Corporate-Level Strategy

Corporate-Level Strategy refers to the top management’s approach or game plan for
administering and directing the entire concern. These are based on the company’s business
environment and internal capabilities. It also called as Grand Strategy. It reflects the
combination and pattern of business moves, actions and hidden goals, in the strategic interest
of the concern, considering various business divisions, product lines, customer groups,
technologies and so forth.
Classification of Corporate-Level Strategies

1. Stability Strategy
Stability is a critical business goal which is required to defend the existing interest and
strengths, to follow the business objectives, to continue with the existing business, to keep the
efficiency in operations, etc. In the stability strategy, the firm continues with its existing
business and product markets, as well as it maintains the current level of endeavour as the
firm is satisfied with the marginal growth.
No Change
If you’re happy with your business’s current position in the market, you may adopt a “no
change” strategy. Continue doing what you’re doing, but plan for a time when you want to
grow or retrench.
Profit
Think of this strategy as stable profitability. Rather than growing to new markets, you would
attempt to increase profits by:
 Cutting costs
 Selling assets
 Raising the price of a product or service
 Trimming non-core business components
 2. Expansion Strategy
Also called a growth strategy, wherein the company’s business is re-evaluated so as to extend
the capacity and scope of business and considerably increasing the overall investment in the
business. In the expansion strategy, the enterprise looks for considerable growth, either from
the existing business or product market or by entering a new business, which may or may not
be related to the firm’s existing business. Basically, it encompasses diversification, merger
and acquisitions, strategic alliance, etc.
Concentration
In a concentration growth strategy, you would focus resources in order to increase the vertical
or horizontal participation in your respective market.

Diversification
When there’s little or no opportunity for growth in your original market, it’s time to diversify
(or spread into new markets). You might choose to spread into a related market (concentric
diversification) or into a market that is unrelated to your current niche (conglomerate
diversification).

Forward Or Backward Integration

Another way to grow through a focused corporate level strategy is to harness the power of
forward or backward integration. In forward integration, you take steps to assume the role
previously provided by one of your distributors (forward in the supply chain). That may
mean building a warehouse and creating the infrastructure to sell to retailers or direct to end
users. In backward integration, you take steps to assume the role previously provided by one
of your suppliers (backward in the supply chain). That may mean expanding existing
production lines or implementing completely new ones to produce the parts you need to build
your primary product.
3. Retrenchment Strategy
This is pursued when the company opts for decreasing its scope of activity or operations. In
retrenchment strategy, a number of business activities are retrenched (cut or reduced) so as to
minimize cost, as a response to the firm’s financial crisis. Sometimes, the business itself is
dropped by selling out or liquidation. Therefore, areas where there is a problem is identified
and reasons for those problems are diagnosed, after that corrective or remedial steps are taken
to solve those problems.
Turnaround
Turnaround strategy emphasizes efficiency in an attempt to eliminate the weaknesses that are
holding your company back (e.g., causing a product line to perform poorly).
Divestment
Divestment strategy involves selling off poorly performing assets (or even high-performing
periphery assets) to raise capital for the core product or service. With a properly planned
divestment strategy, you can get your business back on track.
Liquidation
Liquidation is a last-resort corporate level strategy. When everything else has failed to make
the business profitable, you may choose to cease production, sell all your assets, and close the
business completely.
4. Combination Strategy
In this strategy, the enterprise combines any or all of the three corporate strategies, so as to
fulfil the firm’s requirements. The firm may choose to stabilize some areas of activity while
expanding the other and retrenching the rest (loss-making ones). The primary focus on
corporate-level strategies is on the “directing” the managers on ‘how to manage the scope of
various business activities’ and ‘how to make optimum utilization of firm’s resources
(material, money, men, machinery), etc. on different business activities’.

Submitted By:-
Nikita Saini(25)