2. Budgetary control

2.1 Plans, programs and budgets

The starting point for this approach is usually strategic thinking about the company's medium- and long-term commitments. It is the responsibility of General Management, under the control of the Board of Directors, to set the company's general policy guidelines, defining the areas of development (for example, the decision to diversify into a new field of activity), and above all the levers to be used to face up to the competition (for example, a strategy of cost domination, as used by low-cost airlines, or a strategy of differentiation through quality, as in the luxury goods industry).

These major orientations often take...