Firm, Business Unit or Department

Are you at the firm level, the business unit level or in a department? Whatever level, you will contribute to the strategic plan. The emphasis will be:

• At the firm for the long range for positioning, goal setting and incentives, corporate values, horizontal integration, vertical integration, debt and equity management, resource allocation, managerial infrastructure, and human resources.
• At the business unit for competitive focus (adapt to customers and competition) to manage unique competencies, formulate multiyear broad strategies, define and evaluate action plans (6 to 36 months), strategic and operational budgets, and of course, enhance the customer relationship
• At the department level align the team to deliver for the customer, as well as manage cross-department coordination, develop multiyear action plans, prepare operational and capital budgets. Get the best out our your folks

Some of my clients in small firms have worked in all three levels simultaneously. So, the thinking was very well coordinated.

I also spent over twenty years in a huge, huge bureaucracy where understating the objectives above and below your level was very hard. The only way that I learned how you can be a leader and to influence strategy was to involve people in all three levels.

Who should be involved? Who will have a leadership role? Who will manage the complexity?