19e Global Edition

THOMPSON | PETERAF | GAMBLE | STRICKLAND

CHAPTER 8
CORPORATE STRATEGY: DIVERSIFICATION
AND THE MULTIBUSINESS COMPANY

Copyright 2014 by The McGraw-Hill Education All rights reserved.

Learning Objectives
1. Understand when and how business diversification can
enhance shareholder value.
2. Gain an understanding of how related diversification strategies
can produce cross-business strategic fit capable of delivering
competitive advantage.
3. Become aware of the merits and risks of corporate strategies
keyed to unrelated diversification.
4. Gain command of the analytical tools for evaluating a firms
diversification strategy.
5. Understand a diversified firms four main corporate strategy
options for solidifying its diversification strategy and
improving company performance.

82

WHAT DOES CRAFTING A

DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY ENTAIL?
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.

Step 4

Initiating actions to boost the combined performance

of the cooperations collection of businesses.

83

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.

Divesting some businesses and retrenching to a

narrower collection of diversified businesses with better
overall performance prospects.

Restructuring the entire firm by divesting some

businesses and acquiring others to put a whole new
face on the firms business lineup.

84

WHEN BUSINESS DIVERSIFICATION

BECOMES A CONSIDERATION

A firm should consider diversifying when:

1. It can expand into businesses whose technologies
and products complement its present business.
2. Its resources and capabilities can be used as
valuable competitive assets in other businesses.
3. Costs can be reduced by cross-business sharing
or transfer of resources and capabilities.
4. Transferring a strong brand name to the products
of other businesses helps drive up sales and
profits of those businesses.

85

BUILDING SHAREHOLDER VALUE:

THE ULTIMATE JUSTIFICATION
FOR DIVERSIFYING
Testing Whether Diversification
Will Add Long-Term
Value for Shareholders

The industry
attractiveness
test

The cost-of-entry
test

The better-off
test

86

TESTING WHETHER DIVERSIFICATION

ADDS VALUE FOR SHAREHOLDERS

The Attractiveness Test:

The Cost of Entry Test:

Are the industrys profits and return on investment

as good or better than present business(es)?
Is the cost of overcoming entry barriers so great as
to long delay or reduce the potential for profitability?

The Better-Off Test:

How much synergy (stronger overall performance)

will be gained by diversifying into the industry?
87

CORE CONCEPT
Creating added value for shareholders via
diversification requires building a multibusiness
company where the whole is greater than the
sum of its partsan outcome known as synergy.

88

BETTER PERFORMANCE
THROUGH SYNERGY

Evaluating the
Potential for
Synergy
through
Diversification

Firm A purchases Firm B in

another industry. A and Bs
profits are no greater than
what each firm could have
earned on its own.

No
Synergy
(1+1=2)

Firm A purchases Firm C in

another industry. A and Cs
profits are greater than what
each firm could have earned
on its own.

Synergy
(1+1=3)

89

APPROACHES TO DIVERSIFYING
THE BUSINESS LINEUP
Diversifying into
New Businesses

Acquisition of an
existing business

Internal new
venture (start-up)

Joint
venture

810

DIVERSIFICATION BY ACQUISITION
OF AN EXISTING BUSINESS

Advantages:

Quick entry into an industry

Barriers to entry avoided

Access to complementary resources and capabilities

Disadvantages:

Cost of acquisitionwhether to pay a premium for a

successful firm or seek a bargain in struggling firm

Underestimating costs for integrating acquired firm

Overestimating the acquisitions potential to deliver

added shareholder value
811

CORE CONCEPT
An acquisition premium is the amount by
which the price offered exceeds the
preacquisition market value of the target firm.

812

ENTERING A NEW LINE OF BUSINESS

THROUGH INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT

Advantages of New Venture Development:

Avoids pitfalls and uncertain costs of acquisition.

Allows entry into a new or emerging industry where

there are no available acquisition candidates.

Disadvantages of Intrapreneurship:

Must overcome industry entry barriers.

Requires extensive investments in developing

production capacities and competitive capabilities.

