Corporate Level Strategy
In a multibusiness organization, success depends on the ability to align the parent company with the strategies and needs of its diverse operating units. To help companies address this complex challenge, Harvard Business School (HBS) offers Corporate Level Strategy. This program provides the cross-business perspective and strategic foundation you need to create long-term value for both the corporation and its individual operating units.
What You Can Expect
Learning alongside a select group of peers, you will gain a better understanding of how to develop and manage a successful portfolio of businesses. You will return to your company better prepared to apply the assets and capabilities of each operating unit in ways that build sustainable competitive advantage.
Your Course of Study
Through case discussions and faculty presentations, you will closely examine the strategies of successful multibusiness companies around the globe. You also will explore topics central to corporate strategy, such as firm scope; mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships; corporate-level coordination and control, and entrepreneurship.
Who Is Right for the Program
Corporate Level Strategy is designed for general managers and others who are responsible for designing and disseminating strategy in a multibusiness firm. Executives preparing to take on cross-business unit responsibilities also will benefit. Because the program aims to create value across multiple businesses or operating units, teams of executives are encouraged to apply.
What You Can Expect
Improving your organization's performance
Whether your company is growing through acquisition, integrating a diverse portfolio of units, or looking to shed peripheral businesses to achieve greater profitability, this program will help you establish a corporate strategy that builds long-term value.
Through relevant lessons in the classroom, the program empowers you to align the operating units within your multibusiness organization and strengthen your corporate advantage.
Taking your skills to the next level
World-renowned HBS faculty will lead you and an accomplished group of global peers in an exploration of corporate strategy development and execution. You will enhance your ability to:
- Evaluate your business portfolio and determine the appropriate range of markets and activities
- Assess markets, competition, and opportunities from a cross-business perspective
- Add greater value to an individual business unit or a potential acquisition
- Foster entrepreneurship and innovation in the corporate office and across your business units
- Acquire a certain company, create a long-term partnership, or contract for key capabilities
- Advance corporate strategy while preserving each operating unit's independence
- Measure and communicate the value of corporate-level contributions
- Recognize when change is necessary and lead efforts to revitalize your organization
"By focusing on the needs of multibusiness organizations, this program helped me to create measurable value through the alignment of the parent company and its operating units. In addition to developing a global cross-business perspective, I learned how to design, communicate, and execute corporate-level strategies that drive both top-line revenue growth and bottom-line profitability across the business portfolio."
Stephen Bates [DoD Business Strategy], Oracle, U.S.
Your Course of Study
Corporate Level Strategy helps you design, communicate, and execute winning strategies for your multibusiness organization. Through a series of faculty presentations and case discussions, you will explore the similarities and differences between corporate and sector strategy. In turn, you will learn how to blend these two approaches to maximize advantage for your corporation and its business units.
The program curriculum addresses a broad range of industries, business stages, and strategic goals. Topics include:
Corporate Position and Advantage
- Developing a corporate advantage analogous to competitive advantage at the business unit level
- Exploring the core competencies of a firm or unit—where they help or hinder, and what lies beyond
Corporate Structure, Scope, and Portfolio Choice
- Examining the meaning of “related” in the context of corporate strategy
- Making and revisiting decisions on the overall scope of the firm
- Identifying businesses to which the company can add value
- Understanding value creation strategy—from private equity to conglomerates to traditional corporate structures
Optimization, Coordination, and Control
- Establishing an optimal organizational structure
- Determining appropriate control spans for corporate executives
- Achieving coordination benefits, while retaining business unit autonomy
- Building capabilities that span business units
- Understanding the role of control-and-reward systems in corporate strategy
- Measuring and maximizing the value corporate functions add to business units
- Managing internal units versus external partners
- Assessing and developing leadership capacity
Mergers, Acquisitions, and Partnerships
- Understanding how acquisitions create value
- Choosing an acquisition, partnership, or contract
- Structuring the best deal for all parties
- Optimizing post-merger integration
- Achieving vertical and horizontal integration
Entrepreneurship in the Multibusiness Corporation
- Managing maturing business lines and growing new enterprises
- Ensuring ongoing strategic renewal of the organization
- Creating an organization that facilitates entrepreneurship
- Leading transformation throughout your organization
Who Is Right for the Program
Corporate Level Strategy is designed for senior executives with responsibilities that span multiple business units. Created with the needs of general managers in mind, the program also is well suited to executives who are specialists in finance or strategy.
Typical titles include, but are not limited to:
- CEOs, CFOs, and COOs
- Group or sector vice presidents
- Directors of strategic planning
- Executives moving into these positions
This program is particularly valuable for teams of executives looking to create value across multiple businesses or operating units. Given the importance of coordination between the corporate office and business units, the ideal team might include corporate and operating unit executives. Team members return with shared perspectives and frameworks that enable them to work together more productively.
