Beyond The Core – Chris Zook

When it oc- curs, the reason is usually a dramatic new way to lower costs, thereby producing profits where none previously existed. British Aerospace Versus Marconi Marconi and British Aerospace (BAE) are two British compa- nies with similarly long and storied histories, but extremely differ- ent fates because of their adjacency moves. In contrast to BAE, Marconi made a dramatic bet on an industry whose profit pool was about to collapse. In 1990, BAE was nearly twice as large as Marconi (then called GEC) but only half as profitable.

But how fast this situation changed! One decade later, Marconi had embarked on a failed adja- cency strategy, pursuing a profit pool in telecommunications that proved to be a mirage. BAE had purchased the original core of Mar- coni in its own adjacency expansion in the defense business, nearly tripling its stock price in five years—from $131 to $334 per share as Marconi collapsed in value by more than 95 percent.

Few adja- cency stories have this drama, and few are as closely linked to alter- native points of view on future profit pools. How could this have happened? Marconi grew from a dual line- age—one stemming back to the 1886 start-up of the General Elec- tric Apparatus Company, a distributor of electrical components, and the other emerging from the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company, which formed in 1897 around the Nobel Prize-winning wireless radio inventions of Guglielmo Marconi.

The modern era of Marconi was triggered in 1963, when Lord Arnold Weinstock began his thirty-three-year reign over the combined company, GEC. By the end of his tenure, GEC was a diffuse conglomerate in products ranging across lifts, wire, cables, semiconductors, defense electron- ics, and many other sectors. The company was underperforming its peers and desperately needed focus, cost reduction, restructuring, and a face-lift.

The new management team, led by Lord George Simpson, took its charter seriously, completing twenty-two divesti- Evaluating Adjacency Moves • tures and twenty-one acquisitions in three years, starting in 1998. The divestitures even included the core Marconi defense electronic business to BAE for $10.7 billion, providing fuel for the acquisi- tions in telecommunications equipment—a new business area for Marconi. The Financial Times wrote: “Criticisms that the new team wantonly interfered with a successful formula are misplaced. Ac- tion was required, and it would undoubtedly entail risks.

Moving out of moribund or unfashionable sectors into ones that carry the promise of faster growth is a tricky business. The trick is to get a good price for the company’s past, while avoiding overpaying for its future. Lord Simpson and Mr. Mayo did a good job on the first part.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a re- trieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the pub- Usher. Requests for permission should be directed to [email protected], or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publicat ion Data Zook, Chris, 1951- Beyond the core : expand your market without abandoning your roots / Chris Zook.

p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-57851-951-9 (alk. paper) 1. Corporations—Growth. 2. Strategic planning. 3. Corporate profits. 4. Industrial management. I. Title. HD2746.Z657 2004 658.4’06—dc21 2003013374 The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives Z39.48-1992. Contents Preface vii Acknowledgments xiii 1 The Growth Crisis 1 Dangerous Moves Beyond the Core 2 Visualizing the Ideal 35 The First Principle of Adjacency Growth 3 Evaluating Adjacency Moves 73 Balancing Desire with Data 4 Orchestrating Adjacency Moves 109 Strengthening the Core Versus Investing in Adjacencies 5 Executing Adjacency Moves 141 Managing the Key Organizational Issues That Most Influence Success or Failure 6 Transforming Through Adjacency Moves 175 Redefining the Core Through Adjacencies Afterword 189 Appendix 193 Notes 197 Bibliography 201 Index 207 About the Author 215 Preface The drive for growth has been fundamental to businesses for cen- turies.

If businesses have a primal urge, it is the need for profitable growth. That growth is the source of value creation to shareholders. It is the gravitational pull that attracts and retains the best people. It is the life force of the organization. And it is the fuel to outpace competitors. No business that has failed to grow has ever been able to maintain excellence over time; this has always been true and probably always will be.

Yet, something has changed the game fundamentally, increasing the pressures to find growth more than ever before, raising to new levels the penalties for failure, and moving the goalposts of growth farther down the field. No other period in the history of business has seen as many economic disasters driven, in part, by the reckless pursuit of lofty growth objectives.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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