A corporate-level strategy is a plan of action that involves choosing industries and countries in which a company should invest its resources to achieve its mission and goals. In choosing a corporate-level strategy, managers ask, How should the growth and development of our company be managed to increase its ability to create value for customers (and thus increase its performance) over the long run? Managers of effective organizations actively seek new opportunities to use a companys resources to create new and improved goods and services for customers.

Roll over each company name to read its description and decide which type of strategy they use. Then drag and drop the company names in the appropriate place on the chart.

Concentration in a single industry

Forward vertical integration

Backward vertical integration

Related diversification

Unrelated diversification

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Apple

Apple

Gallo Wines

Gallo Wines

Gallo

Coca-Cola

McDonalds

McDonalds

Eggo Waffles

Eggo Waffles

The four principal corporate-level strategies that managers use to help a company grow and keep it at the top of its industry, or to help it retrench and reorganize to stop its decline, are (1) concentration on a single industry, (2) vertical integration, (3) diversification, and (4) international expansion. An organization will benefit from pursuing any of these strategies only when the strategy helps further increase the value of the organizations goods and services so that more customers buy them. This exercise will give you the opportunity to differentiate among these strategies by recognizing the situations in which each is most appropriate.