By: musicwhiz As I had been very busy the entire week, I have not been able to blog much at all even though I had many ideas and issues floating in my head. One of these is about the interesting aspect of the rise and fall of businesses. As readers may know, all businesses technically have an “infinite” life and can last in perpetuity as they can have different owners while retaining the same name and registration number. However, most businesses tend to fall into cycles where they start-up, grow rapidly and then fizzle out (some go out spectacularly in a big BANG like a supernova !). This follows the teachings of most marketing textbooks which state the four phases of a business: Start-up, growth, maturity and decline. I will proceed to discuss each of these phases and give some examples. Readers are free to debate or discuss whether these examples are relevant and to give more examples where applicable. Start-Up – This is the phase where a company acquires a core business, be it in Information Technology, Oil and Gas Support or a new industry such as Bio-Fuels. Start-ups are usually fraught with risks and most of them go belly-up within 2 years due to inability to manage costs and also inability to adapt to changing consumer preferences and tastes. To be fair, sometimes the fault does not lie with the Management; it may be that the dynamics of the particular industry are not conducive for long-term sustainability and profitability. Read more...