Introduction

Abstract

More than ten years ago, I was a member of a consulting team working for an American consumer products company, which I will call USF (for US Food Products, a pseudonym). USF was far from the largest company in its field. But it showed a record of steady growth and profits going back more than three decades. It was a solid player in its core markets, and had diversified into a few related businesses. USF management hired us to help them to find new growth opportunities, either in the businesses they had, or in related businesses.