Hrm Strategies
Strategy
Strategy sets the organizations direction and provides the framework that management will use to achieve to goals through strategic, tactical and operational planning. When developing a strategy, managers answer such questions as "What products should we make?" "What markets should we serve?" What operations should we use?" "How should we compete?" To effectively answer these questions, managers consider four elements when they create organizational strategies.
STRATEGY LEVELS
Although alignment of strategic initiatives is a corporate-wide effort, considering strategy in terms of levels is a convenient way to distinguish among the various responsibilities involved in strategy formulation and implementation. A convenient way to classify levels of strategy is to view corporate-level strategy as responsible for market definition, business-level strategy as responsible for market navigation, and functional-level strategy as the foundation that supports both of these (see Table 1).
CORPORATE-LEVEL STRATEGY
Corporate-level strategies address the entire strategic scope of the enterprise. This is the "big picture" view of the organization and includes deciding in which product or service markets to compete and in which geographic regions to operate. For multi-business firms, the resource allocation process—how cash, staffing, equipment and other resources are distributed—is typically established at the corporate level. In addition, because market definition is the domain of corporate-level strategists, the responsibility for diversification, or the addition of new products or services to the existing product/service line-up, also falls within the realm of corporate-level strategy. Similarly, whether to compete directly with other firms or to selectively establish cooperative relationships—strategic alliances—falls within the purview corporate-level strategy, while requiring ongoing input from business-level managers. Critical questions
Strategy sets the organizations direction and provides the framework that management will use to achieve to goals through strategic, tactical and operational planning. When developing a strategy, managers answer such questions as "What products should we make?" "What markets should we serve?" What operations should we use?" "How should we compete?" To effectively answer these questions, managers consider four elements when they create organizational strategies.
STRATEGY LEVELS
Although alignment of strategic initiatives is a corporate-wide effort, considering strategy in terms of levels is a convenient way to distinguish among the various responsibilities involved in strategy formulation and implementation. A convenient way to classify levels of strategy is to view corporate-level strategy as responsible for market definition, business-level strategy as responsible for market navigation, and functional-level strategy as the foundation that supports both of these (see Table 1).
CORPORATE-LEVEL STRATEGY
Corporate-level strategies address the entire strategic scope of the enterprise. This is the "big picture" view of the organization and includes deciding in which product or service markets to compete and in which geographic regions to operate. For multi-business firms, the resource allocation process—how cash, staffing, equipment and other resources are distributed—is typically established at the corporate level. In addition, because market definition is the domain of corporate-level strategists, the responsibility for diversification, or the addition of new products or services to the existing product/service line-up, also falls within the realm of corporate-level strategy. Similarly, whether to compete directly with other firms or to selectively establish cooperative relationships—strategic alliances—falls within the purview corporate-level strategy, while requiring ongoing input from business-level managers. Critical questions