ns and gaining access to difficult markets. - Employees: By establishing manufacturing facilities in skilled labor markets, which may develop into an additional customer base as well.- Board Members: To make such dramatic and intense corporate changes, an endorsement from corporate board members must have been supportive.Dow Chemicals mission and goals, strategic plans, and management styles are all geared towards capitalizing on their market and increasing their bottom-lineprofit for stockholders. Dow Chemicals shows signs of being a Proprietary group, which patents its innovative products in an attempt to create barriers of entry from its closest competitors or other potential marketers. However, eventually this will lead to a punctuated equilibrium, which will be highlighted by periods of rapid change within this industry in order to maintain market share or gain an edge in competitive advantage. Due to Dow Chemicals product innovations, their industry competition cycle will most likely graduate from stable to new innovation to a re-established new equilibrium, and then this cycle will start over again when new innovations are achieved. Directly correlated to Dow Chemicals product innovations is the industries life cycle with which it operates in. The five industry life cycles are Embryonic, Growth, Shakeout, Mature, and Decline. Dow Chemicals strategic restructuring occurred because it had entered into the decline stage, and required new innovations to remain competitive or even capture a segment of the industry. With Dow Chemicals primary focus on its niche, development of new product lines, and Global market positioning it is embarking on revolutionizing part its industry by expanding its market base and is now commencing a new phase of the Growth stage in the industry life cycle. Dow Chemicals acquisition of Union Carbide indicates an expansionary role into the Europe and Asian markets, which is an indicator of globalizat...
