The strategic management of a corporation, a holding company or a group of companies begins with two fundamental questions:

• What is the role of the parent company?
• What degree of autonomy do we want to grant to the management of subsidiaries and associated companies?

The role of the parent company is determined by the owners and can be designed and implemented in very different ways:

• Management Company:
  The holding company or group management decides on the key decisions for the entire group.
• Financial company:
  The parent company manages a portfolio of businesses and optimizes them with the aim of increasing value.
• Business Development:
• The parent company invests in those innovation fields and businesses of the future that do not fit into the business model of today’s subsidiaries
  

These examples show that the business mission of a parent company can be designed very differently. This means that the question of what constitutes a good corporate and group strategy, which topics need to be addressed and answered, and which strategic management methods need to be applied, all need to be clarified on a case-by-case basis.