ABSTRACT
Business strategy involves building capabilities in the longer term by leveraging the core competencies of the organisation to achieve a defined high-level business objective. Some of the characteristics of a business strategy that distinguish a strategy from an operation include:
• Stressing longer-term rather than short-term objectives • Setting broad objectives that direct an enterprise towards its overall goal • Dealing with the total picture rather than stressing the detail activities • Being detached from day-to-day activities
Business strategy is also known as corporate strategy. While the business strategy constitutes the overall direction that an organisation wishes to go in, the operations strategy constitutes the actual strategic framework of operations to meet a specific operational objective. As shown in Figure 18.1, operations strategy derives from business units.
