The Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand and most luxury cars under the Lincoln brand. Ford also owns Brazilian SUV manufacturer, Troller, and Australian performance car manufacturer FPV. In the past, it has also produced tractors and automotive components. Ford owns an 8% stake in Aston Martin of the United Kingdom, and a 49% stake in Jiangling of China. It also has a number of joint-ventures, one in China (Changan Ford), one in Taiwan (Ford Lio Ho), one in Thailand (AutoAlliance Thailand), one in Turkey (Ford Otosan), and one in Russia (Ford Sollers). It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is controlled by the Ford family, although they have minority ownership (but majority of the voting power).

Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines; by 1914, these methods were known around the world as Fordism. Ford's former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover, acquired in 1989 and 2000 respectively, were sold to Tata Motors in March 2008. Ford owned the Swedish automaker Volvo from 1999 to 2010. In 2011, Ford discontinued the Mercury brand, under which it had marketed entry-level luxury cars in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East since 1938. During the financial crisis at the beginning of the 21st century, it was close to bankruptcy, but it has since returned to profitability. In 2006, Ford's corporate bonds had been downgraded to junk status and they were fielding questions about bankruptcy. Now, Ford is a global powerhouse on the cutting edge of new technology. To call Ford a digital transformation success story is a distinct understatement. Ford recovered by rallying itself around what it refers to as the "One Ford" initiative. In the early 2000s, Ford was structured as a loose confederacy of regional business centers and IT silos. They moved forward with clear goals: simplifying the company's product line, focusing in on quantitative data and quality vehicles, and unifying the company as a whole.

On the IT front, Ford slashed the budget by a massive 30 percent. Their goal, however, was not to reduce expenses, but to take resources that were tied up in maintaining fragmented and complex legacy systems and free them for use in expansion and innovation. It was all of these measures together that gave Ford the agility and capital to invest in ground-breaking projects such as the much-lauded Ford SYNC and MyFord Touch.

1. Perform a competitor's analysis on Ford's Motor Company based on porter's five forces model. Identify the IS based strategies adopted by Ford to counter competition.

2. Draw a business model canvas and suggest some IS based strategies they can take up in future to gain competitive advantage.