Retrenching to a narrower diversification base

CHAPTER 8 Corporate Strategy Diversification and the Multibusiness Company

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This chapter moves up one level in the strategy-making hierarchy, from strategy making in a single-business enterprise to strategy making in a diversified multibusiness enterprise. Because a diversified company is a collection of individual businesses, the strategy-making task is more complicated.

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Learning Objectives

This Chapter Will Help You Understand:

When and how business diversification can enhance shareholder value.

How cross-business strategic fit can contribute to each business’s competitive advantage.

The merits and risks of unrelated diversification strategies.

The analytic tools for evaluating a company’s diversification strategy.

What four main corporate strategy options a diversified company uses to improve company performance.

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In the first portion of this chapter, we describe what crafting a diversification strategy entails, when and why diversification makes good strategic sense, the various approaches to diversifying a company’s business lineup, and the pros and cons of related versus unrelated diversification strategies. The second part of the chapter looks at how to evaluate the attractiveness of a diversified company’s business lineup, how to decide whether it has a good diversification strategy, and the strategic options for improving a diversified company’s future performance.

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What Does Crafting a Diversification Strategy Entail?

STEP DESCRIPTION
Step 1 Picking new industries to enter and deciding on the means of entry
Step 2 Pursuing opportunities to leverage cross-business value chain relationships and strategic fit into competitive advantage
Step 3 Establishing investment priorities and steering corporate resources into the most attractive business units
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The task of crafting a diversified company’s overall corporate strategy falls squarely in the lap of top-level executives and involves three distinct steps.

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Strategic Diversification Options

Sticking closely with the existing business lineup and pursuing opportunities presented by these businesses

Broadening the current scope of diversification by entering additional industries

Retrenching to a narrower scope of diversification by divesting poorly performing businesses

Broadly restructuring the entire firm by divesting some businesses and acquiring others to put a whole new face on the firm’s business lineup

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The demanding and time-consuming nature of these four tasks explains why corporate executives generally refrain from becoming immersed in the details of crafting and executing business-level strategies. Rather, the normal procedure is to delegate lead responsibility for business strategy to the heads of each business, giving them the latitude to develop strategies suited to the particular industry environment in which their business operates, and holding them accountable for producing good financial and strategic results.

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When to Consider Diversifying

A firm should consider diversifying when:

Growth opportunities are limited as its principal markets reach their maturity and buyer demand is either stagnating or set to decline.

Changing industry conditions—new technologies, inroads being made by substitute products, fast-shifting buyer preferences, or intensifying competition—are undermining the firm’s competitive position.

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As long as a company has plentiful opportunities for profitable growth in its present industry, there is no urgency to pursue diversification. But growth opportunities are often limited in mature industries and markets where buyer demand is flat or declining. In addition, changing industry conditions—new technologies, inroads being made by substitute products, fast-shifting buyer preferences, or intensifying competition— can undermine a company’s ability to deliver ongoing gains in revenues and profits.

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How Much Diversification?

Deciding how wide-ranging diversification should be

Diversify into closely related businesses or into totally unrelated businesses?

Diversify present revenue and earnings base to a small or major extent?

Move into one or two large new businesses or a greater number of small ones?

Acquire an existing company?

Start up a new business from scratch?

Form a joint venture with one or more companies to enter new businesses?

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The decision to diversify presents wide-ranging possibilities. A company can diversify into closely related businesses or into totally unrelated businesses. It can diversify its present revenue and earnings base to a small or major extent. It can move into one or two large new businesses or a greater number of small ones. It can achieve diversification by acquiring an existing company, starting up a new business from scratch, or forming a joint venture with one or more companies to enter new businesses. In every case, however, the decision to diversify must start with a strong economic justification for doing so.