The global financial crisis of 2008 led to a dramatic change in the U.S automobile industry’s profile. This research is based on two retrospective case studies of two big American Automobile manufacturers Ford and General Motors. Furthermore, the crisis affected the sales of both the company. As a result they suffered a huge net loss. GM filed for ‘Chapter 11’ bankruptcy and received a bailout fund from U.S. Federal government and started as “New” GM under the ownership of government whereas, Ford avoided bankruptcy and government ownership.
The paper study how both the company manage change process in the rapidly changing, chaotic and turbulent business environment which has become a ‘new’ normal. Leaders act as a change agent, who plays an important role in initiating, implementing and managing change in times of crisis under severe, uncertain and complex condition. Furthermore, many companies do not understand how to react or deal with VUCA situation. Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity each component pose unique challenges. Therefore, the organization should be able to identify it because each component requires a separate and unique response. Furthermore, this paper will analyze how to deal with each component of VUCA separately.