Corporate Strategy

T L 's international strategies were targeted towards specific problems that where identified as competitive challenges . The international strategies implemented by T L focused on product differentiation and cost minimization . These strategies were in-effective : 1 .the development of high-value added products as part of the differentiation strategy was resource intensive 2 .the bargaining power of buyers was high . However T L was able to meet these strategic challenges by backward integration into the building of sugar cane mills . This helped T L by reducing its reliance on external suppliers . Therefore T L

not only diversified its operations across countries , but also established its presence across the strategic groups of suppliers of agricultural commodities and producers of processed food . These strategies of geographical diversification /backword integration were crucial for T L to sustain its bottom line in a maturing industry

International strategy formulation at Tate Lyle was guided by the competitive challenges that the company was facing . In to eliminate these challenges , the management at Tate Lyle formulated a two-pronged approach : 1 ) product differentiation 2 ) Cost minimization However neither of the approaches made a significant difference because in the one case , developing high-value added products was capital intensive and in the other , the strong bargaining power of buyers cut into any gains there might have been from cost minimization . However the company was able to mitigate the bargaining power of suppliers to some extent by backward integration into sugar cane sourcing . So ultimately the management at Tate Lyle was following a two-pronged diversification strategy : 1 ) geographical diversification 2 diversification across strategic groups consisting of suppliers of agricultural commodities and producers of processed food . This combination of geographical diversification and backward integration was crucial for T L in maintaining its bottom line in a maturing industry...