Corporate, Business and Functional Level Strategies

Corporate, Business and Functional Level Strategies An organizational strategy refers to a long-term plan that determines how a firm uses its resources in supporting its business operations and activities, such as production, inventory, infrastructure, and marketing. In particular, it enables a company to achieve its goals, vision, and implement strategic plans. Since an organizational strategy helps a firm to identify what it needs to accomplish its objectives, it should be specific, measurable, and realistic. The three primary types of organizational strategies are corporate, business, and functional level strategies. The paper focuses on three options of an organizational strategy and gives examples of three companies that use them to gain a competitive advantage.
The corporate-level strategy is implemented by the senior management team and involves ways in which a company can expand or grow. Examples of corporate-level strategies include product diversification, entering new markets, turnaround, and liquidation. In the others, a company’s executives establish the route that the business is supposed to follow to adhere to its destination. In addition, a business-level strategy emphasizes how corporate aspirations can be implemented in specific departments. Indeed, it acts as the bridge between functional and corporate level strategy. On that note, some of the options available are broadening the exposure, investigating new markets, increasing the marketing budget, and rebranding (Steensen, 2014). Functional level strategies entail the specific actions that are assigned to individuals or departments to achieve the established goal. For example, if the business-level strategy selected is to rebrand specific products, investigating the best color that can appeal to the target audience would be a good functional level strategy. Businesses should use these organizational strategies to determine the products, services, or places they want to operate to maximize their revenues and profits. However, organizations are required to manage the available resources well so that they can help them to reach their destination. Besides, companies should choose the right strategies in their line of business to ensure they can gain a competitive advantage.
Apple Inc. is one of the companies that has significantly benefited from diversification. Specifically, diversification involves developing new products or services or entering new markets beyond the existing ones. In most cases, an organization uses the diversification strategy to mitigate the market risk, maximize profits, and gain a competitive advantage. In 1984, Apple Inc. launched its first Macintosh personal computer. However, its sales declined in the mid-1990s when Microsoft started manufacturing affordable personal computers, making Apple Inc. on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. Nevertheless, Apple Inc. diversified its products in 2001 by launching iPod and iTunes. In addition, the product diversification continued, and in 2007 the company launched iPhone (Grippi, 2013). Currently, Apple Inc. is among the largest technology companies worldwide. Were it not for product diversification, the firm would have lost its competitive advantages over its business rivals, such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony, and International Business Machines (IBM). Apple Inc. has been successful today due to product diversification since it keeps improving its existing commodities to meet its clients’ needs. Almost every year, the company comes up with new products and enters new markets. The most significant thing about Apple Inc. is that it produces high-quality products that are highly compatible. As a result, when individuals get used to Apple Inc. products, it becomes difficult for them to use technological devices from other companies.
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