Demystifying corporate strategy decision-making

FOR senior leaders of single-business companies, making high-level strategic decisions can be a daunting challenge. The difficulties involved in such decisions only increase with the number of businesses under the company umbrella.

With multi-business firms, the problem shifts from achieving competitive advantage within a certain industry or market, to achieving corporate advantage - managing interactions between businesses in a portfolio so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Key corporate strategy decisions may include whether to enter, retain, or exit a given business; whether to pursue growth internally or externally, that is through alliances or acquisitions; and how to allocate resources within a portfolio.