The Corporate Strategy Function: Driving business impact

As businesses grow in complexity and scale, the need for a dedicated corporate strategy function has become increasingly important.  

While strategic thinking has always been a leadership responsibility, the scale and pace of modern business demands more than good instincts and annual planning cycles. A dedicated strategy function gives organisations the resource and capability to anticipate change, make informed decisions, and translate strategic intent into results. And for many businesses, it has become essential to sustainable growth. 

The challenge is that the strategy function’s remit is often not clear cut and the role itself can vary widely from one organisation to the next. Ambiguity around deliverables and outputs makes it hard to prove value – an argument that can quickly become circular, given that few leaders would dispute the necessity of strategy to growth. 

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Key Takeaways

To succeed, the strategy function must not only have a clear mandate that converts theory into practice but also establish credibility within the wider commercial organisation. Ultimately, it’s not only about what the team is capable of delivering, but whether that contribution is seen as useful, actionable, and impactful in real business decisions.

• The corporate strategy function helps businesses navigate complexity and improve decision-making
• Strategy teams must align their mandate with current business priorities
• High-performing strategy functions evolve from planning support to enterprise influence
• Credibility is built through practical contribution, not mandate alone
• The most effective strategy functions combine insight, engagement, and accountability

Defining the role of the Corporate Strategy Function

The mandate of a strategy function should reflect the business’s current priorities and challenges.  

What is a corporate strategy function?  A team responsible for helping an organisation define strategic direction, evaluate growth opportunities, prioritise investments, and support better business decision-making. Depending on business needs, the function may focus on planning, transformation, market insight, governance, or enterprise-wide strategy execution.

Note that this is not fixed; it can evolve as the need changes. Primarily, there are four key areas of tension to resolve:

1. Internal activities vs external opportunities – What’s the bigger issue: how the business is organised internally, or how it acts on external opportunities? The answer may come down to how your business is performing. A business in operational difficulty might look inward; a stable or growing business might focus its attention outward. But context is key – and the emphasis will shift as circumstances change.
2. Investigation of new ideas vs steering existing ones – Is the organisation exploring new markets, new products, new business models, or are you guiding initiatives that are already in motion? Is the leadership team asking for more foresight and opportunity identification, or more governance and execution support? The answer dictates where on this spectrum your mandate falls.   
3. Top line growth vs bottom line delivery – This is an expansion vs optimisation question. A business under pressure to demonstrate returns will pull the strategy function toward efficiency; one with room to invest will point it toward growth.  
4. Global vs regional vs market – How broad should your strategy function go? Are you operating at the level of global strategic direction, regional coordination, or market-level execution detail?

Try not to think of the answers to these questions as right vs wrong. Every tension represents a spectrum, and in each case your answer shows where the business needs strategic support at this time. Your focus will evolve as the business and market change. 

How Strategy Functions Evolve Over Time

Strategy functions evolve as business needs, market conditions, and organisational expectations change.  Their style will also evolve as the mandate changes. The following five stages of progression read like the evolution of the strategy function, but it’s useful to again think of this as a spectrum rather than a progression, since the strategy function needs to adapt to meet current business needs. Some ‘stages’ may be skipped altogether, and the pace of progression will be driven by market dynamics. Crucially, even the strategy function has to be considered strategically – where is the team now, and where is it headed? 

• Foundational / Reactive – Work is ad hoc as the team works to establish purpose and prove value
• Structured / Planning Centric – The function owns annual planning and uses repeatable tools to standardise outputs, strengthen processes and improve engagement.
• Integrated / Business Partner – Strategy is embedded across functions, providing ongoing strategic support, ensuring alignment, and influencing decisions
• Insight Led / Proactive – Focus on insight generation and early opportunity/risk identification through scenario planning and market intelligence.
• Transformational / Enterprise Strategist – Broad focus on long-term value creation, capability building and strategic agility; strategy leads enterprise-wide initiatives. 

How Strategy Teams Build Credibility and Business Impact

Even with a clear mandate and operating model, many strategy teams struggle to earn organisational influence.  Credibility is not established through mandate alone. It is built through consistent, practical contribution to the business. The question for any strategy function is not simply “Are we doing the right work?”, but “Is our work helping the organisation make better decisions and win in the market?”

In practice, this comes down to a few critical shifts:

• From insight to usefulness:  Insight alone is rarely enough. Strategy teams create value when their work enables clearer choices, sharper trade-offs, and faster decision-making. The test is simple: Does this help the business act?
• From distance to engagement:  Functions that operate at arm’s length often struggle to gain traction. Credibility grows when strategy teams engage directly with commercial realities – working alongside business leaders, not just evaluating their plans.
• From ownership of direction to shared accountability:  Strategy cannot sit outside delivery. The most effective teams have ‘skin in the game’, sharing responsibility for outcomes rather than just defining direction. This builds trust and reinforces relevance.
• From challenge to earned credibility:  The ability to challenge is not granted by title – it is earned through context, judgement, and a track record of adding value. When credibility is established, the conversation shifts from “why is Strategy involved?” to “can we bring Strategy into this?”
• From evaluation to co-creation:  Rather than acting solely as reviewers or gatekeepers, high-impact strategy teams work in partnership with the business to shape initiatives from the outset. This reduces friction and increases adoption.

Ultimately, credibility is what connects the function’s mandate and evolutionary stage to real impact. Without it, even the most well-defined strategy function risks being seen as peripheral. With it, the function becomes a trusted partner in driving commercial success.

Closing the gap

The corporate strategy function exists to help organisations navigate complexity and make better strategic decisions.  But its value is only realised when that contribution is clear, relevant, and trusted by the wider organisation.

It’s crucial to define the expected role and output of the strategy function – and to continuously evolve that mandate as business needs change. Strategy leaders must be self-aware enough to adapt, and honest about what the team can deliver today, while building towards what the business will need tomorrow.

The strategy function that thrives is one that never stops asking three questions: what does the business need from us right now; do we have the capability to deliver it; and are we truly helping the organisation make better decisions and achieve better outcomes? If the answer to the second or third question is not yet, that’s not a failure – it’s a gap that can be closed.

Because ultimately, the success of a strategy function is not defined by the quality of its thinking, but by whether the business chooses to use it.

Frequently asked questions

What is the biggest challenge in strategy implementation?  The biggest challenge in strategy implementation is bridging the gap between strategic intent and organisational reality. Businesses often define ambitious growth strategies without adapting operating models, governance, capabilities, incentives, or resource allocation to support delivery.

How should corporate strategy evolve in an AI-driven business environment?  AI increases the importance of organisational adaptability, decision-making quality, and culture. While AI can accelerate analysis and insight generation, businesses still need strategic clarity, leadership alignment, and organisational culture capable of turning insight into coordinated action.

What separates high-performing strategy functions from low-impact ones?  High-performing strategy functions are embedded within the business rather than operating as detached planning teams. They combine strategic thinking with execution support, challenge constructively, engage closely with leadership, and share accountability for business outcomes.