Strategy variants

Strategy variants
See also
Types of strategies Importance of marketing strategy Strategic marketing Development of the organization Revenue center Strategic management system Boundaries of the enterprise Definition of strategic management Specialization strategy

Depending on the organization, we can distinguish the following variants of strategy:

Strategy at the level of corporation

It is shaped by the head managers, which oversees whole organization rather than one type of business. It deals with the activities undertaken by the organization as a whole, and seeks to define the role it plays and roles of particular business units.

The strategy at the level of the strategic business unit (SBU)/business level strategy

It is used to control of interests and activities of a single business unit. Strategic Business Unit SBU) groups all types of economic activities, designed to produce a specific type of product or service and treats them as a single unit.

Strategy at the functional level

It creates a framework for the management of such areas as: finance, research and development, marketing, ecology, etc. This strategy consists in determining how the function is to be implemented, to foster the desired competitive advantage, and on the coordination of the function with other functions in company.

Comparison of the basic types of business strategy

Aspect	Corporate strategy	SBU strategy / business level strategy	Functional strategy
Scope	selection, in which areas of economic activity company should be positioned, business development strategy	selection of products, services and on what markets they should be sold, SBU development strategy	specify the target market, breadth and depth of the product range, product brand policy product recall
Goals and tasks	aggregated business objectives (e.g.. development, profitability, earnings per share)	limited by objectives of the corporation, aggregated around the products/markets (e.g. the increase in sales, profitability, cash flow)	limited by objectives of the corporation and SBU aggregated around specific product/market (sales, market share, customer satisfaction)
Resource allocation	allocation between SBU areas of activity allocation between the functional departments working for different areas of the business (for example research and development)	allocation between products/markets within the particular SBU allocation between the functional departments within the SBU	the allocation between the instruments of the marketing mix for each product/market
Sources of competitive advantage	mainly thanks to financial and human resources, better organization and management, and synergistic effects	mainly thanks to the strategies of competition, better competences than competitors',	mainly thanks to an efficient product placement, superiority of marketing activities relative to competitors
The main areas of decision	financial policy organization matters diversification of activities, diversification of products, technologies	design of the production system, policy mix development of the market, distribution policy	price policy, promotion, managing stocks.

References

• Mintzberg, H. (1994). The fall and rise of strategic planning. Harvard business review, 72(1), 107-114.

Author: Krzysztof Wozniak