1. What does the Chevy Volt case tell you about the nature of strategic decision making at a large complex organization like GM?
2. What trends in the external environment favored the pursuit of the Chevy Volt project?
3. What impediments to pursuing this project do you think existed within GM?
4. The plan for the Chevy Volt seems to be based partly on the assumption that oil prices would remain high, and yet, in late 2008, oil prices collapsed in the wake of a sharp global economic slowdown.
a. What does this tell you about the nature of strategic plans?
b. What do falling oil prices mean for the potential success of the Chevy Volt?
c. Do you think oil prices will remain low?
5. What will it take for the Chevy Volt to be a successful car? In light of your analysis, how risky do you think this venture is for GM? What are the costs of failure? What are the costs of not pursuing the project?

General Motors is a company in deep trouble. As car sales in North America collapsed in 2008, GM, which had already lost money in 2007, plunged deeply into the red. With losses estimated at $14 billion, the company was forced to go cap in hand to the government to beg for public funds to help it stave off bankruptcy. Fearing the economic consequences of a collapse of GM, the government agreed to loan funds to GM, but it insisted that the company have a clear plan charting its way back to profitability. Ironically, such a plan was already in place at GM. At the heart of it was a potentially huge gamble on a new type of car: the Chevy Volt.