May fail due to internal organizational resistance to

change and innovation.
813

CORE CONCEPT
Corporate venturing (or new venture
development) is the process of developing
new businesses as an outgrowth of a firms
established business operations. It is also
referred to as corporate entrepreneurship
or intrapreneurship since it requires
entrepreneurial-like qualities within a larger
enterprise.

814

WHEN TO ENGAGE IN
INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT
Availability of
in-house skills
and resources

Ample time to
develop and
launch business

Cost of acquisition
is higher than
internal entry

Factors Favoring
Internal Development
No head-to-head
competition in
targeted industry

Added capacity
will not affect supply and
demand balance

Low resistance of
incumbent firms
to market entry

815

WHEN TO ENGAGE IN
A JOINT VENTURE
Is the opportunity too complex, uneconomical,
or risky for one firm to pursue alone?

Evaluating
the Potential
for a Joint
Venture

Does the opportunity require a broader range

of competencies and know-how than the firm
now possesses?
Will the opportunity involve operations in a
country that requires foreign firms to have a
local minority or majority ownership partner?

816

DIVERSIFICATION BY
JOINT VENTURE

Joint ventures are advantageous when

diversification opportunities:

Are too large, complex, uneconomical, or risky for

one firm to pursue alone.

Require a broader range of competencies and knowhow than a firm possesses or can develop quickly.

Are located in a foreign country that requires local

partner participation and/or ownership.

817

DIVERSIFICATION BY
JOINT VENTURE (contd)

Joint ventures have the potential for developing

serious drawbacks due to:

Conflicting objectives and expectations of venture

partners.

Disagreements among or between venture partners

over how best to operate the venture.

Cultural clashes among and between the partners.

The venture dissolving when one of the venture

partners decides to go their own way.

818

CHOOSING A MODE OF
MARKET ENTRY
The Question of Critical
Resources and Capabilities

Does the firm have the resources and

capabilities for internal development?

The Question of
Entry Barriers

Are there entry barriers to overcome?

The Question of
Speed

Is speed of the essence in the firms

chances for successful entry?

The Question of
Comparative Cost

Which is the least costly mode of entry,

given the firms objectives?

819

CORE CONCEPT
Transaction costs are the costs of completing
a business agreement or deal of some sort,
over and above the price of the deal. They can
include the costs of searching for an attractive
target, the costs of evaluating its worth,
bargaining costs, and the costs of completing
the transaction.

820

CHOOSING THE DIVERSIFICATION PATH:

RELATED VERSUS UNRELATED
BUSINESSES
Which Diversification
Path to Pursue?

Related
Businesses

Unrelated
Businesses

Both Related
and Unrelated
Businesses

821

CORE CONCEPT
Related businesses possess competitively
valuable cross-business value chain and
resource matchups.
Unrelated businesses have dissimilar value
chains and resource requirements, with no
competitively important cross-business
relationships at the value chain level.

822

CHOOSING THE DIVERSIFICATION PATH:

RELATED VERSUS UNRELATED
BUSINESSES

Related Businesses

Have competitively valuable cross-business

value chain and resource matchups.

Unrelated Businesses

Have dissimilar value chains and resource

requirements, with no competitively important
cross-business relationships at the value chain
level.

823

CORE CONCEPT
Strategic fit exists whenever one or more
activities constituting the value chains of
different businesses are sufficiently similar as
to present opportunities for cross-business
sharing or transferring of the resources and
capabilities that enable these activities.

824

DIVERSIFYING INTO RELATED

BUSINESSES

Strategic Fit Opportunities:

Transferring specialized expertise, technological

know-how, or other resources and capabilities from
one businesss value chain to anothers.

Cost sharing between businesses by combining their

related value chain activities into a single operation.

Exploiting common use of a well-known brand name.

Sharing other resources (besides brands) that

support corresponding value chain activities across
businesses.
825

Pursuing Related Diversification

Related diversification involves sharing or

transferring specialized resources and
capabilities.

Specialized Resources and Capabilities

Have very specific applications and their use

is limited to a restricted range of industry and
business types.

