Strategic Planning in the Small Business

Unit 1 HO 1-5 (continued)

16 Part I The Concep's
and Techniques
of Strategic Management

making for

the unit and carrying

the burden

of implementing

whatever strategic

choices

are made. Obviously,

though,

managers who

are farther

down in the

managerial hierarchy

have a

narrower, more

specific strategy-making/strategy­

implementing

role ihan

managers closer

to the top

of the pyramid.

Another

reason why

lower-echelon

managers are strategy-makers

and

strat­

egy-implementers

is that

the geographically

scattered

and diversified

an

more

organization's

operations

are, the more

impossible it

becomes for a

few senior

executives

to handle

all the strategic

planning that needs

to be done.

Itisjust too

hard

for managers

in the corporate

office to gain

-nough command

of all the

situational

details out in the

various geographical

areas and

operating units

to be

able to prescribe

appropriate

strategies.

What usually happens

is that some

of the

strategy-making

responsibility

is delegated

to those lower-level

managers

vho

head the organizational

subunits

where

specific strategic

results must

be

achieved.

Delegating

a lead strategy-making

role to

those managers

who will be

deeply

involved

in carrying out the

strategy in their

areas fixes

accountability for

strategic

success or

failure. When the

managers who

implement the

strategy are

also its arcniltects,

it is hard

for them to shift

the blame or make

excuses if

tFe\

don't achieve

the target results.

A company

that has diversified

into severa,

different businesses

has

four

distinct

'evels of strategy

managers:

" The c

t

ief executive officer

and other

senior corporate-level

executives

who

have primary

responsibility

and personal

authority for

big strategic deci­

sions

affecting the total

enterprise and

the collecion

of individual

businesses

the ente'prise ha

, diversified into.

* Managers

who have profit-and-lov3

responsibility

for subsidiarv

busine.ss

units and

who are expected

to exercise

a major leadership

role in formulat­

ing and

implementing

strategy for the

individual business

they head.

* Functional

area

inanagers within

a given business

unit who hlave

direct

authority

over a major piece

of the business

(manufacturing,

marketing

and

sales,

finance, R&D.

personnel) and

therefore must

support the

business uni!'s

overall strategy

with strategic

actions in their

own areas.

"

Managers oj major

operating

departments and

geographic field

units who

have fronthine

responsibility

for putting together

the details

of strategic

efforts in their

areas and for

carrying out their

pieces of the

overall

strategic plan

at the grass roots

level.

A single-business

enterprise has

no more than

three of these

levels-business­

level strategy

managers, functional

area strategy

managers,

and operating-level

strategy managers.

Together,

they form

a management

team responsible

for

directing

the strategic

efforts of the total

enterprise

in that one business.

Pro­

prietorships,

partnerships,

and small

owner-managed

enterprises,

however, typ­

ically have

only one or two

strategy managers

since the

whole strategy-making/

strategy-implementing

function can

be handled by just

a few key people.

Managerial

jobs involving

strategy formulation

and implementation

abound

in

not-for-profit

organizations

as well. For

example, a multicampus

state university

90