Rethinking the Product/Business Portfolio
In a Perspective titled "Strategy in the 1980s," Richard Lochridge introduces the Advantage Matrix, a framework that categorizes competitive business environments in four distinct categories or quadrants. It correlates the size of the competitive advantage each offers with the number of possible approaches to achieve that advantage available in that quadrant. The resulting matrix helps companies recognize when their strategies are or are not appropriate for their competitive environments.
BCG Insights & Highlights
- BCG initiates a series of R&D projects that will lay the groundwork for what will ultimately become the firm's industry and functional practice areas. Topics include banking, retailing, and manufacturing
- Consultants = 299
World News
- Iran releases 52 American hostages
- Francois Mitterand is elected president of France
- Japan initiates self-imposed quotas on auto exports to United States
- Scientists identify the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)
- Susan Hurley becomes the first woman in 542 years to be elected a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
- The first European rocket, Ariane, is successfully launched into space
- The MS-DOS operating system is invented
- IBM launches its first "home" or "personal" computer (PC)
- Sandra Day O'Connor becomes the United States' first female Supreme Court Justice
