The 'Mission statement' is complemented by a 'Vision statement' which sets a desired result at a future point in time. Traditional company structures divide the collections of differing functions into areas of expertise such as Marketing, Production, Financial, Technical, Procurement and Administration and arm these with collections of 'Key Performance' indicators and other useful mechanisms to ensure compliance on an annual basis. This collection of differing functions should all have specific strategies consistent with the overall strategies of the firm and these strategies should inter-relate and be understood by differing business functions. All of the components of the company, such as structure, technology, and staff also need to be flexible enough to rapidly adapt to the changing market environment. It is the ability to recognise changes in the market and to regularly adapt an often large and seemingly unwieldy organisation to market fluctuations and still achieve profit, that distinguishes 'high performing senior management teams'.
Technological change is one of the principal drivers of competition.
It effects the structure of industries, creates competitive advantages and can change the rules of competition. All of the individual components of an organisation, such as production, procurement, distribution, accounting, marketing, etc all have a technology system or method of operation embodied as part of each of these functions. The choice and compatibility of these individual technologies, and in particular the information processing component, is critical to the overall success in achieving the required corporate goals. It is a mistake however to just consider the IT function as only source of technological advantage within an organisation The 'Technology strategy' is a subset of the overall 'Corporate Strategy' and is the firm's approach to the development and use of technology. At the core of technology strategy is the type of competitive advantage that a firm wishes to achieve to maximise the contribution to the firm's generic strategies.