Ford Motor Company was an early pioneer of industrial production, with Ford having developed the assembly line production of automobiles and used this to capture a dominant position in the U.S. automobile market. The company has remained dominant but fell upon difficult times in recent years due to a combination of poor product/marketing and high pension obligations. The company has begun to revive its fortunes in the past couple of years, however, and is once again pursuing leadership in the automobile industry.

Ford remains focused on the consumer automobile industry. The company sells a variety of cars, trucks and vans in dozens of markets around the world. The products are often tailored to local markets (i.e. smaller cars in Europe). Ford also generates a significant portion of its income from its financial arm, Ford Credit (Ford.com, 2011).

The GDP is the gross domestic product and is the aggregate figure describing...
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