Case Study Review of Renault's Strategy in the European Minivan Business

Case Study Review of Renault's Strategy in the European Minivan Business

After reading and discussing about this case, there are some opinion as following. At the beginning, I only think that the first company enters the minivan market and the strategy of lower cost made Renault and Matra successful after reading this article. But after the discussion, I realized that I did not think deeper and consider other perspectives.

For example, being the first mover is not necessary to be an advantage for a company. Even though no competitors come to divide the market share, the first mover cannot be the promised reason for succeeding in the certain market. And, when encountering the large amount of production, the lower fixed cost is not the advantage anymore, even becoming an obstacle. Because the more cars Matra produces, the higher variable costs are and without lower cost, Matra is not different between other companies. And at the end, Renault decided to use the traditional way as competitors to produce cars That is, Matra can be substituted anytime. Above are what I learned from the class discussion.

About the question in this case, when I first time saw the optional question on the survey, I have no idea about where should I start to calculate Renault's return on sale on Espace. And when I read the exhibits in the case, it's difficult for me to combine those information and then interpret into critical conclusion. So, I would like to know if there is any practice I can do by myself to improve my interpretation of reading exhibits.