Production Chain and Sector Matrix Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Production Chain and Sector Matrix - Essay guinea pig13) in firms. In reaction to the low profits and high cost of cracking in the 1980s and 1990s, several firms embarked on a wave of financialisation - creating, buying, or expanding financial subsidiaries to acquire financial assets - for the purpose of giving management greater flexibility in managing earnings, creating percentageholder value, and satisfying the capital markets (p. 34).Most publicly listed firms, therefore, were pressured to show considerably results on a regular basis using the basic language familiar to capital markets stock price reflects shareholder value that is a federal agency of operating efficiency, lower expenditures, growth in turnover and earnings, and a steady flow of dividends. The more consistent the numbers, the better, as Froud et al., (2005) pointed out in their study of the American company GE.The main challenge to managements in a financialised universe of firms was to make ambitious strat egic plans and deliver consistently on their promises. Firms became slaves to a ruthless capital market that, with a single recommendation, can punish poor performers by depressing a firms stock price and raising its cost of capital.In a world obsessed with financial performance, managements searched for suitable analysis and planning shafts. The growingion chain and the sector matrix were two of the many that, in this age of globalization and management fads, were developed to abet firms map out value-creation strategies. We explain each briefly, then compare and differentiate them with examples.The MatrixThe matrix is a strategic tool that presents in a grid or table the strategic factors affecting the firm. The coordinates of the grid can vary, as shown in examples of two well-known models. The first is H. Igor Ansoffs product/market expansion grid or matrix (Ansoff, 1957) that recommends four strategies (market penetration, market development, product development, and divers ification) a firm can adopt to grow or increase its turnover depending on the life cycle of the firms new or current products and markets.The other is the Boston Consulting Groups Market Growth-Share matrix (Henderson, 1970, 1976a, 1976b) designed to help the firm target businesses/product types by market share (an indicator of the firms ability to compete) and market growth (indicator of market attractiveness). Firms, in effect, can manage their businesses as a portfolio of investments, much like a bank or an investor would hold, buy, or sell financial instruments. Firms that want to grow should hold or buy stars (high growth and high share businesses) or cows (low growth, high share, cash generating businesses), sell dogs (low growth and share), and think of what to do with question marks (high growth, low share, needs cash injections, but risky).Example of Matrix UseA prime example of how the matrix was used for strategic management is recounted in the study (Froud, et al., 200 5, pp. 8 and 38) of General Electric (GE) that, with the help of consulting firm McKinsey and Co., adapted the BCG matrix and developed its own Nine-Cell Industry Attractiveness-Competitive Strength Matrix (Thompson and Strickland, 2001, 327-330), a three-by-three grid that mapped out alternative business positions and attractiveness of markets, on which are superimposed several scaled circles representing different markets and their sizes and showing the firms market share within each market (See Figure 1). Insert Figure 1 hereGE claimed that the matrix provided at a glance