826

CORE CONCEPTS
Specialized Versus Generalized Resources
and Capabilities

Specialized resources and capabilities have very

specific applications and their use is limited to a
restricted range of industry and business types.

Leveraged in related diversification

Generalized resources and capabilities can be

widely applied and can be deployed across a broad
range of industry and business types.

Leveraged in unrelated and

related diversification
827

FIGURE 8.1

Related Businesses Provide Opportunities to

Benefit from Competitively Valuable Strategic Fit

828

IDENTIFYING CROSS-BUSINESS
STRATEGIC FITS ALONG
THE VALUE CHAIN
Supply
Chain
Activities

R&D and
Technology
Activities

ManufacturingRelated
Activities

Potential
Cross-Business Fits
Sales and
Marketing
Activities

DistributionRelated
Activities
Customer
Service
Activities

829

STRATEGIC FIT, ECONOMIES OF SCOPE,

AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Using Economies of Scope to Convert
Strategic Fit into Competitive Advantage

Transferring
specialized and
generalized skills
and\or knowledge

Combining
related value
chain activities
to achieve
lower costs

Leveraging
brand names
and other
differentiation
resources

Using crossbusiness
collaboration
and knowledge
sharing

830

CORE CONCEPTS
Economies of scope are cost reductions
that flow from operating in multiple
businesses (a larger scope of operation).
Economies of scale accrue from a largersize operation.

831

ECONOMIES OF SCOPE DIFFER

FROM ECONOMIES OF SCALE

Economies of Scope

Are cost reductions that flow from cross-business

resource sharing in the activities of the multiple
businesses of a firm.

Economies of Scale

Accrue when unit costs are reduced due to the

increased output of larger-size operations of a firm.

832

FROM STRATEGIC FIT TO

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE,
ADDED PROFITABILITY AND
GAINS IN SHAREHOLDER VALUE
Capturing the Cross-Business Benefits
of Related Diversification

Builds more
shareholder value
than owning a
stock portfolio

Is only possible
via a strategy
of related
diversification

Yields value in
the application
of specialized
resources and
capabilities

Requires that
management
take internal
actions to
realize them

833

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLE

Diversifying into related businesses where
competitively valuable strategic-fit benefits can
be captured puts a companys businesses in
position to perform better financially as part of
the company than they could have performed
as independent enterprises, thus providing a
clear avenue for boosting shareholder value
and satisfying the better-off test.

834

DIVERSIFICATION INTO
UNRELATED BUSINESSES
Can it meet corporate targets
for profitability and return on
investment?
Evaluating the
acquisition of a
new business or
the divestiture of
an existing
business

Is it is in an industry with
attractive profit and growth
potentials?
Is it is big enough to contribute
significantly to the parent firms
bottom line?

835

BUILDING SHAREHOLDER VALUE

VIA UNRELATED DIVERSIFICATION
Using an Unrelated Diversification
Strategy to Pursue Value

Astute Corporate
Parenting by
Management

Cross-Business
Allocation of
Financial
Resources

Acquiring and
Restructuring
Undervalued
Companies

836

BUILDING SHAREHOLDER VALUE

VIA UNRELATED DIVERSIFICATION
Astute Corporate
Parenting by
Management
Cross-Business
Allocation of
Financial
Resources
Acquiring and
Restructuring
Undervalued
Companies

Provide leadership, oversight, expertise, and guidance.

Provide generalized or parenting resources that lower
operating costs and increase SBU efficiencies.

Serve as an internal capital market.

Allocate surplus cash flows from businesses to fund
the capital requirements of other businesses.

Acquire weakly performing firms at bargain prices.

Use turnaround capabilities to restructure them to
increase their performance and profitability.

837

CORE CONCEPT
Corporate parenting refers to the role that a
diversified corporation plays in nurturing its
component businesses through the provision of
top management expertise, disciplined control,
financial resources, and other types of
generalized resources and capabilities such as
long-term planning systems, business
development skills, management development
processes, and incentive systems.

