Company Longevity (Ludmila Klimovich)

Раздел - "Международные экономические отношения"The article "Company Longevity" considers basic factors which provide the long-standing success of companies on the market. The characteristic features of the firms which have overstepped a centennial border are: a large size, constant changes of competition strategies, quick adaptation to the altering business environment, decisive policy in the sales market, humanization of the company administration system. A company needs some time to achieve the high level of production, it often has to pass through a set of reorganization measures and shifts in competition strategies which provide the long-standing success on the market. There are at least four main types of strategies of companies: commutant, explorant, patient and violent. The commutant strategy presupposes maximum flexible satisfaction of local market needs and needs of the concrete client. Small firms which keep to these strategies as a rule do not have the up-to-date technologies. However, it does not prevent them from forming their market niche. The explorant strategy is aimed at the radical innovations and establishment of new markets. The patient strategy presupposes the production of a limited quantity of very specialized items of high quality of limited demand. This helps firms to avoid direct competition with leading corporations in the industry and to reserve stable position on the market of a certain product for a long time. The violent strategy counts on reducing the production costs at the expense of mass output of rather cheap and goodquality goods; this allows to retain vast sales markets for a long time. There are three main varieties of firms-violents; they operate in the sphere of large, standard production of goods and services deriving their benefits from the saving on the production volume, large-scale scientific research and developed sales network. A gradual shift of these strategies allows a firm to develop its size from a small patient firm to the largest violent one. The experience of long-standing companies proves that the firms which invest resources in large mass production have the biggest chances to remain on the market.The most important condition of the longevity of a large company lies in the use of efficient sales strategies. The use of module design by "Hewlett-Packard" proves the necessity of combination of standard and differentiated approaches in communication policy. Besides, large companies have need in organization of an efficient administration structure. A solution of this problem is connected with humanization of the whole management system, i. e. with attention towards individual members of staff, promotion of efficient and motivated managers from the corporation staff, combination of loyalty to traditions and innovations. The complex use of all factors of successful development of the company allows it to retain stable positions on the market for a long time and to provide its longevity