Introduction

Nexteer Automotive is a global automotive company headquartered in Michigan and part of Pacific Century Motors Limited. The company has for more than 60 years been focused on the manufacturing of steering and driveline products. The company has more than 10,000 employees, with 20 production plants, 14 local customer support centers and more than four regional engineering and test centers across the world (Driving Forward, n.d). The company is the fourth largest supplier of steering parts by market share with roughly more than 7% of the overall market. The company boasts of more than 60 customers with companies like BMW, General Motors, Toyota, Fiat, and Chrysler among others. Manufacturers in India, China, and South America also depend on the company’s steering products. The company has over the years been experiencing their best days as they have been not only able to compete effectively but also conquer new markets in North America and beyond (Driving Forward, n.d).

History, Growth, and Development

The company’s predecessor was founded in 1906 initially under the name Jackson, Wilcox, and Church. The first product under the company was referred to as the Jacox gear. In the following years, the company continued to produce similar products, and Buick acquired it and later transferred to the General Motors company under the name Jackson, Church and Wilcox Division (Driving Forward, n.d). In the coming years, between 1919-1928, the division changed their name from Jackson, Church and Wilcox Division to Saginaw Product Company and later on to Saginaw Steering Gear Division. The trade name of the Jacox gear was soon on changed to Saginaw. For the last 90 years, the company has been part of the General Motors, in 1985 the company changed its name to Saginaw Division (Driving Forward, n.d). In 1999, the company was renamed to Delphi Steering as the General Motors spun off its parts group. The company was undergoing turbulent times with bankruptcy knocking on its doors, General Motors came into its rescue and purchased Delphi Steering through their subsidiary General Motors Global Steering Holding LLC, in the year 2009, and this prompted to the change in company name to Nexteer Automotives(Driving Forward, n.d). In 2010 Nexteer was purchased by Pacific Century Motors, and it was split into two separate entities to stabilize the company operations. In recent years, the company has shown the intention of changing its headquarters to Detroit.  Since it’s inception to date, the company has enjoyed considerable success, but this has not deterred its growth and development.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

The company can use its extensive capabilities and resources to take control of its market while at the same time enhance its competitiveness in the industry. The company’s strengths have proved to be essential and relevant in its pursuit of becoming a market leader. Talent management and skill development have been an integral part of the company’s success in the last 20 years, and this has in a significant way ensured its success. The company has not only focused on talent development, but it has also created strong brands that cater to the needs of different customer segments. The advantage of this is that it has helped the company penetrate many different segments with ease (Nexteer Automotive Group Limited SWOT Analysis, n.d.).Diversifying the revenues has been a great gain for the company which has been achieved with ease through this strategy. The company has been experiencing challenges over the years as compared to the competitors, and there has been a downward trend in its profitability. Despite this happening, the company has been able to maintain high margins. The company is believed to be riding on this, and it is evident that it is going to be a strong determining factor as far as the future is concerned. Innovation is a strong parameter that if used in the right way contributes to a company perform well (Nexteer Automotive Group Limited SWOT Analysis, n.d.).The company has a track record at innovating and are currently the market leaders of innovating consumer-centric solutions. The company might not be the overall giant, but it has a market leadership position in Auto and Trucks Parts industry, which has helped the company compete on a global scale and be able to scale new products as well. Based on the overall structure of the industry, the company is poised to do better in the coming years because of the robustness of the different units. No single product mixes can guarantee a company successful in the long run (Nexteer Automotive Group Limited SWOT Analysis, n.d.). Nexteer understands this pretty well, and this can be attributed to the success of new product mixes to the consumers and to different segments this encouraging all segments to benefit from the product offerings. The company boasts of engineering capabilities that can help create new technologies that have been unique and first in the world (Nexteer Automotive Group Limited SWOT Analysis, n.d.). The company has a strong foundational team of individuals who can understand the goals and needs of the company in the present and the future. The most important strength for the company despite all this is the ability to adapt to changes especially when there is a need to (Nexteer Automotive Group Limited SWOT Analysis, n.d.).

Weaknesses

The company has despite its numerous strengths faced challenges that can be directly or indirectly linked to its weaknesses. First, the company has been hampered low investments especially in the customer-oriented services and the undoing of this could lead to the competitors gaining an advantage soon  (Nexteer Automotive Group Limited SWOT Analysis, n.d.). To overcome this, the company needs to increase its investment into research and development especially in areas which are more customer oriented. Over the last few years, there has been a declining Market share while at the same increased revenues  (Nexteer Automotive Group Limited SWOT Analysis, n.d.).This is not right, and the company has to look into ways to drive further growth in the future. Tge building of an elaborate supply chain and logistics network that can reach all the consumers is a weakness faced by the company. The impact of the internet and artificial intelligence could in recent years overturn this and become expensive to the company. The company is no longer enjoying the loyalty it used to have and therefore it is important for them to come up with innovations that can help it become more competitive. The business model of Nexteer Automotive Group is not original and can be duplicated by the competitors and other players in the industry (Nexteer Automotive Group Limited SWOT Analysis, n.d.).The company must, therefore, design an approach that will help them overcome this scare. Replacing the experts at the company is not easy to achieve, and this might cost the company in the near future if they are unable to get top talents for replacement. Driveline is old and not reliable and cannot be used to make more revenues in the near future.

Conclusion

Nexteer has been doing well for the past few years; however, to continue with this positive outlook they need to address the weaknesses they are experiencing while at the same time capitalize on their opportunities. The future of the automotive industry and companies is bleak especially if they do not adopt innovative approaches. Nexteer can march into the next phase of the transformation especially by encompassing new strategies that have been tried and tested.

References

Driving Forward. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nexteer.com/

Nexteer Automotive Group Limited SWOT Analysis. (n.d.). (Business Source Premier.) Marketing

Nexteer Outline

Thesis Statement:The company has over the years been experiencing their best days as they have been not only  able to compete effectively but also conquer new markets in North America and beyond.

1. Introduction
2. History, Growth, and Development

• Strength and Weaknesses
• Strength
• Weaknesses

1. Conclusion