Corporate Strategy

Contents ix 9 Diversification 149 9.1 Introduction Although writing this book has been very largely a solo effort, I am nonetheless grateful for this conventional opportunity to acknowledge various debts of gratitude to those who through their writings or otherwise have influenced or assisted me in writing this book. There are many intellectual debts . I have drawn heavily upon the existing textbook, monograph and journal literature in the field of corporate strategy. Where I have taken a point from that literature into this text directly I have made the usual acknowledgement through appropriate reference . I am also grateful at a more general level to these writers for the stimulus with which their work has provided me. On occasion I have reproduced diagrams or tables from journals and books, and I am grateful to the editors of the Journal of Marketing, Long Range Planning and Management Today and to the publishers Harper & Row, McGraw-Hill and John Martin for their permission to reproduce these . I am also particularly grateful to the editor of the Financial Times for permission to reproduce the art icle from that newspaper which appears in Chapter 6. Although time has prevented me from benefiting from the views of others on draft chapters of this text I am indebted to a number of colleagues for their advice and help in directing me to references in the literature and discussing these with me. I am particularly grateful in this context to my Management Faculty colleagues Kishen Srinivasan, Robert Pemble, Tina Walley , Ian Glover and Roy Hutchison . I am also indebted to the xi xii Acknowledgements library staff at Dundee College of Technology for their assistance in obtaining access to a wide range of literature in the corporate strategy field which I have used in my teaching and which has been incorporated into this text. My wife and family have again borne with me in the writing of this book, which was largely carried out during what some other professions would regard as unsocial hours. This domestic support and assistance is much appreciated. Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Strategic Management....Pages 3-15 Business Objectives....Pages 16-28 Assessment of the Business Environment and Resources....Pages 29-52 Strategic Possibilities....Pages 53-65 Strategic Comparisons....Pages 66-84 Strategic Decision-Making and Implementation....Pages 85-113 Front Matter....Pages 115-115 Business Growth....Pages 117-132 Vertical Integration....Pages 133-148 Diversification....Pages 149-169 Acquisitions and Mergers....Pages 170-198 Divestment....Pages 199-212 Business Failure and Turnaround....Pages 213-232 Conclusions....Pages 233-242 Back Matter....Pages 243-245