business unit strategy vs growth strategy?

Question

Hello, could someone explain the difference between a BU strategy & growth strategy? isn't it all the same?

Answer 1

Hi,

A business unit strategy simply refers to a strategy created for a business unit and so the key definition here is based on the entity scope (e.g. Snacks business unit for a CPG manufacturer)

A growth strategy is a type of strategy focusing on growth so the key definition here is based on the topic or function f (could be also be revenue, profit etc)

There are other types of ‘strategy’ projects - e.g. pricing strategy

Therefore, a BU strategy could be a growth strategy project, but it also may not necessarily be so.

A growth strategy project could cover one BU, or multiple BUs (depending on the scope).

Hope this clarifies!

Answer 2

Hi,

It is the definitions that might mean either similar or different things. It really depends on the company structure and objective:

It might be the case that the BU is just following the global strategy and has some local autonomy inputs and variations. Growth strategy will be the overall company strategy in that case
It might be that the BU is a standalone business, completely different from the core business with its own growth strategy.

Best

Answer 3

For anyone who is researching this topic nowadays, I'd strongly recommend to use ChatGPT for crash courses on these topics.

It's a lot more dynamic than a simple google search and you can probe deeper as you wish. Great tool actually for getting a basic understanding of business terms.

Best,
Cristian

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