PLEASE HELP ME ANSWER THE QUESTION AND GIVE FEEDBACK.

1. Apples release of the iPhone was an unexpected event within the phone and camera markets. So, Jobs turned Apple towards the iPhone. And, at that moment, that very moment, BlackBerry was ended. (Ritchie, 2020) Apple was historically known for their computers, and public failure of attempting to offer a personal handheld digital assistant in the Newton (Honan, 2013). So, when the iPhone was introduced, and the product offered a superior phone to the Blackberry, and a superior digital camera to Kodak, it changed the very environments which the two other companies were competing and merged them into a whole new environment. However, there is still some ownership on the part of Kodak and Blackberry for how they might have responded, and what strategies they could have implemented. Noting these things, what ways would you suggest the companies could have prepared for the drastic change, or reacted differently when it occurred?

2. In consideration of external environments, as it pertains to historical situations where failure to assess and correctly interpret it resulted in a business' failure, one such situation was the failed attempt to by Ford Motor company to expand their operations to include internally sourcing rubber for their vehicles in the late 1920s. Ford Motor company has been attributed to many advancements in production. In addition to mass production through the assembly line and establishing an 8 hour work day (9:00a 5:00p;) Ford had been able to minimize their overheads by sourcing their raw materials internally. They not only owned the mills which provided wood for the vehicles, they owned the logging companies and forests as well. However, one product that was difficult to attain and was dominated by foreign companies was rubber, which was needed for the tires, hoses, and other minor details in the production of Ford automobiles.

At the time, rubber was produced by harvesting the sap of the rubber tree, which was originally sourced in Brazil, but had expanded to many regions owned by the British government. The British had a monopoly on rubber cultivating, harvesting, and production and synthetic rubber was not to the point where it was profitable to produce in mass quantities. Ford needed rubber, and so the company attempted to bypass the British by re-establishing rubber production back in Brazil, through means of purchasing a large piece of uncultivated jungle in Brazil and establishing a rubber plantation and manufacturing community. Henry Ford, the owner of Ford Industries, not only wanted to internally source his own rubber, but cultivate an American inspired culture amongst the locals of Brazil.

Unfortunately, Fords alternative motive for establishing the project caused him to neglect any research or surveying of the external environment; both for the market which he was entering, nor the physical and political landscape which accompanied it. The first tragedy that befell Ford was the land that was purchased required a great deal of work and resources in order to get it to the point to begin planting rubber trees. Additionally, Ford did not examine the culture of the locals and attempted to impose American style working environments and culture, which frustrated the locals to the point of rioting. As well, Ford did not inquire about the processes of growing rubber trees and assumed all plants where the same. This led to mass amounts of crop failures and diseased plants. Ford also did not compare the actual costs associated with the production of the rubber in comparison to the purchase of the rubber, and lost millions in the process.

Ford himself never once visited the town, either before, during or after its closure; and while it bore his name, he was very hands off. If the company would have spent time researching the physical landscape, researched the political, social, agricultural, and economical environment which they had jumped into; and if they had done any cost analysis or comparison with rubber production and acquisition. Much of the issues which occurred could have been avoided. However, the biggest error was that Ford had determined to make decisions in a vacuum with this project and chose to ignore most of the problems as they arose. Surveying and researching the external environments and looking for trends and anomalies can save a great deal of time and money.

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