Ch.6: Cost Leadership

Cost leadership means leveraging you advantages to decrease your costs of doing business below those of the competition. One of those advantages for Dupont is its sheer size and diversity. It is capable of leaveraging its economies of scale to influence large scale purchasing and supply chain management. So what does the major division and restructuring Dupont mean for the power that comes from its size and influence? In late December, Dupont announced that it would be splitting into two individual corporations, one dedicated to agriculture and the other dedicated chemicals. The new chemical company is to be called Chemours, while Dupont will keep its historic name and brand for the agriculture business. The greater impact is yet unknown, but many questions are left on the table. It was not long ago that such a stunt of separation occurred with Netflix. How will this limit Dupont's ability to leverage a diverse product portfolio between chemicals and agriculture?

Ch. 5: Evaluating Stengths And Weakness

Dupont is very well diversified in the chemical and materials production industries. However their products are by and large inputs for other companies to manufacture into consumer goods. The particular arrangement ties the success of Dupont directly to the success of the goods produced by their customers. This also makes the success of Dupont an indicator of domestic economic health. Higher sales and growth is directly correlated to consumer spending in the open market. A strength of Dupont is its diversification. It's two largest business units are chemicals and agriculture. A hit to the chemical sector may cause sales losses for Dupont chemical, Dow chemical, and Exxon, but a gain in agriculture can balance net profits. http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/the-good-and-bad-of-duponts-strength-dd-hun-mrk-alb-stp-jaso-dow1028.aspx http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2013/04/23/dupont-and-a-hungry-world-offset-chemicals-weakness-dividend-hiked-outlook-reaffirmed/