Boston Consulting Group(BCG) Growth-Share Matrix

The BCG matrix (aka B-Box, B.C.G. analysis, BCG-matrix, Boston Box, Boston Matrix, Boston Consulting Group analysis, portfolio diagram) is a chart that had been created by Bruce Henderson for the Boston Consulting Group in 1970 to help corporations with analyzing their business units or product lines. This helps the company allocate resources and is used as an analytical tool in brand marketing, product management, strategic management, and portfolio analysis. Analysis of market performance by firms using its principles has called its usefulness into question, and it has been removed from some major marketing textbooks. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix is a four celled matrix (a 2 * 2 matrix). It is the most renowned corporate portfolio analysis tool. It provides a graphic representation for an organization to examine different businesses in it’s portfolio on the basis of their related market share and industry growth rates. It is a two dimensional Continue reading

Growth Strategies Followed by MNC’s

Growth is a way of life. Almost all organizations plan to expand.  This strategy is followed when an organization aims at higher growth by broadening its one or more of its business in terms of their respective customer groups, customers functions, and alternative technologies singly or jointly — in order to improve its overall performance. There are four types of expansion (Growth) strategies Expansion through concentration Expansion through integration Expansion through diversification Expansion through cooperation 1. Expansion through concentration It involves converging resources in one or more of firms businesses in terms of their respective customer needs, customer functions, or alternative technologies either singly or jointly, in such a manner that it results in expansions. A firm that is familiar with an industry would naturally like to invest more in known business rather than unknown business. Concentration can be done through Market Penetration: It involves selling more products to the Continue reading

Business Level or Generic or Competitive Strategies

Business level strategies are popularly known as generic or competitive strategies. Business level strategies are intended to create differences between the firm’s position relative to those of its rivals. To position itself, the firm must decide whether it intends to perform activities differently or to perform different activities as compared to its rivals. Michael Porter classified these strategies into overall cost leadership, differentiation and focus. The first two strategies are broader in concept as their competitive scope is wide enough whereas the third strategy i.e the focus strategy has a narrower competitive scope. The experience curve: Cost has been correlated with the accumulated experience by the experience curve.  The underlying principle behind the experience curve is that as total quantity of production of a standardized item is increased, its unit manufacturing cost decreases in   a systematic manner. The concept of the experience curve was presented by BCG in 1966 Continue reading

Developing a Global Management Cadre

Global management of business is increasingly important to almost all business firms today as they extent their business operations globally. As the international business of a firm increases, the firms must be managed globally. This confronts managers with many new challenges, including coordinating production, sales, and financial operations on a worldwide basis. As a result, companies today have pressing international HR needs with respect to selecting, training, paying and repatriating global employees. Inter-country differences affect a company’s HR management processes. Cultural factors suggest differences in values, attitudes, and therefore behaviors and reactions of people from country to country also change. Differences in economic and labor cost among countries are also important and will help to determine whether human resources emphasis should be on efficiency, commitment, or some other factors. Industrial relations between the worker, the union, and the employer influence the nature of a company’s specific HR policies from country Continue reading

Case Study: Can DSS Help Master Card Master the Credit Card Business?

Credit (change) cards have been very big business for several decades. In 2001, over $30 trillion in payments for goods and services were charged using credit cards. The cards have made life easier for many people because they do not need to carry large amounts of cash for most purchases. Many people also use the cards as a way to borrow money because they need only pay a small percentage of the amount they owe each month, although they are usually charged very high interest rates for the unpaid balance. The interest goes to the issuing bank, making credit cards a very profitable service for them. However, the credit card industry is intensely competitive, highly fragmented, and growing at a rate of 3 to 4 per year, making those profits difficult to achieve. Visa and MasterCard are associations of banks that issue the credit cards. They market their cards, often Continue reading

Role of Mission Statements in Guiding Marketing Planning

It is vital that a marketing plan has a mission statement that states the purpose of the marketing plan, and explaining why a person is in a business. Both personal and business goals should be included in the mission statement. Although the mission statement is usually a short paragraph, of one to three sentences long, but it is important because it focuses a company’s attention on the company’s most important goal. The mission statement will review company’s business goals and objectives and identify marketing strategies that will achieve them. The managers and employees who do not understand their organizations goals and objectives will face a significant challenge and have a higher likelihood will not achieve it. Without a clear understanding, managers and employees might be making a decisions without the benefit of the guidance that provided by the organizations goals and objectives. Many of them will get lost along the Continue reading