Different levels of strategy

Strategies at different levels are the outcomes of different planning needs. There are basically three types of strategies: 

• Corporate Strategy: At the corporate level planners decide about the objective or objectives of the firm along with their priorities and based on objectives, decisions are taken on participation of the firm in different product fields. Basically a corporate strategy provides with a framework for attaining the corporate objectives under values and resource constraints, and internal and external realities. It is the corporate strategy that describes the interest in and competitive emphasis to be given to different businesses of the firm. It indicates the overall planning mode and propensity to take risk in the face of environmental uncertainties.
• Business Strategy: It is the managerial plan for achieving the goal of the business unit. However, it should be consistent with the corporate strategy of the firm and should be drawn within the framework provided by the corporate planners. Given the overall competitive emphasis, business strategy specifies the product market power i.e. the way of competing in that particular business activity. It also addresses coordination and alignment issues covering internal functional activities. The two most important internal aspects of a business strategy are the identification of critical resources and the development of distinctive competence for translation into competitive advantage.  
• Functional Strategy: It is the low level plan to carry out principal activities of a business.In this sense, functional strategy must be consistent with the business strategy, which in turn must be consistent with the corporate strategy. Thus strategic plans come down in a cascade fashion from the top to the bottom level of planning pyramid and performances of functional strategies trickle up the line to give shape to the business performance and then to the corporate performance.

Importance of Strategic Management

Strategic management intends to run an organization in a systematized fashion by developing a series of plans and policies known as strategic plans, functional policies, structural plans and operational plans. It is a systems approach, which is concerned with where the organization wants to reach and how the organization proposes to reach that position. Thus, strategic management is basically concerned with the futurity of the current decisions without ignoring the fact that uncertainty in the system is to be reduced, to the extent possible, through continuous review of the whole planning and implementation process. It is therefore necessary for an organization interested in long run survival and command over the market, to go for strategic planning and the planning process must be holistic, periodic, futuristic, intellectual and creative with emphasis given on critical resources of the firm otherwise, the organization wil fal in the traps of tunneled and myopic vision.