STRATEGIC BUSINESS UNITS

· Strategic business unit (SBU) a division, product line or other profit centre within a parent company.
· A specific profit centre within an organization.
· An autonomous division within a company, usually a large multi product company, responsible for planning the marketing of one of the company’s major product ranges.
· This plan is aimed at individual products and product lines; however, it can be adopted fairly easily for use in planning one or more strategic business units (SBU).

BCG Growth-Share Matrix
KANTIPUR PUBLICATION NEPAL
v Cash Cow: Kantipur Daily
v Star: Kathmandu Post
v Question Mark : Saptahik
v Dog: Nari

Resources are allocated to business units according to where they are situated on the grid as follows:
· Cash Cow
- Has a large market share in a mature, slow growing industry.
- Requires little investment and generate cash that can be used to invest in other business units.
· Star –
- Has a large market share in a fast growing industry.
- May generate cash, but since the market is growing rapidly they require investment to maintain their lead.
- If successful, a star can become a cash cow when its industry matures.
· Question Mark-
- Has a small market share in a high growth market.
- Require resources to grow market share, but it is unknown if it can turn out to become a star.
· Dog –
- Has a small market share in a mature industry.
- May not require substantial cash, but it ties up capital that could better be deployed elsewhere.
- Unless a dog has some other strategic purpose, it should be liquidated if there is little prospect for it to gain market share.