Using the Stock Market to Assess Strategic Position

Abstract

Corporate business portfolios, once bright with future stars, have darkened appreciably of late. With the economies of both North America and Europe moving from the growth of the 1960s to the stagflation of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the classification of business units into question marks, future stars, cash cows, or hopeless dogs has lost much of its relevance. There are simply not enough future stars to go around. Indeed, the life cycle of the market share—market growth matrix, pioneered by the Boston Consulting Group, has been more like that of an entertainment celebrity than a celestial star; it seems to be falling into disfavor, as a technique in corporate planning, almost as rapidly as it rose to prominence.