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I got a call this morning to see if I could rate the candidates with the Boston Matrix....what is the Boston Matrix?

Like Ansoff's matrix, the Boston Matrix is a well known tool for the marketing manager. It was developed by the large US consulting group and is an approach to product portfolio planning. .

You would look at each individual product in your range (or portfolio) and place it onto the matrix. You would do this for every product in the range. You can then plot the products of your rivals to give relative market share. To make your Matrix work, you define your product/subject as:-

Dogs - These are products with a low share of a low growth market. These are the canine version of 'real turkeys!'. They do not generate cash for the company, they tend to absorb it. Get rid of these products.

Cash Cows - These are products with a high share of a slow growth market. Cash Cows generate more more than is invested in them. So keep them in your portfolio of products for the time being.

Problem Children - These are products with a low share of a high growth market. They consume resources and generate little in return. They absorb most money as you attempt to increase market share.

Stars - These are products that are in high growth markets with a relatively high share of that market. Stars tend to generate high amounts of income. Keep and build your stars.

Look for some kind of balance within your portfolio. Try not to have any Dogs. Cash Cows, Problem Children and Stars need to be kept in a kind of equilibrium. The funds generated by your Cash Cows is used to turn problem children into Stars, which may eventually become Cash Cows. Some of the Problem Children will become Dogs, and this means that you will need a larger contribution from the successful products to compensate for the failures.

Applying the Boston Matrix to the aspiring and ambitious Candidates is questionable but I am sure it will have its moments!

Best Wishes,

Dinesh R Makwana

.....saw your reply when having lunch and spat it out!....hideous. Thanks.

we'll watch for the moos and the cowdung, the barks, the ear twitches,the baby giggles and the glows!.it has some value,real!

I watch the apprentice with intrest however I was horrified, at the last weeks, regarding the purcheses for the hotel.

I feel that if these young people are seen asthe best for the future of Great Briton we are in trouble. Given a simple list of items to supply for the hotel, they both totaly failed.

I feel that Lord Sugar was amaized the outcome but had to pick a winner. However I would have failed both teams, the way they set about doing this simple task was almost disconected insanity. They showed no common sence and a unrealistic conection to the real world. They all lacked basic talents needed for todays world. Kathleen Lyons

Leon is worried about wearing makeup because of his girlfriend......who wont mind him perving over the girl in the bikini at all

Suzi grates on me

Lyonskatheen - I'm not against 'text speak' but if you are going to take the moral high ground in supposedly grammatical sentences, can't you at least get some basic spelling correct? Britain - not Briton. Totally - not totaly. Amazed - not amaized. I could go on, but frankly correcting jumped-up would-be intellectuals who don't even understand the basics of English grammar and spelling is pretty boring. Presumably the ability to spell sense, connection or disconnect is not a basic talent needed for today's (note the apostrophe) world?

Reposted as put in wrong section of website. it's done so with a small amendment to hopefully see how others feel.

How on earth did Felicity (25 May) succeed as a contender of 16 on The Apprentice when she said she could not really work with Lord Sugar as a business partner? Shown on The Apprentice -You're Fired. How big of her?
What a sore loser and being unprofessional. She deserved NOT to have the other two contenders saying goodbye but rightly walking past her. What a waste of someone else's lost opportunity in what must be hundreds who don't make that final 16. Never mind about not selling products in her own business, with that same attitude she will soon go under.
Surely those who apply have to prove why they think they can run a business well working with Lord Sugar and what they know about him?