South Korean automakers grab the opportunity

The automobile crises that occurred during 2008-2010 severely affected the automakers in Europe and Asia and primarily left the American automobile manufacturers devastated with a very little or no demand for their products along with the rising fuel prices.

The US automakers were mostly affected in the recession over other auto manufacturers. As a result, the South Korean automakers who were not performing well prior to recession got an opportunity to overtake US markets when the recessionary pressures were mounting over the US. As a matter of fact, the sales of “Hyundai”, one of the leading car manufacturers of South Korea, drastically went up during the same period.

Thus, Hyundai, paving way for itself, successfully overtook “Honda” in 2008 and climbed up the ladder - from the 8th to 5th largest automobile manufacturer - in less than a decade. It also surpassed “Ford”, the world’s fourth largest automaker, post Honda success. Interestingly, Hyundai Kia (car) in 2008 was leading the car market showcasing a sharp increase in the sales while other automakers witnessed acute decline in their sales. Therefore, the sheer success of South Korean automakers gave a sense of discouragement to Honda, Ford and GM and they filed for bankruptcy as well.

So, the South Korean automakers turned this crisis into an opportunity by providing high quality and well designed vehicles to the customers. Besides, three fuel efficient cars viz, Kia Picanto, Kia Ceed and Hyundai i30 attracted a lot of attention from the customers around the world. Also, on the other hand, the fuel prices were overshooting and the environmental issues too were bothering the entire world.

Therefore, the luxury and SUV manufacturers from the US, Germany and Japan were found to be less in demand. Besides, the South Korean manufacturers also started working on improving their brand awareness followed by the introduction of the luxury vehicles such as Hyundai Genesis which received positive response and accolades.

Advantageously, in 2010, when the condition of the US markets stabilized, the US further grabbed a lead in the world of automobiles which was bound to rise in demand. So, we can say that this article stands as a learning lesson to the management students. They must find the alternate ways to reap the benefits associated with the first mover advantage. These kinds of learning lessons always help the management students who always look out for the opportunities to capitalize upon in order to make merry when the sun shines.