Subsidaries - what are they actually good for?

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messer
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2017 11:33 pm

Subsidaries - what are they actually good for?

Post by messer »

Hi everyone!

I am having trouble understanding the use of subsidiaries and I hope someone could enlighten me on how to approach this.
I was attempting to do the 'complete market dominance for all products'-challenge on high difficulty.
Got off great by getting into multiple areas, got a great profit and thought I could increase expansion rate by adding some subsidiaries that could focus on specific product groups.
BUT, having a subsidiary company seems to be totally useless since they seem incapable of even the most basic things (getting products on the market).

I created 4 private companies each with focus on different areas (automobile, snacks & food, furniture, computers)
I gave each a healthy cash reserve of around 500M and hired a good CEO with expertise in their area & points into retailing etc...
There was close to no competition in these areas. And the end result are quite similar to this (might misremember some details)

After running for about 5-10 years, they have done almost NOTHING, they have each put 0-2 items on the market, and have all kinda run out of cash despite getting cash injections.
My best subsidiary was the furniture one, who managed to purchase cotton & leather from my farms, purchase a timber resource, setup one factory and then run 2 department stores (4 cities) selling sofas, they were at least making a tiny profit and didn't run out of cash (had about 100M left of original startup capital, and yearly result slightly positive - but didn't produce or research any new items after sofas...)

The others hadn't even started a factory, or had one factory but no retail stores, tried selling intermediate goods such as 'wheels & tires' without going for selling a 'car' & hence bleeding money each month.
The computer focused company built 1 mine, 1 factory split between CPU, circuits & desktop computers did some research but could not produce & sell enough computers to 'make a profit', and was overrun by a competitor after 6 years of service.

After watching the automobile guy struggle I took another approach: I gave a lot of money, transferred factory, produced all 'required semi-products' that they could access (steel, rubber, silica), but they didn't setup retail stores or chains.

So,
Leaving them alone - they did 'close to nothing'
Enforcing factories on them - they did not build retail stores
Enforcing retail stores on them - they did not build factories or try to sell new products
Enforcing empty retail + factories on them - they did not setup new product chains
Even the 'healthy furniture one' failed to expand product into all cities, or produce enough sofas to get market share despite that being a priority in their setting (or make beds/chairs etc)
How come they are so incapable?
What are they supposed to be used for?
How do you guys setup your subsidiaries?
Any success stories related to subsidiaries?

Cheers,
MesSer
meRlinX_AT
Level 3 user
Posts: 96
Joined: Thu Mar 23, 2017 9:05 pm

Re: Subsidaries - what are they actually good for?

Post by meRlinX_AT »

Hallo,

maybe you have missed some of the important settings?
cablab_sub.JPG
cablab_sub.JPG (142.38 KiB) Viewed 1843 times
Consider also...
As you can see, i don't let the Sub do anything.
I use them just for R&D (with the matching expertise) and for other things just when they have a strong expertise (80-100).
cablab_sub2.JPG
cablab_sub2.JPG (145.04 KiB) Viewed 1843 times
My personal expertise is strong in retail and manufacturing and i have an CMO with Marketing 100.
So i build and manage the factories and warehouses (group sale only) for my Subs and give them an small cut from the cake.
I sell all the different goods and make the most money in my own stores. - I know, it's the opposite from our daily economics :D

I have further 1 Sub just for Raw Material and 1 just for Farming which are just selling to my group.

greetz
Win 7 Pro / Cap Lab 4.4.19 + Sub DLC

* I'm not an native English speaker - maybe some phrases or words are not the "yellow from the egg".
messer
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2017 11:33 pm

Re: Subsidaries - what are they actually good for?

Post by messer »

Hehe no, I have found the settings and tried around with different values there but couldn't get them to perform at all.

But it seems like you and others are having the same kind of experience. Don't use them for setting up products & chains, use them for 'managing' things that you have already setup.

Which to me is a bit sad, but, ah well :)
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