Introduction: Ford Motor CompanyThe Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer located in Dearborn, Michigan. The company was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated in 1903. The company sells automobiles and utility vehicles under the Ford brand, as well as most luxury cars under the Lincoln brand. Ford introduced methods of manufacturing cars on a large scale and managing a large-scale industrial workforce using carefully designed manufacturing sequences characterized by moving assembly lines; by 1914 these methods were known worldwide as Fordism. As of 2010, Ford has been the second-largest U.S.-based automaker and fifth-largest in the world in vehicle sales that year. Ford has been successful in the international market and is ranked among the top ten Fortune 500 companies. Ford was the tenth U.S.-based company in the 2013 Fortune 500 list, based on its global revenue in 2012 of $134.3 billion. (CNN, 2014)Ford's International OperationsFord began its international operations as a company early on. In 1925, they opened a manufacturing plant in Japan. This factory was closed in 1940 due to increased political tensions between the United States and Japan due to World War II. Ford has also had a presence in Europe since the 1960s. Ford has international manufacturing operations located in several countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and South Africa. In addition to this, Ford also has a cooperation agreement with Russian car manufacturer GAZ. Ford uses a global organization by geographic division, creating subsidiaries for the different countries/regions in which it operates....... middle of paper ......rica. Political risk will need to be weighed against the potential gains and growth of new emerging markets in the Middle East. Ford has had some failures in the past. They recently had to cut jobs in Russia, due to the decline of the Russian auto industry and tensions caused by the Ukrainian conflict. (Reiter, 2014) The decline of the ruble, the Russian currency, is also a contributing factor to Ford's lack of success in the Russian market. In announcing the move of its main operating plant, which will result in the loss of nearly a thousand jobs, Ford also said that the Russian market had shifted toward SUVs rather than the compact cars that Ford was producing and marketed to the Russians. (Rosevear, 2014) Hopefully this lack of success in Russia will provide Ford with the feedback that will be needed during its operations in the Middle East..