Corporate Strategy: What's at the tip of corporate ladder?

When Neha contacted us seeking help for her MBA application, our first question was, Why an MBA? Our analysis of her profile indicated a successful marketing career at a leading fashion house. The answer not surprisingly was that she wanted to go for a more holistic corporate strategy role. A similar goal is shared by many MBA aspirants in our later engagements.

Corporate strategy is a clean canvas–usually colored by specific domain

However, we have identified some points regarding the clear communication of these goals. They need to be explained, more so because “corporate strategy” is related to a vast set of activities & functions. Hence in our view, in lot of aspect saying that we want to end up in Corporate Strategy is synonymous to saying I want to be a successful General Manager. A better approach would be to create a clear vision regarding the function that you would like to be driving in a corporate strategy team e.g. do you want to build operations as a core expertise and create strategy in that direction or is marketing your cup of tea.

Other relevant point here is that corporate strategy teams are typically the very tip of the organizational spear. Multi-tasking & time management as well as customer focus & visioning take an entirely new level in these jobs. Monetarily & professionally gratifying, a corporate strategy job is usually tough to handle. Hence while setting that goal you should also come out with a plan to imbibe these traits.

[Author is an e-commerce professional and a mentor at Ivyctor.com]

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