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Business unit financials

If the business unit is very independent, the numbers to track for strategy formulation are the same as for the corporation as a whole.

If the business unit is not independent, some numbers will come from corporate headquarters, e.g., tax rates, cost of capital, solvency.

Here, the strategic planning team needs to understand their value to the corporation as a whole as well as to industry averages and to their competitors. They should compare their numbers to other business units -- how much does the business unit contribute to the key margins.

Key measures: sales, gross margin, net profit margin, Capex (for your unit), liquidity (accounts payable and receiveable) and return on assets.