HYUNDAI MOTOR COMPANY

Hyundai Motor Company



Hyundai Motor Company

Question 1: Discuss to what extent these strategies were successful (25 marks - 1000 words). Identify the problems faced by HMC and the strategies it has adopted to improve its competitive position (on both domestic and foreign markets). Hyundai is currently engaged in a process of expansion in all markets.

The birth of Hyundai Motor Company dates back to 1967 and its short existence has gained recognition from customers for technological developments and product quality, achieved through bold marketing strategies on every continent. Hyundai started in the business of the ships, and now the car division is headquartered in Seocho-gu (Seoul, South Korea). It is the sixth largest automaker in the world. The Hyundai logo symbol is a stylized H symbolizing two parts, the company and customers, while the slogan Drive your way, which translates to drive your destination.

In less than 40 years, the Korean house has become one of the most renowned automobile industry worldwide. Hyundai started its activities in the form of assembler licensee of a model or Ford. In the early seventies the Korean house has decided to develop his own car, the Pony, immediate and enduring success, thanks to the personal line and elegant designed by Giugiaro in Italy. The need to gain experience engineering and manufacturing has led Hyundai to invest each year at least 5% of revenue in research, with the aim to rapidly develop its technological assets. Today, Hyundai is a manufacturer of high-tech vehicles and is present in every sector of the international market.

In the early eighties the growing commercial success of Hyundai models has led the Korean house to significantly enhance its production capacity. In this way, the largest integrated platform in the world with annual capacity of 1.5 million vehicles has been established. Result of huge investments, the project has proved its validity in later years as South Korea has grown to become the second Asian automotive market. In the early nineties, Hyundai Motor Company has consolidated its position as the first automobile manufacturer in South Korea. Subsequent economic crisis and industrial center of south-east Asia at the end of the nineties has had limited impact of Hyundai, which has indeed found a way to further strengthen its market position with the acquisition of KIA Motors Corporation.

Korea recovered rapidly from the economic crisis that began in late 1997. This crisis had engulfed the whole of Asia and threatened Korea's remarkable economic achievements. But thanks to the strict observance of the IMF agreement, the reform path of the Korean government and the successful negotiations with foreign banks on the restructuring of foreign debt, the economy is now growing again. Shortly after the outbreak of the crisis, Korea has begun to rapidly integrate into the world economy with the aim of overcoming the problems that have their roots in the past, through the development of an advanced economy.

The 1990s were dominated by an opening and liberalizing the ...