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Business Strength		High	Medium	Low
	High	Grow Seek dominance Maximize investment	Identify growth      Segments Invest strongly Maintain position     Elsewhere	Maintain overall    position Seek cash flow Invest at     maintenance level
	Medium	Evaluate potential for    leadership via    segmentation Identify weaknesses Build strengths	Identify growth    Segments Specialize Investment selectively	Prune lines Minimize investment Position to divest
	Low	Specialize Seek niches Consider acquisitions	Specialize Seek niches Consider exit	Trust leader's       statesmanship Time to exit and      divest

 

Table:  Generic Strategies for GE Matrix

 

Overall the nine-cell GE Matrix is an improvement over the BCG Growth-Share Matrix.  The GE Matrix considers many more variables and does not lead to such simplistic conclusions.  It recognizes, for example, that the attractiveness of an industry can be assessed in many different ways (other than simply using growth rate), and it thus allows users to select whatever criteria they feel are most appropriate to their situation.  This portfolio matrix, however, does have some shortcomings:

 

It can get quite complicated and cumbersome.

The numerical estimates of industry attractiveness and business strength/competitive position give the appearance of objectivity, but they are in reality subjective judgments that may vary from one person to another.

It cannot effectively depict the positions of new products or business units in developing industries.