Rejuvenating the Mature Business: The Competitive Challenge

In this new analysis of success and decline among mature businesses, Charles Baden-Fuller and John Stopford identify the key elements which allow some firms to soar ahead of the competition while others sink into terminal decline. Within the same industry, some firms show a financial performance that is at best adequate, with managers who feel imprisoned by their corporate environment; while others manage to achieve sustained, above-average financial performance and innovate new products and new processes. What are the key factors that differentiate the two? Drawing on a wide range of international businesses and industries, with examples of Japanese, US and European firms, the authors illustrate what it is that enables some companies to innovate, adapt and secure a competitive advantage while others fail. Company size and industry sector do not appear to affect the issue: the ability to innovate and adapt to market conditions clearly does. Some of the stories and examples presented here are surprising and challenge existing theories. Throughout the authors provide a well-researched, up-to-date, new approach to the whole question of corporate turn-around.