Corporate Strategy is the overall Glue that binds the organization together and set the guidance and principles for the rest of the functions... Thus ensuring that they become Strategic in their own right.

What does this “mouthful” of a statement means...?

Marketing, Information technology, HR, Procurement, Sales, Logistics, property and the rest of the functions are tactical in nature till the time the organisation decides to set a “Corporate Strategy” in place. Corporate Strategy to companies is the Grand Strategy to countries.

Both are “not” interchangeable” as companies do not have a “grand Strategy”, they only have Corporate strategy.

For example part of Microsoft corporate mission is to “put a PC on every desk on the planet”, Google Corporate Strategy is “to provide the best contents for its visitors” and so on and so forth.

Microsoft and Google Chiefs set about putting the Corporate Strategy to fulfil this “Higher” mission. Google sets “page rank”, soft sell, response time as critical elements of their corporate strategy.

Microsoft sets their IPR, e-mail, Web search, applications, charities, operating system etc as critical elements of theirs.

The Marketing, IT, Sales, HR departments in the case of Microsoft and Google cannot operate on a strategic level unless they set their respective functions strategies in line with the declared Corporate strategy.

These functions SHOULD not worry about the actual Mission, it is not their job to do so... the Corporate Strategy developed by the Board taken care of this.

Their sole job is to fulfil the corporate strategy. For example the Marketing Strategy cannot be called a Strategy unless it is derived from and essential to their respective Corporate Strategy.

Let’s take a more interesting example to see corporate strategy and its relationship to other strategies within say British Gas Corporation in the UK.

When British Gas was deregulated in 1997 it decided to expand its activities to other services that concerns making people’s life easier.

They created the “motto” of “we take care of the essential”.

Such is a “mission” and “corporate strategy” in the making. Other functions in order to become Strategic must build their own strategy to fit in with this Corporate strategy. British Gas continued to develop its corporate strategy in order to achieve such a mission as “taking care of the essential” .

What they did, was to state the parameters of the corporate strategy as such:

* Helping people in the Homes
* Helping people in the road At Home

what is essential beside Gas were:

1. Electricity
2. Telephones
3. AppliancesPl
4. Pipes and so on

On the Road what is Essential were:

1. Road Side recovery
2. Windscreen replacement
3. Tire replacement

Get the idea?

Other Functions must now set about to build their strategies to fulfill the corporate strategy.

* Information technology must now get ready to create “dual Bills”
* Marketing Department must now reach new audiences for the additional services
* Sales department must now start to create processes and train people on serving multiple customers
* HR must now focus on recruiting people with new skills needed.
* Procurement department must now create new categories to deal with new businesses requirements
* Finance department must now create planes to implement various industry accounting practices.

And so on and so forth...

To summarise... Every "respected" business must have a corporate Strategy to set the direction and the purpose for the rest of the organisation’s functions. No other function within the organisation could ever be called Strategic unless it develops a Strategy that serves the corporate strategy of the organisation. Grand Strategy for Nations works in exactly the same way.

The nation’s assemblies create their mission, build a Grand Strategy and then monitor its various “government departments in creating their own strategies that fits into the Grand Strategy of the nation.

Finally an important note must be put in place regarding the guardians of the Corporate Strategies.

The Chief Executive Offices of the organisation whose sole job is to ensure that all the other main functions of the organisation have the strategy that support the corporate strategy.

How many times we hear about directors being “fired” and replaced, Governments being replaced, Minsters being retired, army generals being deposed and so on and so forth...

Why?

Mostly because the CEO, the Prime Minster or the president of the “Entity” have found them totally ignorant and incompetent in understanding the Corporate Strategy or the Grand Strategy...

but this is another story all together...

About the Author

Osama el-kadi is a Strategist and Motivational Speaker.

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