Business Objectives Supported,
by Corporate SBU
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Template for: Business Objectives Supported, by Corporate SBU
The purpose of this section is to clearly link the plans of the horizontal
unit with the objectives and strategies of each business it supports.
In practice, there are sometimes political, personal and other reasons that
keep business unit managers and cost center managers from constructively
communicating with each other.
The process described here facilitates discussion between the SHU and the
SBUs. At a minimum, the horizontal unit should clearly specify what business
objectives the unit intends to support. If done correctly, this page answers the
following question asked by most SBU managers: "What is your department
doing to help my business?"
The template outline is simple and straight forward. For each SBU, identify
what business objective the horizontal unit is supporting, and clarify the
horizontal unit's plan for meeting that objective.
If there are multiple SBUs with an identical objective, then the SBUs should
be listed together. This not only saves time and space discussing how the
objective will be met, but it highlights which SBUs have a common objective.
The danger in not specifically linking the activities of the SHU with the
objectives of the SBUs is often spending out of control. Aligning resource
spending in concert with the objectives of the SBUs units is critical.
Example for a Centralized Sales Force
Business Unit(s) Supported: ==> Business One, Business Three &
Business Four
..Relevant Business Objective: Maintain Key Corporate Customers
..High-level Plan for Meeting Business Objective: For our best 100
corporate customers we will establish a special `relationship sales team' to
maintain and grow the key corporate accounts. We will connect each priority
customer to our corporate electronic mail system, visit the customer at least
once a month, provide customer gifts regularly, invite the customer and spouse
to an annual conference at a resort hotel, and have a member of our executive
committee meet with the customer at least once a year.
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