hw 8

write one page.

Q1. How has the firm’s corporate-level strategy evolved over time?

Q2. What’s the current corporate-level strategy and what links, if any, exist between operating units?

Q3. Critique the current corporate-level strategy (e.g., too much diversification, too little, just right, and why).

For Q1&Q2, try to identify the corporate-level strategy in terms of the level of diversification, i.e. single business, dominant business, related-constrained, related-linked, or unrelated. For Q3, try to use the reasons of diversification to support your evaluation, i.e. the optimal level of diversification should create value through economy of scope, market power, and/or financial economies, or other mechanisms.

You can go to Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=IBM+Profile ), IBM company website, and Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM ) to find IBM's company profile, its current operating units, and corporate level strategy overtime. Try to focus on the corporate level strategy AFTER the 1980s, and the link and level of diversification between its major operating units (software, hardware, service, and finance). (Optional) You can refer to the updated info on IBM’s diversification and performance of current business units in the two New York Times articles in the “Supplementary Material”.