The document summarizes the BCG matrix, a strategic management tool used to analyze a company's business units. [1] The BCG matrix plots business units based on their market share and growth rate to categorize them as stars, cash cows, question marks, or dogs. [2] Stars are high market share businesses in fast-growing industries, while cash cows have high market share but operate in slow-growing markets. [3] The goal is to use cash from cash cows to invest in stars and potentially turn question marks into stars.
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The document summarizes the BCG matrix, a strategic management tool used to analyze a company's business units. [1] The BCG matrix plots business units based on their market share and growth rate to categorize them as stars, cash cows, question marks, or dogs. [2] Stars are high market share businesses in fast-growing industries, while cash cows have high market share but operate in slow-growing markets. [3] The goal is to use cash from cash cows to invest in stars and potentially turn question marks into stars.
The document summarizes the BCG matrix, a strategic management tool used to analyze a company's business units. [1] The BCG matrix plots business units based on their market share and growth rate to categorize them as stars, cash cows, question marks, or dogs. [2] Stars are high market share businesses in fast-growing industries, while cash cows have high market share but operate in slow-growing markets. [3] The goal is to use cash from cash cows to invest in stars and potentially turn question marks into stars.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
The document summarizes the BCG matrix, a strategic management tool used to analyze a company's business units. [1] The BCG matrix plots business units based on their market share and growth rate to categorize them as stars, cash cows, question marks, or dogs. [2] Stars are high market share businesses in fast-growing industries, while cash cows have high market share but operate in slow-growing markets. [3] The goal is to use cash from cash cows to invest in stars and potentially turn question marks into stars.
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Strategic Management
Growth-share matrix, BCG Matrix
The BCG matrix [ B.C.G. analysis, BCG-matrix, Boston Box, Boston Consulting Group analysis, portfolio diagram] is a chart that had been created by Bruce Henderson for the Boston Consulting Group in 1968 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.
Chart
[BCG Matrix]
To use the chart, analysts plot a scatter graph to rank the business units (or products) on the basis of their relative market shares and growth rates.
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Cash cows are units with high market share in a slow-growing
industry. These units typically generate cash in excess of the amount of cash needed to maintain the business. They are regarded as staid and boring, in a "mature" market, and every corporation would be thrilled to own as many as possible. They are to be "milked" continuously with as little investment as possible, since such investment would be wasted in an industry with low growth.
Dogs, or more charitably called pets, are units with low market share in a mature, slow-growing industry. These units typically "break even", generating barely enough cash to maintain the business's market share. Though owning a break-even unit provides the social benefit of providing jobs and possible synergies that assist other business units, from an accounting point of view such a unit is worthless, not generating cash for the company. They depress a profitable company's return on assets ratio, used by many investors to judge how well a company is being managed. Dogs, it is thought, should be sold off.
Question marks (also known as problem child) are growing rapidly
and thus consume large amounts of cash, but because they have low market shares they do not generate much cash. The result is large net cash consumption. A question mark has the potential to gain market share and become a star, and eventually a cash cow when the market growth slows. If the question mark does not succeed in becoming the market leader, then after perhaps years of cash consumption it will degenerate into a dog when the market growth declines. Question marks must be analyzed carefully in order to determine whether they are worth the investment required to grow market share.
Stars are units with a high market share in a fast-growing industry.
The hope is that stars become the next cash cows. Sustaining the business unit's market leadership may require extra cash, but this is worthwhile if that's what it takes for the unit to remain a leader. When growth slows, stars become cash cows if they have been able to maintain their category leadership, or they move from brief stardom to dogdom.
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As a particular industry matures and its growth slows, all business units become either cash cows or dogs. The natural cycle for most business units is that they start as question marks, and then turn into stars. Eventually the market stops growing thus the business unit becomes a cash cow. At the end of the cycle the cash cow turns into a dog.
The overall goal of this ranking was to help corporate analysts decide which of their business units to fund, and how much; and which units to sell. Managers were supposed to gain perspective from this analysis that allowed them to plan with confidence to use money generated by the cash cows to fund the stars and, possibly, the question marks. As the BCG stated in 1970:
Only a diversified company with a balanced portfolio can use its
strengths to truly capitalize on its growth opportunities. The balanced portfolio has:
stars whose high share and high growth assure the future; cash cows that supply funds for that future growth; and Question marks to be converted into stars with the added funds.
Practical use of the BCG Matrix:
For each product or service, the 'area' of the circle represents the value of its sales. The BCG Matrix thus offers a very useful 'map' of the organization's product (or service) strengths and weaknesses, at least in terms of current profitability, as well as the likely cash flows.
The need which prompted this idea was, indeed, that of managing cash-flow. It was reasoned that one of the main indicators of cash generation was relative market share, and one which pointed to cash usage was that of market growth rate.
Derivatives can also be used to create a 'product portfolio' analysis of services.
So Information System services can be treated accordingly
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GE nine cell planning grid
GE industry attractiveness includes market growth rate, industry profitability, size and pricing practices among other possible opportunities and threats.
Business strength or competitive position includes market share as well as
technological position, profitability and size among other possible strengths and weaknesses
GE Nine-cell Planning Grid:-
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1) Invest/ Expand In this Zone there is opportunity to grow through further Investment & Expansion. This zone is characterized by high business strength & high industry attractiveness which is an Ideal situation for growth. However this situation does not remain for a long time. Example: Initially IT industry most attractive but later on it was facing competition from all sorts of place.
2) Select/Earn: : This zone presents a mix situation in which growth possibility is low. However it presents opportunities for selective earning.
3) Harvest/Dives: In the case of red-cell organization has to stop. In this case Harvesting or Divesting strategies suitable. Harvesting means withdraw from a business but withdrawal is not immediate. Initially focus is on cost-cutting i.e. In R&D and advertising, the objective is to earn short term profit
