Brenden corp. has five strategic business units (sbus)—telecommunication, trucking, electronics, energy, and oil exploration. the telecommunication unit has slowed down in terms of growth and is now dominated mainly by a few large companies. brenden corp. has a low market share in the industry and does not generate enough revenue to even cover its costs. in the context of the bcg matrix, which of the following categories of sbus best describes the telecommunication unit?
a) stars
b) cash cows
c) question marks
d) dogs

The SBU best category that best describes the telecommunication unit is: d) Dogs.

Explanation:

To understand this answer we need to remember the categories of SBUs.

First of all, we have stars: stars are companies with high growth in high share quadrants of a market. They require a big investment and they will become heavy revenue creators.

Second, we have cash cows, this category suits perfect companies with high growth in slow-growth markets. They generate more money than they need and invest in stars to diversify their business.

Third, Question marks are slow-growth companies in high growth markets. They very often require investment from cash cows. But as they are not very good they might represent a risky investment.

Fourth, dogs. This category suits slow-growth companies with low market share. They could generate enough cash to be a sustainable business however they don't represent a good business investment, thus the money is always moved to a better investment.

the earth’s crust is broken into separate pieces called tectonic plates (fig. 7.14). recall that the crust is the solid, rocky, outer shell of the planet. it is composed of two distinctly different types of material: the less-dense continental crust and the more-dense oceanic crust. both types of crust rest atop solid, upper mantle material. the upper mantle, in turn, floats on a denser layer of lower mantle that is much like thick molten tar.

each tectonic plate is free-floating and can move independently. earthquakes and volcanoes are the direct result of the movement of tectonic plates at fault lines. the term fault is used to describe the boundary between tectonic plates. most of the earthquakes and volcanoes around the pacific ocean basin—a pattern known as the “ring of fire”—are due to the movement of tectonic plates in this region. other observable results of short-term plate movement include the gradual widening of the great rift lakes in eastern africa and the rising of the himalayan mountain range. the motion of plates can be described in four general patterns:

collision: when two continental plates are shoved together

subduction: when one plate plunges beneath another (fig. 7.15)

spreading: when two plates are pushed apart (fig. 7.15)

transform faulting: when two plates slide past each other (fig. 7.15)