An examination of the post- second world war relative decline of UK manufacturing 1945-1975, viewed through the lens of the Birmingham Small Arms Company Ltd

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http://eprints.org/relation/isVersionOf http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/document/189 http://eprints.org/relation/isVolatileVersionOf http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/document/189 http://eprints.org/relation/isIndexCodesVersionOf http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/document/189 archive 4031 disk0/00/00/00/77 2008-03-20 14:21:38 2019-06-11 09:23:08 2011-07-19 16:12:32 thesis show 0 Heaton Joe jheaton@blueyonder.co.uk University of Birmingham An examination of the post- second world war relative decline of UK manufacturing 1945-1975, viewed through the lens of the Birmingham Small Arms Company Ltd unpub HC 30sch_educ Vol 2 (Appendices) is not available in this web version. The author is happy for his e-mail address to be forwarded to anyone who enquires about the Appendices. Vol 2 cannot be uploaded due to archival information included - CEM 11/06/2019 This is a study of the decline and collapse, in 1973, of the Birmingham Small Arms Company Ltd, primarily a motorcycle manufacturing company and pre-WW2 world market-leader. The study also integrates and extends several earlier investigations into the collapse that concentrated on events in the Motorcycle Division, rather than on the BSA Group, its directors and its overall strategy. The collapse of BSA was due to failures of strategy, direction and management by directors, who were not up to running one of Britain’s major industrial companies after it was exposed to global competition. While the charge, by Boston Consulting and others, that the directors sacrificed growth for short term profits was not proven, their failure to recognise the importance of motorcycle market share and their policy of segment retreat in response to Japanese competition, played a large part in the decline of the company. Their ill-fated diversification policy harmed the motorcycle business, but capital could have been raised in the 1950s to re-equip its manufacturing facilities, had the directors had the confidence to do so. The study also examined whether the ‘cultural critique’ of Barnett C, Wiener M.J. et al provides a valid alternative explanation for the collapse. While the hypothesis has some plausibility, too many variables and unresolved supplementary questions arise for this to contribute effectively to a rigorous account of the causes of the demise of the firm. 2007-12 graduation 2626659 eng author checked This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. public 302 University of Birmingham Centre for Lifelong Learning d_ph na 2007-12 graduation