Harvey Firestone started Firestone Company in the year 1900. In 1906, Henry Ford chose Firestone Tires as the original equipment for the first mass-produced automobiles in America. Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison were all very good friends. Their children eventually married, and the current chairman of Ford Motor Company (William Clay Ford, Jr.) is the great-grandson of Harvey Firestone and Henry Ford. Bridgestone was a Japanese tire company that was founded in 1931. After Firestone experienced some financial difficulty in the 1980's, the Bridgestone Corporation purchased them in 1988. In the year 1990, the two companies were then consolidated to form one company in the United States. The consolidation has remained up to this present day. We are all aware of the current issues of the deaths associated with tire failures, tire recalls, and the very public battle with Ford Motor Company. Following are some of the key issues that need to be addressed and recommendations to return this company to its previous days of success (see Appendix A for original organizational chart).
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Organizational Design 2 .
Key Issues.
There are several issues that would lend a company to consider the restructuring of their current organization. Here are six key issues that Bridgestone/Firestone had: .
Loss of consumer confidence in the Firestone brand.
Low employee morale and an increase in employee turnover.
Lack of communication throughout the corporation.
Negative public image.
Financial difficulties.
Legal issues with several worldwide auto leaders.
Based on the issues above, the following will address how Bridgestone/Firestone should propose restructuring and how the restructuring will allow the company to resolve these important issues. .
Restructuring.
The restructuring proposal for Bridgestone is determined to fix the brand's credibility shattered by a massive tire recall at its U.S. subsidiary Bridgestone/Firestone.