Cheap DRAMs forced Intel out of this lousy commodity business and into high-margin microprocessors.
In this commodity business, there is no slack with which to absorb fuel cost increases.
This is a big step away from a commodity business, toward higher margins and more importantly, more value for its customers.
Philip Kotler gives the example of the brick industry, which is about as close to being a commodity business as is possible.
Secrecy is an important factor of success in the commodity business.
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Hardware has long since become a brutally competitive commodity business.
He argues that firms should no longer think of gas as a commodity business, but as one where they can add value by bundling all sorts of other services with it.
The first is that the paper industry is in many ways a commodity business, and in a commodity business any more than one serious competitor is enough to produce a price war.
Lauvergeon said she has been approached over the years with offers to get into the business of making solar PV panels, but she declined because it looked to her like a low-margin commodity business.
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It is also something of a commodity business.
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The role it sees is being the critical hardware provider, adding value to what is likely to be a commodity business by getting into software that bridges the old and new worlds, and services around a few key industries, most likely healthcare and retail.
Part of the growth has been driven by demand caused by everything from anthrax to bird flu to SARS. But much of it has come from 48-year-old Lim's gutsy push to ramp up quickly in a low-tech commodity business to gain an edge over his dozens of rivals.
Part of the growth has been driven by demand caused by everything from anthrax to bird flu to SARS. But much of it has come from 48-year-old Lim's gutsy push to ramp up quickly and cost effectively in a low-tech commodity business to gain economies of scale and an edge over his dozens of rivals.
Both men, Pierre Lapeyre and David Leuschen, had helped form Goldman's commodity trading business, and Leuschen had been a director at Aron.
Eventually Pirelli shed its commodity tire business to focus on premium lines.
Should Rambus make its patent claims stick, the cost of the commodity DRAM business, which already operates with razor-thin profit margins, will be greater.
More than just another deal for Dow, the sale of 50.0% of its plastics business to a Kuwaiti state company was part of its strategy to reduce its exposure to the cyclical nature of the commodity chemicals business.
While Jeter nears the twilight of his career, he is still a proven commodity in the business world.
From natural disasters and political unrest, to turbulent commodity prices, business on a global scale brings never-before-seen risk.
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But its strong balance sheet gives it strength to handle the volatility in investing in a commodity-dependent business, and it seems to be on a roll with customers.
Making creative work too much of a commodity seems to be as bad a business model as making it no commodity at all.
Now, as petroleum spurts as a hot commodity, the energy business is fueling a steady employment environment.
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Eventually he moved back to India, bringing back with him an intangible commodity: marketing and business practices accrued in the Gulf.
Even Dell Computer (nyse: DELL - news - people ) last week said it would focus on building a business for commodity services.
Our business is in the commodity market, so the intensity of being in the market and a business like this certainly parallels the intensity of the sports world.
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And to make matters worse, the rise of personal digital assistants, palmtops, embedded controllers, etc. promises in the next few years to render the PC industry into a backwater business filled with commodity products--hardly the place to be a pricey innovator.
But by focusing solely on costs, they miss the risks of business interruptions, increased commodity costs, and reduced earnings.
Of course, the natural gas business, like any energy commodity, is marked by boom and bust.
The last time the audit business was flat, a commodity, and under pricing pressure from clients was when I started working for KPMG Consulting in 1993 after ten years in industry.
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As he strives to take the company to new heights, he may be ready to drop a lot of commodity PC revenue while building the enterprise solutions business, something Wall Street would likely not appreciate.
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