* **Nothing is permanent except change*  Carrying forward the thought of value chains and their relevance today, it is getting increasing difficult for corporations yesteryears to accept the fact that value chains don't work the way they used to. Companies are having lesser and lesser control over most parts of the chain and they are being reduced to one core part of it at which their core competence lies. A fine example would be TATA Motors who have outsourced almost all parts of the vehicles they finally brand as their own except for some critical designs and engine parts like the piston block( they don't even make the whole engine themselves now). So the key lies in delving deeper into the core competencies and coming up with new killer applications which could then help the company diversify horizontally then just mindless horizontal unrelated diversifications which might have mitigated risk in the past but could be sure shot recipes for disaster today. Another factor to be taken into consideration is to have a very precise role in the whole value chain and record all the transactions so that it can act as a knowledge _base_ which can set up barriers for entry for other competitors. An apt analogy for this would be in nature where each animal has a very precise role to play in the food chain and each animal over the thousands of years have built up a very formidable knowledge _base_ even resulting in changes in their body shapes so that are best adopted for their role and not many other organisms can replace them. Summing up, what I would like to say is that value chain ownership in today's business environment is not a wise thing to do and a lot depends on sound business design and continuous innovation and improvement.