Corporate strategy roles can take a number of different forms – from requiring experience in investment banking or consulting to an understanding of data-driven business analysis and coding languages.
Let us discover Career in Corporate Strategy!
Who is Corporate strategy professional?
A Corporate Strategy professional defines the structure and execution of strategy by creating work plans, generating relevant data, and developing actionable recommendations. They have skills to identify and develop strategic opportunities for the business with a view of diversifying the consumer base as well as for gaining an additional share of the market.
Roles and responsibilities
Some of the tasks involved are –
Excel Models / Business Cases: These are frequently “quick and dirty” models used to start a discussion. They will be fine-tuned by other organisations and you will have to deal with them.
Presentations: These are comparable to what consultants do in that they visualise data and analyse it to make a storey.
Research: Can you slice and dice the data in various ways to make a more convincing argument?
Meetings: You’ll also spend time presenting your findings to other groups and executives, as well as responding to their queries.
Career path – Corporate Strategy
For many people, corporate strategy is a “transitory role.” Management consultants seeking a better lifestyle, for example, frequently end up in strategy, stay in it to keep their options open, and then return to consulting or pursue an MBA. Even if you want to work your way up to a senior executive position, it’s usually best to start in strategy and then move to another area (product, marketing, sales, finance, etc.). There is a job hierarchy, but it is less constant than in investment banking, private equity, or management consulting since the groupings differ so much.
The most common levels are:
- Analyst
- Manager / Senior Manager / Consultant
- Director
- VP or Head of Strategy
There are also certain groupings that include Associates directly above Analysts, as well as divides between Analysts and Senior Analysts, Associates and Senior Associates. Because they like to attract experienced experts from consulting firms and other organisations, strategy teams frequently feature middle-heavy structures. There’s also no need to hire an army of analysts to churn out presentations because there aren’t any external clients. To graduate from one level to the next, it could take anything from two to five years. At the bottom, you’re more of a “doer,” and as you progress up, you’re more of a project manager and supervisor, just like in other finance and consulting professions.
The primary distinction is that top executives do not engage in external sales in the same manner that Managing Director bankers and consultants do; instead, they engage in “internal selling.” To progress, you must deliver high-impact projects to the proper people, which means you should expect a lot of office politics.
Average Salary
An MBA working in corporate strategy may expect to earn $118,040 as a starting salary. This basic salary is in the 71st percentile of all MBA graduates, and it is supplemented by a variety of bonuses. The average stock compensation is $4,730, which is in the 43rd percentile, but the average miscellaneous compensation (profit sharing, etc.) is $4,591, which is above average. A typical starting salary package is somewhat above average, coming in at $170,362 in the 52nd percentile.
Market Demand for Corporate Strategy professionals
Small businesses rarely need dedicated strategy teams, just as they don’t need special corporate development teams. As a result, the majority of corporate strategy jobs are accessible in Fortune 500 or Fortune 100 businesses. Dedicated strategy teams, even within these enormous businesses, are typically tiny; perhaps a few dozen people at most.
If strategy is your goal, you can’t go wrong with Disney and Comcast in the media/telecom industry, or the FAANG businesses in technology. Beyond scale, it’s ideal to look for companies where the strategy team is in charge of revenue generation rather than serving as “help” to other divisions.
Working hours
Hours are typically in the 50-60 range per week, but they may go higher in some groups that also work on M&A projects. When compared to consulting, the benefit is that there is significantly less travel, and in some cases, it may not be required at all. Furthermore, because there are no arbitrary deadlines imposed by demanding clients, the job itself is less stressful. The one disadvantage is that, despite the shortened hours, there is little leisure. You’re usually busy all day, and when you’re not working on a new project, you’re in a meeting or on the phone.
Resources
Before you can become an expert in desired areas, you must first build a solid base. Before you can move on to practical teaching, you’ll need to have the right applied skills. To gain a full understanding of the domain, you can use the following tools:
- Firstly, Online Tutorials for Corporate Strategy
- MBA in Consulting or any other allied field
- Also, Certification Courses from verified sources such as Vskills, Coursera, Udemy and so on.
- In addition, Online communities
- Moreover, Blogs and study material from experts in this field and many more.
Here are some examples of how you can improve your abilities:
- Freelancing
- Internships
- Apprenticeship programs
The above steps will help you to get this domain started. It’s a long way to go, however. You can take an advanced course to reach a new level of skills.
Some resources offered by Vskills
Vskills offer Certified Corporate Strategy Professional certification for all those interested in working in this field. This certification course covers the following topics –
- Introduction to Business Strategy
- Levels of Strategy
- Brand Strategy
- Role of Strategic Management
- Concept of Objective, Mission And Vision
- Functions And Contributions of Objectives
- Strategic Intent
- Approaches to Strategy
- Planning Process
- Strategic Planning Process
- Environmental Analysis
- Pestle Analysis
- Understanding Business
- Competitor Analysis
- Boston Matrix
- The International Dimensions of Strategy
- Core Competence
- Benchmarking
- Swot Analysis and Value Chain
- Introduction To Strategy Implementation
- Structural Implementation
Vskills also offers free practice tests and online tutorials to supplement the learning process. You can check them by clicking on the following links –
Discover the career opportunities and other prospects of career in Corporate Strategy. Hurry up and start preparing now with Vskills.in!
