| Stars | Cash Cows | Question Marks | Dogs | High growth
High share | Low growth
High share | High growth
Low share | Low growth
Low share | Business is likely to generate enough cash to be self sustaining. Recommended tactics: * promote aggressively * expand your product or service * invest in R & D | Business can be used to support other business units. * defend & maintain | Business requires a lot of cash to maintain market share. * invest more cash * or, divest | Business is a cash trap. * focus on short term * avoid risky project * limited future |

Description of the Model
One axis shows the market share relative to the industry leader which is always the leftmost circle.

The other axis shows market growth rate for the industry.

A circle is drawn for each competitor. The size of each circle represents that company's dominance. Characterize Your Enterprise
The expert system will position your enterprise on the chart based upon your description of: * share of market * condition of the market
You can trace through the supporting analysis and its conclusions, adjusting your input until you are satisfied your description accurately characterizes your enterprise.

BCG Growth-Share Matrix

Companies that are large enough to be organized into strategic business units face the challenge of allocating resources among those units. In the early 1970's the Boston Consulting Group developed a model for managing a portfolio of different business units (or major product lines). The BCG growth-share matrix displays the various business units on a graph of the market growth rate vs. market share relative to competitors:

BCG Growth-Share Matrix

Resources are allocated to business units according to where they are situated on the grid as follows: * Cash Cow - a business unit that has a large market share in a mature, slow growing industry. Cash cows require little investment and generate cash that