Optimization of theproduct portfoliois an issue of particularimportance for diversified manufacturing companies dealing in volatile and competitive economic and technical environments. In trying to ensure optimal allocation of their resources, companies seek to minimize the role of intuition in these complex decision processes by adopting, wherever possible and appropriate, more formalized approaches that enhance the quality of most decision-making. This study attempts at developing a business strategy model for objectively defining the long-term profit maximization of a product/product segment in the jobbing industry.
An attempt was made to study the views of different researchers under certain conditions and to relate those factors to the current research so as to get a holistic feedback. Focus group sessions and personal interviews were also carried out to take feedback from the industry regarding the above issue. Higher the score better is the attractiveness. On comparing two different products, the product which has a higher score, offers better prospects of long-term profitability under a certain set of business conditions, both internal and external to the firm.
This study is specific to jobbing industries in the manufacturing sector. The questionnaire was designed based on feedback from the Indian industry under the current business environment. Thus, the study was limited to the current Indian market. Any drastic change in the market conditions is expected to affect the importance of the success factors, thus requiring revalidation of the identification of the factors and the weightage of each.
This study defines the set of business parameters and their relative importance under a certain set of internal and external conditions. However, the time frame for review of the importance of the critical factors is left to the discretion of the analyst. The research can be extended further to incorporate the framework for analysing and establishing the time period after which the relative importance of the critical success factors need to be reviewed. Alternatively, a model can be drawn up which would consist of the major time-dependent factors, so that by analysing the change in the relative importance of these factors, one can estimate whether the importance of the critical factors need to be reviewed and re-established.
Another possibility is to make an attempt to adopt this model of identification of the market attractiveness factors for implementation in industries other than jobbing type, say process industry, technology-based knowledge sector, or education sector.
