You used to be able to buy a Ford in any color you wanted — as long as it was black! Today Ford Motor is one of the world's largest automakers and includes a staple of brands and models including the Ford Mustang, the FSeries pickup, Focus, Lincoln, Fiesta, and Taurus. Reflecting a growing global auto market, Ford launched 16 new vehicles globally in 2015, followed by 12 global products in fiscal 2016, including the new F-Series Super Duty, Ford GT, and Lincoln Continental. It will add more electrified products for Ford and Lincoln, including the new Focus Electric. Through 2020, it has plans to invest $\$ 4.5$ billion in electrified vehicle solutions.

Like many other carmakers, the company is also looking to emerging economies for growth, particularly Brazil, Russia, India, and China, where cars sales are forecast to grow more rapidly than in mature markets. Ford has planned to build new plants in India, Thailand, and especially China to meet more demand in the region.

Yet those plans quickly changed when President-Elect Donald Trump took to Twitter to criticize Ford's fellow U.S.-based competitor General Motors: "General Motors is sending Mexican made model of Chevy Cruze to U.S. car dealers-tax free across border. Make in U.S.A. or pay big border tax!'

It used to be cars were made in Flint and you couldn't drink the water in Mexico. Now the cars are made in Mexico, and you can't drink the water in Flint. That's not good." [Donald Trump was referring to the lead water crisis in the Michigan city.]

Ford immediately announced it would cancel its $\$ 1.6$ billion plans to build a plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and instead invest an additional $\$ 700$ million to expand an existing plant in Michigan to make autonomous and electric vehicles. That came on the heels of another decision in November to keep production of some small SUVs at its plant in Kentucky. The move marks a departure for Ford, whose CEO Mark Fields said that it was very likely Ford would not change plans for its $\$ 1.6$ billion factory. CEO Fields said that Trump's rhetoric was a factor in reversing his earlier decision, but one of several factors. "Ford is a global automaker, but our home . . is right here in the United States," he said.

Ford chairman Bill Ford Jr. said he spoke with President-elect Trump to tell him of the decision to invest in the United States and cancel the Mexico plant, according to Reuters. "We're also encouraged by the pro-growth policies that president-elect Trump and the new Congress have indicated that they will pursue," Ford president and CEO Mark Fields said in a statement.

He said the carmaker was influenced by promises of new tax and regulatory reforms and the prospect of keeping jobs at home.

The Mexican government did not stand idly by. Mexico's economy ministry argued that investments in Mexico have helped keep jobs in the United States.

The Mexican government regrets the decision of the Ford Motor Company to cancel the investment project in San Luis Potosi, and it has assured the return by the company of any expenditures made by the state government to facilitate this investment. The growth of the Ford Motor Company in North America, particularly in Mexico, is a strategy of competitiveness based on global value chains, in which North America competes with other world regions. The jobs generated in Mexico have contributed to keeping manufacturing jobs in the United States that would otherwise have disappeared in the face of Asian competition.

Mexico's economy ministry argued that investments in Mexico have helped keep jobs in the United States. The minister also reiterated that Mexico was still in favor of a "modernization" of NAFTA that would "strengthen the competitive capacities of North America and of each of its members."

Discussion Questions

1. How would you classify Ford Motor from the perspective of the global village? 

2. What is the "buy American" effort and how does this consumer movement affect this case? 

3. Assume that President Trump decided to take actions to limit car imports into the United States, what would we call these actions and what alternatives are available to him? 

4. What is NAFTA and how does it affect this case? 5. What are the differing forms of managing a global business and which form(s) is (are) being addressed in this case? 

6. Agree or disagree with Ford's decision to cancel its manufacturing plant in Mexico and build in the United States based upon the impact this decision may make on the U.S. standard of living. 

7. President-elect Trump's tweet about GM's moving its plant to Mexico demonstrate which managerial role(s)? 

8. Which environmental factors (stakeholders) were effected by this case?