838

CORE CONCEPT
A diversified firm has a parenting advantage
when it is more able than other firms to boost
the combined performance of its individual
businesses through high-level guidance,
general oversight, and other corporate-level
contributions.

839

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLE

An umbrella brand is a corporate brand name
that can be applied to a wide assortment of
business types. As such, it is a generalized
resource that can be leveraged in unrelated
diversification.

840

CORE CONCEPT
Restructuring refers to overhauling and
streamlining the activities of a business
combining plants with excess capacity, selling
off underutilized assets, reducing unnecessary
expenses, and otherwise improving the
productivity and profitability of the firm.

841

THE PATH TO GREATER SHAREHOLDER

VALUE THROUGH UNRELATED
DIVERSIFICATION
The attractiveness test

Actions taken by upper

management to create
value and gain a
parenting advantage

Diversify into businesses that can

produce consistently good earnings
and returns on investment

The cost-of-entry test

The better-off test

Negotiate favorable
acquisition prices

Provide managerial oversight and

resource sharing, financial resource
allocation and portfolio management,
and restructure underperforming
businesses
842

THE DUAL DRAWBACKS OF

UNRELATED DIVERSIFICATION
Demanding
Managerial
Requirements

Monitoring and
maintaining
the parenting
advantage

Pursuing an
Unrelated
Diversification
Strategy

Limited
Competitive
Advantage
Potential

Potential lack of
cross-business
strategic-fit
benefits

843

MISGUIDED REASONS FOR

PURSUING UNRELATED
DIVERSIFICATION
Poor Rationales for
Unrelated Diversification

Seeking a
reduction of
business
investment risk

Pursuing rapid
or continuous
growth for its
own sake

Seeking
stabilization to
avoid cyclical
swings in
businesses

Pursuing
personal
managerial
motives

844

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLE

Only profitable growththe kind that comes
from creating added value for shareholders
can justify a strategy of unrelated
diversification.

845

COMBINATIONS OF RELATEDUNRELATED DIVERSIFICATION

STRATEGIES
Related-Unrelated Business
Portfolio Combinations

DominantBusiness
Enterprises

Narrowly
Diversified
Firms

Broadly
Diversified
Firms

Multibusiness
Enterprises

846

STRUCTURES OF COMBINATION RELATEDUNRELATED DIVERSIFIED FIRMS

Dominant-Business Enterprises

Narrowly Diversified Firms

Are comprised of a few related or unrelated businesses.

Broadly Diversified Firms

Have a major core firm that accounts for 50 to 80% of total

revenues and a collection of small related or unrelated firms
that accounts for the remainder.

Have a wide-ranging collection of related businesses,

unrelated businesses, or a mixture of both.

Multibusiness Enterprises

Have a business portfolio consisting of several unrelated

groups of related businesses.
847

EVALUATING THE STRATEGY

OF A DIVERSIFIED COMPANY
Attractiveness
of industries

Strength of
Business Units

Cross-business
strategic fit

Diversified
Strategy

Fit of firms
resources

Allocation of
resources

New Strategic
Moves

848

EVALUATING THE STRATEGY

OF A DIVERSIFIED FIRM
1.

Assessing the attractiveness of the industries the firm has

diversified into, both individually and as a group.

2.

Assessing the competitive strength of the firms business units

within their respective industries.

3.

Evaluating the extent of cross-business strategic fit along the

value chains of the firms various business units.

4.

Checking whether the firms resources fit the requirements of its

present business lineup.

5.

Ranking the performance prospects of the businesses from best

to worst and determining a priority for allocating resources.

6.

Crafting strategic moves to improve corporate performance.

849

FIGURE 8.2
Three Strategy Alternatives
for Pursuing Diversification

850

STEP 1: EVALUATING INDUSTRY

ATTRACTIVENESS
How attractive are the
industries in which the firm
has business operations?
Does each industry represent a good
market for the firm to be in?
Which industries are most attractive,
and which are least attractive?
How appealing is the whole group of
industries?
851

KEY INDICATORS OF INDUSTRY

ATTRACTIVENESS

Social, political, regulatory, environmental factors

Seasonal and cyclical factors

Industry uncertainty and business risk

Market size and projected growth rate

Industry profitability

The intensity of competition among market rivals

Emerging opportunities and threats

852

CALCULATING INDUSTRY
ATTRACTIVENESS FROM THE
MULTIBUSINESS PERSPECTIVE
The Question of CrossIndustry Strategic Fit

How well do the industrys value chain and

resource requirements match up with the value
chain activities of other industries in which the
firm has operations?

