Do public enterprises need a corporate strategy

Abstract

A large gap has arisen between the stated objectives of the public enterprises in India and their achievements, largely owing to inherent conflicts in their strategic decision making process. In this article, K R S Murthy stresses that any public enterprise's strategic competence depends on the interplay among three actors (managers, bureaucrats, and politicians) with diverse motivations, careers, and systems. Team work with common values and commitment among the three actors alone can improve the low level of strategic competence. Since the prerequisites for strategic formulations are riot met in public enterprises, it is a debatable point whether they should have a corporate strategy at all.