Firms must adapt their strategies to compete in the 21st century landscape by bringing products to market faster, using new technologies, diversifying product lines, shifting product emphasis, consolidating, and combining online and physical sales. Successful strategies include Dell's model of having a new business model every 5 years by identifying core competencies and improving four capabilities while outsourcing non-core work. Corporate strategy determines what businesses a company is in and what it wants to do with those businesses, managing business units and making the whole greater than the sum of parts through external and internal growth, resource allocation, and corporate development strategies like market penetration, product development, and diversification.

1. Corporate strategy

2. The New Reality - #1Firms must learn to compete differently if they are to achieve strategic competitiveness in the 21st-century competitive landscape. To provide an idea of what this means, new ways of competing may include: bringing new good and services to market more quickly

3. The use of new technologies (e.g., Amazon.com)

4. Diversifying the product line (e.g., Barnes and Nobles into music as a catalyst for growth)The New Reality - #2 Shifting product emphasis (e.g., U-Haul’s new focus on accessory sales) (i.e., Dual Branding)

5. Consolidation (e.g., the merger of Exxon and Mobil)

6. Combining online selling with physical stores (e.g., CompUSA’s new strategy)The New Reality - #3 Dell Model for Growth

7. Have New Business Model (maybe changes every 5 years?)

8. Identify Core Competencies and then improve the four capabilities

9. Outsource non-core competencies

10. Create a “Brand Management Company”Brief Overview of Corporate StrategyThose strategies concerned with the broad and long-term questions of what business(es) the organization is in and what it wants to do with those businesses

11. Key Questions of Corporate/Firm-level Strategies1. What businesses should the corporation/enterprise be in?2. How should the corporate/G.O. office manage the array of business units (GBU’s/SBU’s/ Wholly owed subsidiaries)Corporate Strategy is what makes the corporate whole add up to more than the sum of its business unit parts

12. Organizational Growth: External and/or InternalExternal and Internal Growth StrategyOne that involves the attainment of specific growth objectives by increasing the level of an organization’s capabilitiesTypical growth strategies include goals for:Increase in sales revenuesProfitsOther balanced scorecard performance measures

13. Types of Growth StrategiesInternationalConcentrationOrganizationalGrowthDiversificationRelated Businesses

14. Unrelated BusinessesVertical IntegrationRelated Businesses

15. Unrelated BusinessesHorizontalIntegration:Along Value Chain