The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (Goodyear) was founded in 1898 by Frank Seiberling, with a $3500 down payment. According to Goodyear’s website, they began production with just 13 employees, starting with a line of carriage tires, horseshoe pads, poker chips and bicycle tires. The first month of sales generated just over $8,000 – and nearly 120 years later, their sales exceed $20 billion. To accomplish this growth and success, Goodyear has continued to evaluate their products and services; continuously focused on driving out inefficiencies; reduced unnecessary overhead expenses; and operated on a core set of values to remain an effective organization.
Goodyear’s Mission is: “Constant improvement in our products and services to exceed the expectations of our customers and people.” Goodyear’s vision is: “Become a market-focused tire company providing superior products and services to end-users and to our channel partners, leading to superior returns for our shareholders.” (The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company website). The Goodyear brand,brand and heritage Wingfoot Symbol is recognized in nearly every corner of earth. The wingfootWingfoot symbol was created by the original founder Frank Seiberling, who drew the idea from a statue in his home of the Greek God, Hermes. Frank felt the god portrayed the characteristics and values that were representative of Goodyear. The symbol also led to one of the biggest initiatives in Goodyear history – the wingfootWingfoot express. This evolution projected Goodyear into the very first sleeper cab in the trucking industry. Today, Goodyear is “the world’s largest operator of commercial truck service and retreading centers with over 2000 facilities for consumers to drive into for various services” (The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company).

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company (Goodyear) has output goals that include their end products, the products consumers demand and the services Goodyear provides. Goodyear’s end product is ultimately a quality tire for every season, off-road, racing and construction equipment. Consumers always have and will continue to demand tires that are environmentally friendly and at a lower price. Because of this demand, Goodyear manufactures its products in 22 countries, operating 53 facilities. Yet Goodyear Furthermore, Goodyear is also “the world’s largest operator of commercial truck service and retreading centers with over 2000 facilities for consumers to drive into for various services” (The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company).
Goodyear (2011) states their “focus is on growing profitability, not growing volume for volume’sfor volume’s sake” (The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company). Daft suggests that “setting prices low to gain volume is often associated with a younger company that needs higher sales to survive” (Daft, 2012). Goodyear has a well-established and successful brand, because of this they have the freedom to pick and choose their markets, demographics and price structure of their products. Daft explains how organizations are “goal directed” and output goals can be assessed to tell how well the organization is doing (Daft 2009). Goodyear’s main output goal is to be profitable and sell tires and their current market position is “number one in America and Latin America and number two in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia” (The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company). Goodyear is not the world leader but they are leading in crucial markets,. moreoverMoreover, Goodyear does have a plan to capitalize in the foreign markets where they are number two. Goodyear demonstrates their road to success in the Asian market with a strategy called “Win in China”. “In 2011 Goodyear watched as their brand grew twice the pace of the industry in China” (The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company). With the erection of a new plant in Pulandian, China Goodyear hopes to take this “Win in China” strategy and capitalize. Bennett states in “June of 2012 Goodyear purchases full share of the Nippon Giant Tire subsidiary in Tatsuno, Japan”, Furthermore, Bennett explains how “tire makers are under increasing pressure to produce more large tires as economic growth has prompted more countries and regions to invest in road construction and mining” (Bennett 2012). With the purchase of this “tire giant” in Japan this will give Goodyear the boost they are looking for to help their goal oriented strategy, “Win in China”. Part of Goodyear’s output goals is the service they provide,. aAside from supplying consumers with tires, Goodyear has over 2000 service centers that are “drive in ready” as well as “retread” centers for the millions of truck drivers on the road (The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company). Goodyear’s service locations can provide consumers with services ranging from general maintenance to engine repair, also Also Goodyear has a website ready retail outlet where consumers can find a store near their location, schedule an appointment, order parts and speak live with a technician right from their fingertips. Moreover, Goodyear has capitalized on the new wave of smart phone technology, they have created by creating an application for a wide range of smartphones where consumers can find all this same information while traveling or on the road. Using the combined approach “lens” to look at Goodyear as a goal oriented company, their initiatives to help consumers make the transition from the street into their service centers is seamlessly easy. However, Goodyear does not stop there with their goal oriented processes; they also have tire “retreading facilities” in the United States, France, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Thailand (The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company). These “retreading facilities help Goodyear capitalize on their “customer” goals by offering the millions of trucking companies and independent contract drivers with “choices”. We all know truck drivers drive tens of thousands miles each year and this can be hard on their wallets and bottom line when it comes to purchasing tires. Goodyear supplies truck stops all over the United States, teaming themselves with some of the largest like Travel Centers of America, Loves and Petro. These business developed relationships helps Goodyear, their vendors and customers. Companies and truck drivers have the ability to purchase a virtually new “retread tire” at half the cost of a new tire. These output goals are what helps Goodyear secure the number one spot in the United States and Latin America.
Goodyear’s output goals of end products, the products consumers demand and the services Goodyear provides coupled with their “Win in China” initiative will help them retain the number one spot in the American and Latin American markets and achieve their output goal of number one worldwide.
Despite facing tough economic times and a 30% increase in raw material costs, Goodyear has been successful in increasing profits. Goodyear has developed several initiatives to help them remain competitive in the marketplace. Goodyear remains extremely customer focused. They take an extremely selective approach to market penetration, and only target profitable areas where they feel they have a competitive advantage. Daft (2012) explains how “Goodyear is a mature company and effectiveness to them is to seek only the customers/sales that will make them a nice profit”. Daft also suggests that if “Goodyear is going to take this approach, their managers have to incorporate this thinking and need to refuse low profit sales” (Daft, 2012)
Goodyear also focuses on the price and product mix to minimize the impact of rising raw material costs. They continue to improve efficiencies in manufacturing and focus on improving cash flow to increase profit sustainability. These efficiencies can be seen in their supply chain, which is heavily focused on optimizing inventories. These carefully planned out initiatives have resulted in cost savings and improved profits. In 2011, they were able to return an additional 17% in revenue per tire, compared to 2010. In 2011, Goodyear was able to save an impressive $281 million in costs. (Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, 2011 Annual Report).

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