But what do you do if your industry starts moving in a new direction? That's the decision facing the industry now that the world is turning its attention to Internet-connected devices like appliances, garage doors, and thermostats. You create a broad product palette that can appeal to every tax bracket. If you make garage doors, for example, you start thinking about doors for different kinds of customers and different kinds of homes. Even so, general patterns emerge when you look at the ways that companies are branching out, or even changing their identities entirely.
If the scope and breadth of company types and diversification strategies above are any indication, this is a journey that can vary dramatically from business to business. Tesla is slowly rebranding as a battery company, where once they were known as an automaker. Everywhere we look, new technologies are forcing companies to redefine what it is they have to offer the world. Everybody's favorite Cupertino-based company went from Apple Computer to Apple, Inc. These are just two examples, so let's think for a moment about how many globe-spanning companies built their empires by diversifying. Nevertheless, Ring Power has grown considerably since 1962, and now offers products and services in the agriculture, demolition, marine, pipeline, government contracting, and entertainment industries.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that a CAT dealer wouldn't be a particularly strong candidate for diversification CAT construction equipment certainly caters to a specific audience and fills a particular need. I'll also submit for your consideration Ring Power: a full-line CAT dealer with locations throughout Florida. In short: GE is a world-class diversifier. Over those long years, GE successfully branched out into a wide variety of industries including power and water, transportation, oil and gas, aviation, healthcare, and more. What began as an 1892 merger between two electric companies is now an international, multi-billion-dollar company and the world's 26th largest firm in the United States. General Electric is one of the greatest diversification success stories. So the somewhat longer (and somewhat more frustrating) answer goes something like this: diversification may not be necessary, but it may also save your business. These are your Nokias ( which originally sold paper products), your Avons (which originally sold books), and your Hasbros (which originally sold textile remnants). Nevertheless, there are just as many companies (if not more) that took a while to discover their purpose, and diversified again and again until they found out what that purpose was. They were the first radial tire company to span the globe, and today they're one of the most recognizable names in the automotive industry. Although they've dabbled in manufacturing things like road maps and rocket components, Michelin keeps coming back to the product that made them famous: tires. Michelin is another company that notably stuck to its guns - or, in this case, tires.