Week 7. Chapter 7. Corporate-Level Strategy and Long-Run Profitability.
The principal concern of corporate-level strategy is to identify the industry or industries a company should participate in to
maximize its long-run profitability.
A company has several options when choosing which industries to compete in. First, a company can concentrate on only
one industry and focus its activities on developing business-level strategies to improve its competitive position in that
industry [see Chapter 5]. Second, a company may decide to enter new industries in adjacent stages of the industry value
chain by pursuing a strategy of vertical integration, which means it either begins to make its own inputs and/or sell its own
products. Third, a company can choose to enter new industries that may or may not be connected to its existing industry by
pursuing a strategy of diversification. Finally, a company may choose to exit businesses and industries to increase its long-
run profitability and to shrink the boundaries of the organization by restructuring and downsizing its activities.
If corporate-level strategy is to increase long-run profitability, it must enable a company, or its different business units, to
perform one or more value creation functions at a lower cost and/or in a way that leads to increased differentiation [and thus
a premium price]. Thus, successful corporate-level strategy works to build a company’s distinctive competencies and
increase its competitive advantage over industry rivals. There is, therefore, a very important link between corporate-level
strategy and creating competitive advantage at the business level.
№1 CONCENTRATION ON A SINGLE INDUSTRY
Concentration on a Single Industry - the strategy a company adopts when it focuses its resources and capabilities
on competing successfully within a particular product market.
A major advantage of concentrating on a single industry is that doing so enables a company to focus all its managerial,
financial, technological, and functional re- sources and capabilities on developing strategies to strengthen its competitive
position in just one business.
This strategy is important in fast-growing industries that make strong demands on a company’s resources and capabilities
but also offer the prospect of substantial long-term profits if a company can sustain its competitive advantage. For example,
there is no sense for Starbucks to enter new industries such as supermarket, when coffee shop industry is still in a period of
rapid growth and when finding new ways to compete successfully would impose significant demands on Starbucks’
managerial, marketing, and financial resources and capabilities.
Many mature companies that expand over time into too many different businesses and markets find out later that they have
stretched their resources too far and that their performance declines as a result. For example, when Coca Cola acquired
Columbia Pictures to expand into movies business, it soon found that it lacked the competencies to compete successfully in
that industry with eg Fox etc. Coca-Cola concluded that entry into these new industries had reduced rather than created
value and lowered its pro tability; it divested or sold off these new businesses at a significant loss.
Concentrating on a single business allows a company to “stick to the knitting”— that is, to focus on doing what it knows
best and avoid entering new businesses it knows little about and where it can create little value.
On the other hand, concentrating on just one market or industry can result in dis- advantages emerging over time. As we
discuss later in the chapter, a certain amount of vertical integration may be necessary to strengthen a company’s competitive
advantage within its core industry.
1]Horizontal Integration
Horizontal Integration - Acquiring or merging with industry competitors to achieve the competitive advantages
that come with large size.
Acquisition- A company’s use of capital such as stock, debt, or cash to purchase another company.
Merger- An agreement between two companies to pool their operations and create a new business entity.