ADL Matrix
The ADL Matrix places each business unit by how mature its industry is and how strong its competitive position is, then points to one of four broad strategies: grow it, invest selectively, prove it can work, or let it go.
Twenty cells fill the grid, one for every combination, and each one points toward one of four strategic moves.
Reach for this when…
- You run units in industries at very different life stages and one strategy playbook doesn't fit all of them.
- A weak position in a mature market is being funded like it still has upside.
- You need language for 'not dead, but unproven yet' beyond just Star or Dog.
How to run it
- List each business unit and the industry it competes in.
- Rate the industry's maturity: embryonic, growth, mature or ageing.
- Rate the unit's competitive position: dominant, strong, favourable, tenable or weak.
- Place each unit on the grid formed by the two ratings.
- Read off the natural strategy: natural development, selective development, prove viability, or divest.
A worked example
Situation. Chidi Okonkwo ran three business lines out of Lagos, Nigeria, under one mining-services holding: an ageing equipment-rental line, a growing drilling-consumables line, and a new remote-monitoring service he had bet heavily on.
Applied. He rated each on industry maturity and competitive position. Rental sat mature-but-strong (natural development, fund it steadily); consumables sat growth-and-favourable (natural development, invest); monitoring sat embryonic with a weak position, since nobody yet trusted an unproven vendor with live site data.
Result. Monitoring landed in the prove-viability cell, not divest: two paid pilots before any further spend. Rental kept its cash-generating role instead of losing budget to the newer bet.
The catch
The five-level competitive-position scale invites false precision - two raters rarely agree on 'favourable' versus 'tenable'. It also assumes maturity stages run cleanly in sequence, when a mature industry disrupted by new technology can look embryonic again. Treat the placement as a conversation starter, not a score.
An 'ageing, weak' unit that still funds your sales force through bundling is not a clean divest - check what it is attached to before you cut it.
Origin: Arthur D. Little