Week 14 Journal

Week 14

1)    In your own words and using referenced quotes describe the difference between business unit level strategy and corporate level strategy?

2)    Discuss the corporate parenting style of Virgin Group?

Answers

1)    Corporate level strategy covers the strategic scope of the organization as a whole. These strategies occupies the highest level of strategic decision making and covers actions dealing with the objective of firm, acquisitions and allocation of resources and coordination of strategies for various strategic business units for optimal performance.

In other hand business level strategy is concerned with the way a business seeks to compete successfully in the particular market. These strategies are applicable in those organizations, which have different businesses and each business is treated as a strategic business unit.

For example, an organization of any size or diversity which use the corporate level strategy usually applies for the whole enterprise while company with business strategy, less comprehensive, defines the choice of product or service and market of individual business within the firm.

2)    Virgin group is a British multinational venture conglomerate company founded by Richard Branson. Their core business areas are travel, entertainment, and lifestyles and consist of more than 400 companies worldwide.

Corporate parenting refers to the level of management above that of the business units and therefore direct interaction with buyers and competitors. There are basically three styles of corporate parenting. They are portfolio manager, synergy manager and parental developer.

The corporate parenting of Virgin group comes under the synergy manager.

Under synergy manager the role of corporate parents is to enhance the synergies across the business units. The synergy managers focus on the freedom of work rather than hierarchy. Virgin group companies work as a part of one big family rather than hierarchy. They are empowered to run their own affairs through the coordination and planning and solutions to the problems are often sourced from within the group. Virgin group achieved strategic planning through envisioning building a common purpose and motives, facilitating cooperation across businesses and providing central resources and services which are even the management style that the company been adopting.

References:

·        Online available from http://www.scribd.com/doc/12456190/Corporate-Parenting-Fundmentals [Accessed March 3, 2013]

·        Online available from http://www.marketing91.com/levels-of-strategy/ [Accessed March 3, 2013]

·        Dahal, R.K & Others., (2008).Strategic Planning. Khanal Books Publications: Kathmandu.