The Question of
Resource Requirements

Do the resource requirements for an industry

match those of the parent firm or are they
otherwise within the companys reach?

853

CALCULATING INDUSTRY
ATTRACTIVENESS SCORES
Deciding on appropriate weights for
the industry attractiveness measures.
Evaluating
Industry
Attractiveness

Gaining sufficient knowledge of the

industry to assign accurate and
objective ratings.
Whether to use different weights for
different business units whenever the
importance of strength measures differs
significantly from business to business.

854

TABLE 8.1
Calculating
Weighted
Industry
Attractiveness
Scores
Remember:
The more
intensely
competitive
an industry is,
the lower the
attractiveness
rating for that
industry!

[Rating scale: 1 = very unattractive to the firm; 10 = very attractive to the firm.]
855

STEP 2: EVALUATING BUSINESS-UNIT

COMPETITIVE STRENGTH

Relative market share

Costs relative to competitors costs

Ability to match or beat rivals on key product attributes

Brand image and reputation

Other competitively valuable resources and capabilities

and partnerships and alliances with other firms

Benefit from strategic fit with firms other businesses

Bargaining leverage with key suppliers or customers

Profitability relative to competitors

856

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLE

Using relative market share to measure
competitive strength is analytically superior to
using straight-percentage market share.
Relative market share is the ratio of a business
units market share to the market share of its
largest industry rival as measured in unit
volumes, not dollars.

857

TABLE 8.2
Calculating
Weighted
Competitive
Strength
Scores for a
Diversified
Companys
Business
Units

[Rating scale: 1 = very weak; 10 = very strong.]

858

FIGURE 8.3
A Nine-Cell Industry
Attractiveness
Competitive
Strength Matrix

Star

Cash
cow

Note: Circle sizes are scaled to

reflect the percentage of
companywide revenues
generated by the business unit.

859

STEP 3: DETERMINING THE

COMPETITIVE VALUE OF STRATEGIC
FIT IN DIVERSIFIED COMPANIES

Assessing the degree of strategic fit across its

businesses is central to evaluating a companys
related diversification strategy.

The real test of a diversification strategy is what

degree of competitive value can be generated
from strategic fit.

860

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLE

The greater the value of cross-business
strategic fit in enhancing a firms performance
in the marketplace or on the bottom line, the
more competitively powerful is its strategy of
related diversification.

861

FIGURE 8.4 Identifying the Competitive Advantage

Potential of Cross-Business Strategic Fit

862

CORE CONCEPT
A diversified firm exhibits resource fit when its
businesses add to a firms overall resource
strengths and have matching resource
requirements and/or when the parent firm has
adequate corporate resources to support its
businesses needs and add value.

863

STEP 4: CHECKING FOR RESOURCE FIT

Financial Resource Fit

State of the internal capital market

Using the portfolio approach:

Cash hogs need cash to develop.

Cash cows generate excess cash.

Star businesses are self-supporting.

Success sequence:

Cash hog Star Cash cow

864

CORE CONCEPT
A cash cow business generates cash flows
over and above its internal requirements, thus
providing a corporate parent with funds for
investing in cash hog businesses, financing
new acquisitions, or paying dividends.

865

CORE CONCEPT
A cash hog business generates cash flows
that are too small to fully fund its operations
and growth and requires cash infusions to
provide additional working capital and finance
new capital investment.

866

CORE CONCEPT
A strong internal capital market allows a
diversified firm to add value by shifting capital
from business units generating free cash flow
to those needing additional capital to expand
and realize their growth potential.

