ABSTRACT
Some businesses are led by managers who have a 'feel' for the market, and their intuitive decisions lead to success. Markets change rapidly and the intuitive leader runs risks that are unacceptable to shareholders as well as employees. The term 'corporate planning' has evolved in line with the increasing size of companies and numbers of multi-product, multi-market companies. Take-overs, mergers and multi-national activity have created a complex business environment, so larger companies are indirectly responsible for the direction of several firms who are often involved in unrelated markets. For multi-market or multi-industry organisations, strategic business units (SBU) may be entire companies. Single industry or 'product-line dominant' companies might identify SBUs based on specific market areas. Scottish Powers links with Sainsburys goes back to September 2000 when Sainsburys gave its reward card holders an extra 5,000 points when they moved their account to Scottish Power.
