Case 2: Recommendation #4

A highly risky alternative, but not an impossible one. When a company's back is against the proverbial wall, solutions do get more radical and risky. The key is whether anyone in the firm has previous experience in any such new area, including the ability to supply new kinds of products to those new customers. Without prior relationships or experience in a market, any persuasive selling becomes very difficult. If the company identifies another kind of business that, say, is growing at 5-10%/yr, it could always hire someone with experience in that industry and a beginning set of contacts, who could take charge of entering that business and train others in the firm at the same time. This is a desperate solution that depends on having people in the company with the requisite experience and contacts.

Of course, no particular option is necessarily the best option, i.e., there is no "right answer" to this case (in the event you were expecting one). When companies choose to change their strategy, they do so only by being persuaded at the time that it makes the most sense. It's an imperfect process at best, witness the many corporate decisions made today that turn out badly...

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