867

STEP 4: CHECKING FOR RESOURCE FIT

Nonfinancial Resource Fit

Does the firm have (or can it develop)

the specific resources and capabilities
needed to be successful in each of its
businesses?

Are the firms resources being stretched

too thinly by the resource requirements
of one or more of its businesses?

868

CORE CONCEPT
A portfolio approach to ensuring financial fit
among a firms businesses is based on the fact
that different businesses have different cash
flow and investment characteristics.

869

STEP 5: RANKING BUSINESS UNITS

AND ASSIGNING A PRIORITY FOR
RESOURCE ALLOCATION

Ranking Factors:

Sales growth

Profit growth

Contribution to company earnings

Return on capital invested in the business

Cash flow

Steer resources to business units with the

brightest profit and growth prospects and
solid strategic and resource fit.
870

FIGURE 8.5

The Chief Strategic and Financial Options for Allocating

a Diversified Companys Financial Resources

871

STEP 6: CRAFTING NEW STRATEGIC

MOVES TO IMPROVE OVERALL
CORPORATE PERFORMANCE
Strategy Options for a Firm
That Is Already Diversified

Stick with
the Existing
Business
Lineup

Broaden the
Diversification
Base with New
Acquisitions

Divest and
Retrench to
a Narrower
Diversification
Base

Restructure
through
Divestitures
and
Acquisitions

872

FIGURE 8.6

A Firms Four Main

Strategic Alternatives
After It Diversifies

873

BROADENING A DIVERSIFIED
FIRMS BUSINESS BASE

Factors Motivating the Adding of Businesses:

The transfer of resources and capabilities

to related or complementary businesses.

Rapidly changing technology, legislation,

or new product innovations in core businesses.

Shoring up the market position and competitive

capabilities of the firms present businesses.

Extension of the scope of the firms operations

into additional country markets.

874

DIVESTING BUSINESSES AND

RETRENCHING TO A NARROWER
DIVERSIFICATION BASE

Factors Motivating Business Divestitures:

Improvement of long-term performance by

concentrating on stronger positions in fewer
core businesses and industries.

Business is now in a once-attractive industry where

market conditions have badly deteriorated.

Business has either failed to perform as expected

and\or is lacking in cultural, strategic or resource fit.

Business has become more valuable if sold to

another firm or as an independent spin-off firm.
875

CORE CONCEPT
A spinoff is an independent company created
when a corporate parent divests a business by
distributing to its stockholders new shares in
this business.

876

ILLUSTRATION CAPSULE 8.1

Poscos Strategic Moves to Resolve Challenges
from Aggressive Mergers and Acquisitions

What do the problems which developed from

the M&A strategy reveal?
To what extent is centralization of core
processes required?
What other measures could Posco undertake
to capitalize on its past M&A strategy?

877

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLE

Diversified companies need to divest lowperforming businesses or businesses that do
not fit in order to concentrate on expanding
existing businesses and entering new ones
where opportunities are more promising.

878

RESTRUCTURING A DIVERSIFIED
COMPANYS BUSINESS LINEUP

Factors Leading to Corporate Restructuring:

A serious mismatch between the firms resources and

capabilities and the type of diversification that it has pursued.

Too many businesses in slow-growth, declining, low-margin,

or otherwise unattractive industries.

Too many competitively weak businesses.

Ongoing declines in the market shares of major business

units that are falling prey to more market-savvy competitors.

An excessive debt burden with interest costs that eat deeply

into profitability.

Ill-chosen acquisitions that havent lived up to expectations.

879

CORE CONCEPT
Companywide restructuring (corporate
restructuring) involves making major changes
in a diversified company by divesting some
businesses and/or acquiring others, so as to
put a whole new face on the companys
business lineup.

880

ILLUSTRATION CAPSULE 8.2

Growth through Restructuring at Kraft
Foods

Is Kraft Foods corporate restructuring strategy

narrowing or broadening its diversification base?
How will restructuring help ensure that Kraft
Foods will be better prepared to adapt to
changing market conditions than its competitors?
What actions did Kraft Foods take after making
acquisitions to ensure the success of those
acquisitions?

881