Strategic Management in a Hostile Environment: Lessons from the Tobacco Industry

This study focuses on fifty years of evolution in the tobacco industry from the vantage point of the strategic actions taken by its member firms in response to the anti-smoking environment. It details the growth of the industry from a collection of old-style single-brand companies to its modern status as a strategic group of diversified multi-brand competitors. The work of management guru Michael Porter provides the framework for the study. The strategic choices made by the six companies are examined in light of Porter’s management theories by focusing on the firms’ attempts at both product and market diversification. The book is a timely and instructive overview of an industry successfully operating in an increasingly hostile business and social environment.