Strategic Planning and Business Policy.
8.1 Given that many mergers and acquisitions fail, why do you think that executives keep making horizontal integration moves?
8.2 Can you identify a struggling company that could benefit from market penetration, market development, or product development? What might you advise this company’s executives to do differently?
8.3 Identify a well-known company that does not use backward or forward vertical integration. Why do you believe that the firm’s executives have avoided these strategies?
8.4 Some universities have used vertical integration by creating their own publishing companies. The Harvard Business Press is perhaps the best-known example. Are there other ways that a university might vertically integrate? If so, what benefits might this create?
8.5 Should Disney consider using retrenchment or restructuring? Why or why not?
8.6 Given how much information is readily available about companies, why do you think investors still struggle to analyze diversified companies?
8.7 Is market share a goo dimension to use when analyzing the prospects of a business? Why or why not?
8.8 What might executives do to keep employees within dog units motivated and focused on their jobs?
8.9 Studies have shown that executives’ pay increases when their firms get larger. What role, if any, do you think executive pay plays in diversification decisions?
8.10 Identify a firm that has recently engaged in diversification. Search the firm’s website to identify executives’ rationale for diversifying. Do you find the reasoning to be convincing? Why or why not?
8.11 This chapter discussed Disney. Imagine that you were hired as a consultant by General Electric, a firm that competes with Disney in the movie, television, and theme park industries. What actions would you recommend that GE take in these three industries to gain advantages over Disney?
