End-game Strategies for Declining Industries

Abstract

During the last year or so you watched the demand for one of your business's products decline and noted that the same decline hit your competitors. Searching for a reason, you realize that your product may be becoming technologically obsolete. It looks as if it's just a question of time. Can you be profitable if you stay in and invests. What should your endgame strategy be? Kathryn Harrigan and Michael Porter have studied the strategies of over 95 companies that confronted declining markets. They found that end games can sometimes be very profitable and that companies successful in end games ask themselves some crucial questions about the nature of the industry-what exit barriers face each competitor, how the pattern of decline will affect competition, and whether their relative strengths match the remaining pockets of demand. The authors discuss the factors that determine the profitability of remaining in a declining industry as well as the strategic alternatives, and offer guidelines for choosing an end-game strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]