## Strategic Levels in Organisation

Organisations operate strategy at three distinct levels. Understanding who does what at each level is critical.

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### 1. Corporate Level

Who: CEO, other senior executives, board of directors, and corporate staff.

Role:

Oversee development of strategies for the whole organisation.
Define the mission and goals of the organisation.
Determine what businesses the organisation should be in.
Allocate resources among different businesses.
Formulate and implement organisation-spanning strategies.
Provide leadership for the organisation as a whole.

> Corporate-level managers provide a link between those who oversee strategic development and those who own the firm (shareholders). The CEO can be viewed as the guardian of shareholders' welfare.

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### 2. Business Level

Who: Divisional managers and staff; the principal general manager at this level is the head of the division.

Role:

Translate the general statements of direction and intent from corporate level into concrete strategies for individual businesses.

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### 3. Functional Level

Who: Functional-level managers responsible for specific business functions — HR, purchasing, product development, customer service, etc.

Roles:

1. Develop functional strategies in their area that help fulfill strategic objectives set by business- and corporate-level managers.

2. Generate important ideas that may subsequently become major strategies for the company — so general managers must listen closely to functional managers.

3. Implement the strategy — execution of corporate and business-level plans.

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### Summary Table

Level	Key Actors	Primary Focus
Corporate	CEO, Board, Senior Executives	Whole organisation — mission, resource allocation, portfolio
Business	Divisional Head, Divisional Managers	Individual business unit strategies
Functional	HR, Finance, Marketing Managers	Specific functions — implementation and idea generation

Worked example

### Example 1

Scenario: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL):

Corporate Level: Mukesh Ambani and the Board decide that RIL should enter telecom (Jio) and retail — this is a corporate-level portfolio decision.
Business Level: The Jio division head crafts a strategy of free data + low-cost handsets to capture market share in telecom — a business-level strategy.
Functional Level: Jio's HR team develops a talent acquisition plan for 10,000 engineers; the marketing team launches specific campaigns — these are functional-level strategies implementing the business plan.

### Example 2

Exam MCQ: 'The managers responsible for developing strategies that help fulfil objectives set by corporate and business level managers, and who also generate ideas that may become major strategies' are → Functional-level managers.

⚠️ Common exam mistakes

Confusing Business Level with Corporate Level — Corporate Level is about the WHOLE organisation; Business Level is about an INDIVIDUAL division or SBU.
Omitting the idea generation role of functional-level managers — students often only write 'implementation' but miss that functional managers also generate important strategic ideas.
Forgetting that the CEO is described as the 'guardian of shareholders' welfare' — this is a frequently tested phrase.
Mixing up who reports to whom — Functional managers report to Business-level managers who in turn work within Corporate-level strategy.

Reference:

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