4/04/2017 1 Business portfolios Week 7 Workshop MBA501 Dynamic Strategy and Disruptive Innovation • Do you agree with American businessman Harold Geneen when he says: Small Group Discussion It is much more difficult to measure nonperformance than performance. Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non-performance can almost always be explained away. Small Group Challenge Armonk, US 2004 In groups, suggest a strategy Sam could implement to address the losses stemming from the personal computer business. Sam Palmisano, President and CEO of multinational tech company IBM, has a problem. Although the company helped make personal computers a global phenomenon, its personal computer business has lost nearly $1 billion over the last 4 years. Despite this the company is still on track to achieve an annual profit close to $7.7 billion thanks largely to other parts of the organisation that are performing strongly such as the recently acquired consultancy business, PwC Consultancy. The acquisition was absorbed into IBM Global Business Services, increasing the size and capabilities of the company’s growing consulting practice. Sam is happy with the performance of the company’s consulting business but not the company’s personal computer business. 4/04/2017 2 Business portfolios • Organisations are typically involved in more than just one kind of business • General Electric (GE) has 49 separately managed businesses all responsible to its parent company • This is GE’s business portfolio of strategic business units; profit centres that each focus on their own product range and market segment Product portfolios • Each strategic business unit is made up of a portfolio of products and services • GE Money is a consumer finance business that offers personal loans, car loans, credit cards, personal insurance and retail finance • This range of products is GE Money’s product portfolio Portfolio analysis • Not all of the businesses in GE’s business portfolio or even all of the products within each business will perform well • Portfolio analysis helps organisations identify those businesses and products that should be maintained and developed further and those that should be sold off or phased out 4/04/2017 3 IBM • By 2004 IBM's business had changed, and it was interested in getting out of the personal computer hardware business • So it sold its PC business to Chinese competitor Lenovo Objectives and resources • Business portfolio analysis encourages organisations to evaluate each of their businesses individually and to set objectives and allocate resources for each • What does German physicist Albert Einstein mean when he says: Small Group Discussion We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. 4/04/2017 4 Small Group Challenge Boston, US 1963 In groups, discuss some of the factors that Bruce should take into account when developing his strategic tool. Bruce D. Henderson, founder of the one-man, one-telephone business consultancy Boston Consultancy Group, has a problem. Billings for his fledgling firm’s first month are only $500. If the business is going to survive he will need to offer his clients a new business strategy tool to help guide their strategic planning. Unable to sleep one night, Bruce decides to take his dogs out for a walk around the neighbouring dairy farms. Beneath the bright stars, he walks his dogs by pastures of sleeping cows and asks himself this question: what new tool can I create to help organisations rank their business units and product lines based on relative performance and potential for future performance? BCG matrix • The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) matrix is a strategic management tool created by Bruce D. Henderson to help organisations analyse their business units and product lines • Business units or products are ranked on a scatter graph on the basis of their relative market shares and growth rates Cash cows • Cash cows are business units that have high market share in slow growth industries • They generate cash and are to be “milked” with as little further investment as possible since such investment would be wasted in an industry with low growth 4/04/2017 5 Dogs • Dogs are business units that have low market share in slow growth industries • They generate little or no cash and should be sold off as they depress an organisation’s return on assets ratio, used by many investors to judge how well an organisation is being managed Question marks • Question marks are business units that have low market share in high growth industries • Question marks have the potential to gain market share and become stars and eventually cash cows when market growth slows; or if they fail to gain market share they will become dogs when market growth slows Stars • Stars are business units that have high market share in high growth industries • Stars require high funding to fight competitors and maintain their growth rates • If they are market leaders when market growth slows, they become cash cows, otherwise they become dogs due to their low relative market share 4/04/2017 6 BCG matrix ? Relative Market Share Market Growth Rate Group One In your group, prepare a BCG matrix plotting the subsidiaries of The Coca Cola Company Group Two In your group, prepare a BCG matrix plotting the subsidiaries of the Colgate Palmolive Company Group Three In your group, prepare a BCG matrix plotting the subsidiaries of Mondelez International Group Four In your group, prepare a BCG matrix plotting the subsidiaries of General Electric Group One Group Two Group Three Group Four • Do you agree with American businessman Jack Welch when he says: Small Group Discussion