Meet the Program Faculty
Like all Harvard Business School Executive Education programs, Corporate Level Strategy is developed and taught by a core faculty of HBS professors. Our faculty members are widely recognized as skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors.
Through publishing, consulting, and teaching, they leverage their business expertise and field-based research to create new knowledge and enduring concepts that shape the practice of management. The result is a teaching team that exposes participants to multiple perspectives, challenging their thinking and encouraging new practices that result in superior business leadership. For more detailed biographies, click on each faculty name.
David J. Collis, Thomas Henry Carroll Ford Foundation Adjunct Professor of Business Administration. Member of the Strategy Unit; and faculty cochair of "Corporate Level Strategy."
Toby E. Stuart, Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration. Member of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit; and faculty cochair of "Corporate Level Strategy."
Julie M. Wulf, Associate Professor of Business Administration. Member of the Strategy Unit.
Admissions
Because a diverse participant mix is an important part of every HBS Executive Education program, we look for candidates who reflect a broad range of industries, functions, countries, and backgrounds to enrich the learning experience.
Fees, Payments, and Cancellations
The program fee covers tuition, books, case materials, accommodations, and most meals.
No payment is necessary until you have been accepted into an HBS Executive Education program. After admission notification, we will send you an invoice via email; payment is due within 30 days of the invoice date. If admission is within 30 days prior to the start of the program, payment is due upon receipt of the invoice. Payment is required prior to the program start date. We accept payment by company check, bank wire transfer, or credit card (American Express, MasterCard, Visa). Details are included on the program invoice.
If you need to cancel or defer participation, you must submit your request in writing more than 30 days before the start of the program to receive a full refund. Due to program demand and the volume of preprogram preparation, cancellations or deferrals received 14 to 30 days prior to the start of the program are subject to a fee of one-half of the program fee. Requests received within 14 days are subject to full payment.
Requirements
Although there are no formal educational requirements, admission is a selective process based on professional achievement and organizational responsibility. We look for professionals who have demonstrated business talent and leadership potential.
HBS Executive Education programs enrich both participants and their sponsoring organizations, and require full commitment from each party. While participants devote time and intellect to the learning experience, sponsoring organizations agree to relieve individuals of their work responsibilities during the program.
Language Proficiency
We deliberately design our programs to encourage individual growth and to foster productive interaction among participants. For that reason, proficiency in written and spoken English is essential. If English is your second language, or if you have less than one year's experience working in an English-speaking environment, HBS requires a brief statement documenting proficiency in English-language skills, both conversational and written. This may include a list of the English-language certification programs that you have completed; the degrees you have earned at English-speaking colleges and universities; or the results of the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam. The Admissions Committee also may request a telephone interview.
Team Attendance
This program is appropriate for individuals as well as teams of executives from the same organization. When colleagues attend a program together, the organization benefits from their shared knowledge and common vision. This, in turn, enables participants to enhance their ability to pursue business goals as a team, effect critical transformations, and transfer knowledge. HBS client service specialists are available to advise on optimal team composition. The application for each team member must be received before the team's materials are reviewed by the Admissions Committee.
Application Process
Program participants must be nominated and sponsored by their current employer. HBS must receive your application and all required documents in order to prepare the application for review by the Admissions Committee.
To apply, you may use our online form or download an application. You also may request a brochure by mail.
If you submit your application online, we will promptly acknowledge receipt of your submission via email. In the unlikely event that an email acknowledgment is not received, please contact the Admissions Committee by email: exed_admissions@hbs.edu, phone: +1-617-495-6226, or fax: +1-617-496-1731.
If you choose to submit a printed application, be sure to type or print legibly and sign your application. Send the application to the address or fax number listed on the form. Mailed or faxed applications are processed and acknowledged promptly upon receipt via email.
Complete Your Application
Please answer all questions thoroughly—the Admissions Committee will only consider completed applications. After reviewing your application and making the necessary edits or corrections, print or copy the application for your records.
The application for each team member must be received before the team's materials are reviewed by the Admissions Committee.
Meet the Deadlines
We request applications at least four weeks in advance of the program start date. Early application does not guarantee admission. Programs often fill to capacity, so early application is recommended.
Notification of Acceptance
We acknowledge receipt of all applications and maintain all application information in strict confidentiality.
To optimize the learning experience and maximize the exchange of ideas, the Admissions Committee selects a class that balances each participant's experience, the scope of his or her current responsibilities, and the type of organization.
The Admissions Committee begins reviewing applications four months before the start date, and qualified candidates are admitted on a rolling, space-available basis. Once the review process has begun, applicants are notified within three weeks via email regarding Admissions Committee decisions. If your application is received within three weeks of the program's start date, the Admissions Committee will notify you of their decision as soon as possible.
Need help?
For further assistance, contact our client service specialists at: 1-800-427-5577 (outside the U.S., dial +1-617-495-6555).