Strategic integration and connecting strategy to customers

Vertical and horizontal integration sit at the heart of this video, which addresses AC 1.2 of 5CO01 by examining how organisational strategy connects to products, services, and customers. The video works through the concept of a "golden thread" running from corporate-level decisions about markets and resource allocation, through business-level competitive positioning and functional strategies, down to individual employee objectives. It covers both the structural conditions and the communication and performance management mechanisms that make this vertical alignment possible, and considers what happens to strategic delivery when that alignment is absent.

Horizontal integration receives equal attention, with the video looking at how marketing, operations, and people functions must work in concert — particularly when strategic commitments such as customer service quality require coordinated activity across all three. Within the people function specifically, the video examines how recruitment, learning and development, reward, and performance management practices need to be mutually reinforcing rather than contradictory, and illustrates this through the lens of an innovation-oriented strategy. The combined effect of vertical and horizontal alignment is described as strategic coherence, which the video analyses in terms of resource efficiency, consistent customer experience, and cumulative organisational capability.

The video closes by returning to the customer as the ultimate test of whether strategic coherence is working, exploring how cost leadership and differentiation strategies should each be visibly reflected in the design, quality, pricing, and delivery of products and services. The role of the people profession in this customer connection — through workforce capability, commitment, and day-to-day conduct — is addressed directly, framing people practice design as something that should always be evaluated against both vertical strategic intent and horizontal functional alignment.