If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete. 4/04/2017 7 Small Group Challenge Boston, US 1973 Jack Welch, Head of Strategic Planning for General Electric, has a problem. He has performed an analysis of General Electric’s business portfolio using the BCG matrix but is unsatisfied with his findings. In groups, discuss whether you agree with Jack that the BCG matrix is unsatisfactory. What are some of its shortcomings? Competitive advantage • Competitive advantage is a condition or circumstance that places an organisation in a favourable or superior position relative to its competitors • It may come by providing the same products and services at a lower price or by providing better products and services than the competitors • Jack Welch also said: Learning and acting The only sustainable competitive advantage is to learn faster than your competition and to be able to act on what you have learned. 4/04/2017 8 The GE-McKinsey matrix • The GE-McKinsey matrix provides a more detailed analysis of where organisations should invest their cash • It is a nine box matrix that enables an organisation with diversified business portfolios to examine a business unit’s projection of its future prospects in an industry Growth businesses • Businesses with medium to high competitive strength in moderately to highly attractive industries are identified as growth businesses • Growth businesses are recognised for increased investment and growth potential Selective businesses • Businesses with medium competitive strength in moderately attractive industries are identified as selective businesses • Selective businesses may be worthy of investment but they are second in priority to growth businesses 4/04/2017 9 Harvest businesses • Businesses with medium to low competitive strength in moderately attractive and unattractive industries are identified as harvest businesses • Harvest businesses are recognised for decreased investment; to be sold or liquidated Market size and market share • Each business is represented on the matrix by a pie chart • The size of the pie represents the size of the market • The size of the shaded area of the pie represents the size of the business’ market share Competitive strength of business unit High Med Low Industry attractiveness High Med Low Growth Harvest Selective Harvest HarvestSelective SelectiveGrowth Growth 4/04/2017 10 • What does Filipino businessman Henry Sy mean when he says: Small Group Discussion My basic strategy is to stick to my core business, and to my area of expertise. My businesses are all related – retail, shopping centres, banking, real estate and tourism development. Together they create synergy. Small Group Challenge Amsterdam, Holland 1789 Johan Rudolph Deiman, chemist and personal physician to King Louis Napoleon of Holland, has a problem. Together with fellow chemist Paets van Troostwyck, Johan has figured out how to decompose water by means of friction electrics. The pair of chemists have invented an electrostatic machine that passes an electric current through water successfully separating the chemical compound into its basic elements, oxygen and hydrogen gas. But when Johan studies the behaviour of these separate elements he finds nothing that would help explain the behaviour of water, the complex compound they were derived from. In groups, suggest a possible concept to Johan that would help him explain this strange phenomenon. • American systems theorist and inventor Buckminster Fuller said: Synergy The word synergy comes from the Greek sinergo, meaning, to work together. It describes a mutually supportive atmosphere of trust, where each individual element works towards its own goals, and where the goals may be quite varied; nevertheless because all the elements of a synergetic system support one another, they also support the whole. 4/04/2017 11 Business portfolio synergy • One issue with these matrices is that by focusing on the most profitable businesses, organisations drive out synergies for sharing resources • What happens for instance if a dog and a cash cow share key productive resources or technologies? • Killing the dog can butcher the economies of the cash cow Synergistic portfolio analysis • A synergistic portfolio analysis charts the benefits businesses receive by virtue of being in a portfolio versus out of it (“incoming benefit”) • It also examines the net impact businesses have on the rest of the portfolio (“outgoing benefit”) Fits and misfits • Businesses that have high incoming and high outgoing benefit are two sided synergistic and “fit” well in the portfolio • Businesses that have low incoming and low outgoing benefit are not synergistic and are “misfits”: they do not fit well in the portfolio 4/04/2017 12 + Outgoing: Benefit to portfolio Incoming: Benefits from belonging to portfolio + Fits Misfits Givers and takers • Some businesses that have low incoming but high outgoing benefit are “givers” • Some businesses that have high incoming but low outgoing benefit are “takers” • Givers and takers sit above the “threshold of acceptance” and are worth continued investment + Outgoing: Benefit to portfolio Incoming: Benefits from belonging to portfolio + Fits Misfits Takers Givers 4/04/2017 13 Altruists and parasites • Other businesses that have low incoming but high outgoing benefit are “altruists” • Other businesses that have high incoming but low outgoing benefit are “parasites” • Altruists and parasites sit below the “threshold of acceptance” and should be slated for minimal investment or sold + Outgoing: Benefit to portfolio Incoming: Benefits from belonging to portfolio + Fits Misfits Parasites Takers Altruists Givers