Goodyear Tire and Rubber Essay

Submitted By dbelz1
Words: 1280
Pages: 6

David Belz
MGMT 275
April 23, 2015
Corporate Strategy Paper #1
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company

The mission statement for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company reads: “All around the world, Goodyear’s purpose is to increase the value of our brands for everyone with market-driven innovation and to deliver the highest quality tires, related products and services for our customers and consumers.” Two main competitors of Goodyear are Bridgestone and Cooper Tires. Bridgestone’s mission statement is, “We strive to earn your trust by pursuing the highest quality in products, in service, in technology and in all of our corporate activities. Your trust is our greatest reward.” Additionally, Bridgestone has an Environmental Statement that reads: “We, the Bridgestone group are committed to continually working toward a sustainable society in unity with our customers, communities, partners and the world around us.” Cooper Tire and Rubbers’ mission statement is, “Together around the world. One team…One Goal: Creating superior value for our customers, employees, partners and shareholders.” Goodyear has done an excellent job with their mission statement. They keep it direct and simple but still highlight their primary product while addressing stakeholder groups without being too broad or to narrow. One change I would consider adding to their mission statement is acknowledgement of corporate responsibility. It is a well-known fact that tire and rubber manufacturing and disposal have a substantial environmental impact and finding a way to address this in the mission statement could improve their image. Goodyear’s’ mission, vision, values, goals and leadership traits revolve around high quality products, honesty, integrity, respect and teamwork. When I research a potential employer one of the main motivators for me is and organization with strong ethical behavior and integrity. Goodyear has these traits and therefore I would consider them for employment. Goodyear Tire and Rubber sells new tires under the brand names of Goodyear, Dunlop, Kelly, Fulda, and Debica. In a global alliance with Sumitomo Rubber, Goodyear makes, markets, and sells Dunlop tires in North America and Western Europe. Goodyear sells some 58% of its products outside the U.S.
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company was founded in 1898 by Frank and Charles Seiberling who named it after the inventor of the tire vulcanization process, Charles Goodyear. In 1903 Goodyear debuted their product called the Quick Detachable tire and the Universal Rim and by 1916 they were the world’s largest tire maker. In 1910 Goodyear started manufacturing in Canada and over the next two decades they expanded to Argentina, Australia and the Dutch East Indies. They established rubber plantations in Indonesia in 1916. However, financial problems led to reorganization in 1921 and the Seiberling brothers were forced to sell the company. Paul Litchfield then began his three decade run as the CEO in 1926 and in that time frame took Goodyear to becoming the world’s largest rubber company. In the 1930’s Goodyear began using their blimps as floating billboards. During the same decade they also opened company stores, acquired Kelly-Springfield and started producing tires made from synthetic rubber. Additionally they were an innovative leader in polyester tire cord and the bias belted tires during the 1960’s. Finally, in 1980, Goodyear introduced radial tires to the U.S. market and was the leading producer of radial tires at the time.
Several factors including recession and price cutting in the early 1990’s brought on tough times for tire makers. The first year that Goodyear lost money since the depression was in 1990. In an effort to turn business around they brought in Stanley Gault who had spent 31 years with General Electric and 10 years with Rubbermaid. He became the CEO and Chairman in 1991 and he changed the marketing strategy. He stopped selling tires exclusively through Goodyears’ own dealer