Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 10th Edition

13Implementing Corporate Strategy: Managing the Multibusiness Firm

Some have argued that single‐product businesses have a focus that gives them an advantage over multibusiness companies like our own—and perhaps they would have, but only if we neglect our own overriding advantage: the ability to share the ideas that are the result of wide and rich input from a multitude of global sources. GE businesses share technology, design, compensation and personnel evaluation systems, manufacturing practices, and customer and country knowledge.

—JACK WELCH, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, 1981–2001

OUTLINE

• Introduction and Objectives
• The Role of Corporate Management
• Managing the Corporate Portfolio
• Managing Linkages Across Businesses
  • Common Corporate Services
  • Transferring and Sharing Resources and Capability among Businesses
  • Implications for the Corporate Headquarters
• Managing Individual Businesses
  • Direct Corporate Involvement in Business‐level Management
  • The Strategic Planning System
  • Performance Management and Financial Control
  • Strategic Planning and Performance Control: Alternative Approaches to Corporate Management
• Managing Change in the Multibusiness Corporation
• Governance of Multibusiness Corporations
  • The Rights of Shareholders
  • The Responsibilities of Boards of Directors
  • Governance Implications of Multibusiness Structures
• Summary
• Self-Study Questions
• Notes

Introduction and Objectives

The key feature of the multibusiness firm is that—whether organized as ...