Functional Strategy
Martin's answer to whether functions (HR, IT, finance, marketing) need strategies of their own: yes, with three distinct jobs, each subordinate to the business cascade. 1.
- Serve the business units. The function's first Where to Play is the internal customer; its How to Win is enabling the BU's strategy better than an outsourced alternative could.
- Leverage across units. Find the capability investments that no single BU would fund but that strengthen several, shared Must-Have Capabilities.
- Create future options. Build ahead of need in areas where the corporate strategy will plausibly go.
The anti-pattern: functions that import "best practice" wholesale, generic excellence disconnected from any specific strategy, the functional version of Operational Excellence Is Not Strategy. Beware the strategic adjective (Strategy Impostors).
A function's systems and metrics are part of the company's Enabling Management Systems, designed locally, they contribute to The Barnacle Problem unless integrated by the CEO as Chief System Designer.
Our synthesis of Roger Martin’s published work, sources credited. Read the originals: they’re excellent.
Reading about method is not the same as running it. We install this system and build the capability that stays.
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