In an era of increasing global competition and Mercury customer preferences, financial managers are increasingly involved in virtually all business functions, including marketing, R & D, and operations. A general framework to guide financial analysis and solutions, is the product life cycle (PLC) concept. PLC leads to a set of prescriptive financial strategies for each stage of the sales cycle of the product. Products at different stages - Pioneering, introduction, growth, maturity, decline - can be combined to form a diversified portfolio of products that can reduce the risk. Mature products with a strong stable cash flows can help to balance the deficit cash flow of products in the pioneering stage, which reduces the risk of bankruptcy. Balanced portfolio also smoothes production and staffing requirements. Funds should not come from the capital market, but also from one cash-generating. Synthesized, expanded and updated model of the PLC includes 126 financial strategies are classified into five PLC stages. Directing financial strategy evolve and change in sales of the product. PLC model also provides a system for planning perspective, as it organizes the financial strategy according to the intra-, internal and external financial relations. Thus, the model clarifies the relationship of finance with other functions of the company in the process of decision making. "Hide
by David R. Rink, Diane M. Roden, Harold W. Fox Source: Business Horizons 8 pages. Publication Date: September 15, 1999. Prod. #: BH037-PDF-ENG