Strategy Journal Entry #2

According to the article, "China Bank Takes Aim at Germany," a government owned bank in China is one of the final bidders to purchase a bank based in Germany. The bank appears to be changing its strategy to expand into Western markets. The bank will then be able to do business in Germany that it can't do in China. Government regulation in the two countries is extremely different and expanding into the western market will likely open up new opportunities that can't be obtained in China.

Arby's Put on Auction Block - WSJ

According to the article in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011 Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc. plans to sell the Arby's chain. This is due to the fact that Wendy's is in a better position to steal market share from rivals and expand overseas.

The Wendy's/Arby's Group management likely sees that what they are good at is running Wendy's and not Arby's. In the Good to Great book we learn that the "great" companies focused on the areas of the business that they were set to succeed at and got out of the types of business that they aren't good at. This looks like what is happening with Arby's and Wendy's. Their "system of activites" (Porter's model) is clearly better in Wendy's because they are clearly succeeding in that area while struggling to have a good system of activities in the Arby's chain.