American Motors Corporation — A Case Study in Product Policy

Abstract

At the Harvard Business School one of the more famous cases in the compulsory second-year Business Policy course is American Motors Corporation¹ — a case which describes the fortunes of the smallest of the four national automobile manufacturers in the United States during the period between 1954 and the end of 1962. Although its inclusion at the beginning of the Business Policy course is predicated on the grounds that it offers an early opportunity for students to gain familiarity with the concept of corporate strategy, its inclusion in this book is justified on the grounds that it provides an excellent insight into the relationship between product policy and the firm’s overall strategy. It also illustrates the practical application of a number of the principlies discussed in the earlier chapters in a more abstract fashion.