corporate strategy
... Firms must engage in strategic planning that clearly defines objectives and assesses both the internal and external situation to formulate strategy, implement the strategy, evaluate the progress, and make adjustments as necessary to stay on track. For a large, multi-divisional business, it is possible to identify three levels of strategy; corporate strategy, business strategy and functional strategy. In this paper I will be discussing strategy at the corporate level. Corporate level strategy considers the organization as a whole and identifies the most favorable portfolio of businesses for the firm to be engaged in. It is concerned with defining the issues that are corporate responsibilities; these might include identifying the overall goals of the corporation, the types of businesses in which the corporation should be involve, and the way in which businesses will be integrated and managed. Corporate strategy is also concerned with managing activities and business interrelationships. Corporate strategy seeks to develop a collaborative environment by sharing and coordinating staff and other resources across business units, investing financial resources across business units, and using business units to complement other corporate business activities. Another factor corporate strategy takes into consideration is management practices. ... The corporate strategy to be pursued is determined by the organization’s mission, objectives, and results of the internal and external analysis. The broad strategy alternatives can be classified as being concerned with growth, stability or retrenchment. ... In following the market penetration strategy, the firm continues to operate in the same markets offering the same products. ... Unless the markets themselves are growing, this strategy necessarily involves taking business away from competitors. This is a low-risk strategy for management because the firm can build on knowledge and experience gained in its markets. A further advantage is that this strategy requires no investment in new products. The market development strategy involves entering into new markets with existing products. This strategy is useful when existing markets offer few prospects for growth compared with new markets. This is a high-risk strategy for managers because the will have less knowledge of the characteristics of the new markets, hence they may fail to correctly anticipate competitor reaction, and may underestimate the brand loyalty of established products.