"Focus" has returned to the boardroom! Folks at large companies such as P&G, GM, Ford, Pfizer, and GE are questioning the benefits of scale and the wisdom of managing multiple/divergent product lines.
Take P&G. Since around the late 90s, CEO AG Lafley was celebrated for building P&G into the world's largest consumer-product company – through acquisitions and product innovations. He retired, but was coaxed back to the corner office in 2013. Now he is dismantling what he built, dropping as many as 100 product lines.
Is this a return to the concept of positioning that Al Ries & Jack Trout gave us in the 80s (I've used positioning to set up and run practice groups at behemoths TCS and Cognizant)? Or are these changes simply the workings of transient strategy that Rita McGrath has written about recently?
Take P&G. Since around the late 90s, CEO AG Lafley was celebrated for building P&G into the world's largest consumer-product company – through acquisitions and product innovations. He retired, but was coaxed back to the corner office in 2013. Now he is dismantling what he built, dropping as many as 100 product lines.
Is this a return to the concept of positioning that Al Ries & Jack Trout gave us in the 80s (I've used positioning to set up and run practice groups at behemoths TCS and Cognizant)? Or are these changes simply the workings of transient strategy that Rita McGrath has written about recently?