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How to Know If a Spin-Off Will Succeed

Harvard Business Review

A 2010 meta-analysis detailed many of the different issues that make divestiture so hard to evaluate consistently. In parallel, it reduced its fixed costs by restructuring its industrial footprint and overhead structure; increasing sales, marketing, and R&D expenditures in targeted areas; and dramatically reducing working capital.

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Cool Alone Won't Save Your Company

Harvard Business Review

A succession of CEOs prior to Rick Wagoner (who fought heroically to overcome the dreadful hand he was dealt) allowed all manner of legacy costs to build up (retiree health, Jobs Bank, etc.) and those largely fixed costs were more painful and debilitating if GM shrank in the U.S. — as it did — than if it grew.

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