Get Active in Our Amazing Community of Over 451,000 Peers!

Schedule mock interviews on the Meeting Board, join the latest community discussions in our Consulting Q&A and find like-minded Case Partners to connect and practice with!

Corporate strategy vs strategic planning

Corporate Strategy
Recent activity on Mar 03, 2019
2 Answers
4.0 k Views
Anonymous A asked on Mar 02, 2019

Hello,

could anyone explain what is the difference between corporate strategy and strategic planning? Is it the same right?

Overview of answers

Upvotes
  • Upvotes
  • Date ascending
  • Date descending
Best answer
Guennael
Expert
replied on Mar 03, 2019
Ex-MBB, Experienced Hire; I will teach you not only the how, but also the why of case interviews

As Vlad said - strategic planning has nothing strategic about it. You will mostly track results & report on them, creating pretty slides and building pretty decks to tell execs what happened. In other words, you are an expensive paper pusher and add nothing to the company. Be prepared to work evenings and week-ends also if there's a big presentation coming. Only upside basically is you will have high level visibility, which you can parlay into fast-ish career trajectory.

Corporate Strategy on the other hand, will typically have you work on high visibility projects with a significant potential impact on the company. Work isn't nearly as interesting as MBB work (usually), but definitely beats corporate planning from a variety and learning perspective. Career is steeper, work is more interesting, you see the impact of your work... I think it should be clear which one I am leaning towards :)

Was this answer helpful?
Vlad
Expert
replied on Mar 03, 2019
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

Don't rely on buzzwords. It has almost nothing in common with corporate strategy. Strategic planning is more about disaggregating the big goals to the more granular KPIs and metrics and ensuring their completion. Usually, it's a very boring role.

Best

Was this answer helpful?
How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or fellow student?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 = Not likely
10 = Very likely