General Motors Corporation, the world's largest automaker, has been the global industry sales leader since 1931. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 324,000 people around the world. It has manufacturing operations in 32 countries and its vehicles are sold in 200 countries. GM's global headquarters are at the GM Renaissance Center in Detroit. GM's automotive brands are Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall.
In 2004, for the fourth consecutive year, GM set industry sales records in the United States, its largest market, for total trucks, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. In China, GM's second-largest market in 2004, GM's sales increased 27 percent and set a company record.
Explore the site in detail to prepare a two-page report indicating your responses to the following questions. What are some of the challenges and opportunities facing the automotive industry today? What decisions has GM made recently to be a more ethical and socially responsible company? How has technology helped GM disperse knowledge and educate employees and customers about its products and services?
Internet Exercise
Decision-making is a choice made among variables and decision-making is the process of identifying and choosing alternative courses of action. As you make decisions about your future, you have many choices. One of those is to become your own boss as an entrepreneur or to join an entrepreneurial firm such as a new small business or a dot.com.
To assess whether or not you are ready to be an entrepreneur, go to http://www.monster.com and click on FIRST TIMERS. Then click on Career Center, #3. On the far right side, click on Career Changers. Then click on Self Assessment. There are many choices here to choose from, but for now, click on Entrepreneurial Quiz and take the test and enter your score. You may wish to Bookmark this site and come back later and look at the other tests and information.
Here are some questions about your test:
Did you feel comfortable answering the test? Explain.
From the results you received, do you want to explore becoming an entrepreneur? Why or why not?
Do you think the results might change in 5 years? Why or why not?
