What is a Business Unit Strategy?

Defining words

• Lying to the boss
• What is a Business Strategy?
• What is a Corporate Strategy?
• What is a Product-Market Strategy?
• What is a Business Unit Strategy?
• What is CRM?
• What is Architecture?
• What is Enterprise Information Architecture?
• What is Strategic Design?
• What are business benefits and value?
• What is DevOps?
• What is Cloud Computing?
• What is a Banking Multi-Channel Architecture?
• What is Gamification?
• What is Crowdsourcing?
• What is a Segment Strategy?
• What is a Business Model?
• What is an Operating Model?
• What is a Target Operating Model (TOM)
• What are Strategic Guiding Principles?
• What is Service Design?
• What is a Customer Archetype?
• What are Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants?
• What is technology-driven change?
• What is a Digital Footprint?
• What is a Potential Trend?
• What are Cloud Standards?
• What is VisaNet?
• What is User Context?
• What are IBM CCRA and CCMP?
• What is PCI DSS Compliance?

A Business Unit Strategy is a Business Strategy for a single business unit.

Business units sometimes operate in a particular industry and serve a particular market.  Other times they are product-focused.

Business unit strategists must decide which products to market to which segments and how to expand the business within the constraints of the Corporate Strategy.  New products for existing customers or new customers for existing products?

This is usually the level at which strategists look at various competencies and decide which ones are “differentiating” and which ones should be outsourced, given boxes for their paper files, or otherwise neglected.

Business unit strategists also govern product managers or whoever is creating Product-Market Strategy.

Business Unit Strategy is of key importance to IT Strategy.  For example, when the business decides that a particular competency is “differentiating” it is an indication that they will need technology to be applied in that area.