had little regulatory
difficulty in entering foreign markets, but by 1939 it had been driven
out of Japan and much of Europe. Despite its global reach today,
the company is an example of just how little large MNCs can be
truly said to be globalized: about 66% of units are sold in North
America and most of the rest in Europe, with unit sales in the rest of
the world accounting for less than 10% of the total. It undoubtedly
remains a family-controlled company with a culture based firmly on
its national origins. For example, Ford first purchased stock in Mazda
in 1979 in the hope of acquiring Japanese skills and expertise, but
the two companies did not exchange anything other than finished
vehicles. It was only when Ford acquired a controlling position in
1996 that true synergies and collaboration began to emerge the first
jointly designed vehicle for the US market is the Ford Escape/Mazda
Tribute.

Ford's business is highly vulnerable to state regulation, which varies

considerably from country to country. As well as the problems of
trade barriers and the ever-present pressures to protect the workforce
from downsizing, laws on safety standards and governing fuel economy
and emissions have dramatic effects on vehicle costs and designs.
Attempts to design and integrate components separately for each
country's set of regulations led to massive inefficiencies and waste,