Chapter 11 discusses how businesses use diversification or lack of as a strategy. There is a broad range of possibilities of involvement levels. Some companies choose to focus solely on one area (what they do best) and provide strictly one type of service or product. This is called single business or limited diversification. The most diversified companies participate in unrelated diversification, meaning the products or services are just as implied unrelated and broadly varied.
For Monsanto corporation, they practice somewhere around the middle in what is called related constrained diversification. The products and support they provide are related, they all focus on agricultural sustainability, but they have a variety of offerings. They provide traditional seeds, GMO seeds, research and development leads of course to those products but also to expertise/advice to the farmers they serve, and they also provide pesticides and herbicides. Adding this variety makes them more appealing to their agricultural customers, because even if their needs change, they can still offer predictions, advice, and service. This also helps them to sustain unexpected hurdles in production. If a seed doesn't produce as planned or the pest population is slightly different, they can push another one of their products that do meet current needs. Diversification is like always having a back-up, as long as you are prepared, budgeted, and experienced enough to support the variety of products you plan to produce.
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